Woman Shares Why You Should Never Tell Anyone You Won The Lottery—Especially Your Chaotic Roommate
Be careful who you trust!
TikTok Winning the lottery is a dream come true that feels right out of a fantasy. With all the financial freedom that comes with it, however, there are challenges that every lottery winner will face.
Almost everyone has heard the advice “Don’t tell anyone you won the lottery,” but what are the real risks of that? After all, isn’t it an exciting and important thing to share with loved ones?
When one Tik Tok user won the lottery, she was open with most people about what had happened, a decision her chaotic roommate would soon make her regret.
The lottery winner's roommate made her life a nightmare after she won a large sum of money.
“I’m a blabbermouth”, she wrote. “I tell people all the time that I won the lottery.”
Sydney, or @sydneykidneybean on TikTok, won the lottery just over a year ago as a part of a Christmas gift from her family. She and her siblings were given the chance to play a bean bag throwing game in order to divide up the tickets amongst themselves, and, after a second try at the game, Sydney ended up picking the winning ticket.
Because of the randomness of the game, Sydney asked her family if they wanted to split the winnings of the lottery with her, but they encouraged her to use it for herself.
Her family knew that she was looking for a house at the time, and this would be a perfect chance to invest in one. “You can use this to get your house,” they told her. “And that’s what you should do.”
Sydney shared that her family never pressured her for financial help, or tried to make her feel bad for pulling the winning ticket. They, of course, wished that they had been the ones to win it, but they never took that feeling out on Sydney.
“My family was incredible,” She said. “I’m very lucky to have a family like that.”
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However, despite her family’s reaction, not everyone in her life was so eager to support her.
Her roommate at the time, in particular, chose to use that information for chaos. Sydney made a short series of TikToks explaining the situation with her roommate from its hopeful beginnings to its dramatic finale.
She explained that she had chosen to room with a new friend of hers that she refers to as “Bee” in order to keep her identity private. The two of them had initially bonded over the fact that they both had dogs of similar ages who loved playing together. Through their dogs, the two became friends and found a nice apartment to rent together. The apartment was expensive, but they were able to budget the rent accordingly, and everything seemed to be perfect.
Then, upon moving in, they found out that their downstairs neighbor was very sensitive to the noise their dogs made when the women were out at their jobs or running errands. Sydney did her best to make up for this by taking her puppy to doggy daycare while she was at work, but her roommate didn’t want to do the same, even when the downstairs neighbor threatened to have them evicted.
Between a part-time job, excessive parties, and social events, Bee began to leave her puppy unattended in the kennel for over twelve hours a day and then refused to potty train the dog or clean up after any of its messes.
Bee would also frequently delay sending Sydney her share of the rent, thus forcing her to cover both of their rents up front while waiting for a refund. Sydney quickly became stressed by the situation and longed to move out, but the cost of breaking the lease would be $3500, something she absolutely did not have at the time.
When she won the lottery, she immediately saw it as her ticket out of the terrible living situation.
She told Bee that she was looking to move out so that Bee would have the chance to find a new roommate and plan for the situation, and Bee seemed to be fine with the situation, right up until Sydney told her that she had finally bought a house.
Bee then revealed that the neighbor had told her Sydney won the lottery, and Bee wasn’t willing to let Sydney leave the apartment.
Sydney offered to help her find a replacement roommate, but Bee refused, saying: “You will not have anyone live in here that I don’t know.”
She demanded that Sydney pay the full $3500 to cover the buyout fee for both of them, rather than live with a new roommate.
Out of options, Sydney agreed, and the two were able to sign a contract with the apartment that would take Sydney off the lease immediately to avoid any additional damage fees that Bee’s dog might cause while Sydney wasn’t at the apartment.
Sydney left the money for the buyout fee in a joint account for Bee to access, and then moved into her new house.
When it was time for Bee to pay the buyout fee, however, none of the money left the account.
Sydney quickly realized that Bee had been intending to use the $3500 for something other than the buyout fee, and she was being scammed, so she took half of the money back from the account.
Between harassment from Bee’s friends and some mysterious fees left from the apartment, Sydney is still dealing with the fallout from the whole situation.
Even though she was trying to be careful with what information she shared as she looked for a house, clearly her lottery secret was not safe with her neighbor, and it caused her more drama than she was ready for with a nightmarish roommate.
Especially in the world of money, knowledge really can be power.
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.