Why did this family wait almost two years to collect a lottery win?
Friedrich Mayrhofer, a 67-year-old from Vancouver, scooped an incredible £25 million on the Canadian lottery back in March 2014, but didn't pick up the money until earlier this week. In the intervening months, there has been endless speculation over who the mystery winner might be, and 739 people had a go at picking up the money. Now it has finally emerged why it took so long.
Fred, his wife Annand, and son Eric, all picked up the cheque this week. Their lawyer had apparently presented the ticket on March 9 this year - just five days before the prize expired. Fred admitted that it had taken so long, because all lottery players agree to have their photo and name published when they win the lottery, and the family didn't know whether they could cope with the attention.
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They thought they had come up with a cunning solution, by signing the cash over to a trust before the ticket was presented, so a lawyer could pick up the giant cardboard cheque on behalf of the trust.
However, the lottery took legal advice, and after a few months, concluded that he wasn't allowed to do so. At that point the whole family submitted the claim as a group, and the award was agreed in November.
The family shows every sign that they're not going to get carried away by the win. "We're a quiet family," said Fred. "Our plans are to renovate our home, buy some new furniture and maybe take a sunny vacation."
This isn't the first time Fred has won the lottery. A photo of him with a $1,000 win has been taped to his fridge for many years, and he says he also won about $3,000 a number of years ago.
Pressure of publicity
The Canadian lottery insists that winners go public. Similarly in America, where around 40 states run lotteries, only a handful have granted anonymity to winners. Other states have seen attempts to legislate to allow people to keep their win private, but the lottery organisers insist that publicity ensures trust and confidence in the lottery system, so the vast majority of winners have no option other than to go public if they want to collect their prize.
In the past, we have seen winners grow huge beards and wear hats in order to try to hide their identity. Fred and his family tried and failed to find a new approach. We can now only hope that they cope with the attention.
In the UK, by contrast, winners have the choice of whether or not to go public. In the past, some of those who have accepted the giant cardboard cheque have said they did so because their nearest and dearest would have spotted it anyway - and the news was bound to spread. They have also pointed out that if you take publicity, Camelot has a commitment to support you through the press office.
Many of those who won millions of pounds say they have not suffered at all as a result of the publicity, partly because it's the mega-wins that get the most ongoing attention nowadays.
These winners can find themselves inundated with request for money from strangers, while others will be targeted by scammers. One of the most famous examples is Adrian Bayford, who initially said he wanted to continue running his music shop after a EuroMillions win, but was eventually hounded out by people writing to him and visiting the shop to ask for money.