Selfie costs woman $825 gambling win

An Australian punter was overjoyed when Prince of Penzance won the Melbourne Cup, winning her $825. She was so delighted that she posted a selfie on Facebook with the caption 'Winner winner chicken dinner!" Unfortunately the selfie cost her all her winnings.

The woman, known only as Chantelle, from Perth in Australia, went to collect the money and was told that it had already been picked up. It was then that she discovered that the barcode had been visible in her photo, and had been used in order to collect the money.

She wrote on Facebook: "To the low life who is obviously my friend on Facebook and used my photo to claim our winnings. You're a massive d***. You ruined my day."

She phoned her local radio station, Triple M, and told them that the police had been able to track down where the cash had been claimed, and were working on finding the individual who had taken the money. The radio station gave her $20 - the amount she'd placed as a bet in the first place - in order to cheer her up.

Facebook mistakes

Chantelle may be kicking herself for her ill-advised selfie, but she might take some comfort from the fact that she's not the first to pay a price for a foolish Facebook post.

This week news broke of a Norwich man who had been sacked after liking a photo of a fleece that was hanging over a co-worker's chair. It had been uploaded by a colleague who had added insulting comments about the wolf motif, and 'liking' it had been enough to lose him his job.

Back in April, meanwhile, a woman in Texas managed to get fired from her job in a nursery after one day, for saying on Facebook that she hated children.

But one of the most famous Facebook fools was 'Lyndsey', who in 2009 forgot that her boss was also a Facebook friend and launched a rant against her job and her boss on Facebook. Her boss responded that she needn't bother going into work the following day, and that he would send her P45 in the post.