Terry Benson - Thieves Burglarize Lottery Winner's House

Here's some advice to new lottery winners - Don't tell anybody that you won!

In most jurisdictions, when you win the lottery, it's mandatory that the lottery corporation publishes your name and picture. That's fine, there's nothing you can do about that. However, until you actually go in to the lottery prize claim office to claim your winnings, it's probably a good idea to keep your big win quiet. Why? there's are a handful of reasons, but the most important one might be that you have in your possession a piece of paper that could be worth millions; that's something that would be quite attractive to thieves.

Pictured above is Terry Benson with his wife, Brenda. He knows exactly what I mean. He won the lottery way back in 1995 - £20.1 million ($31,492,679 USD) from UK's National Lottery.

One night, after winning the big jackpot, Terry Benson took his family out to celebrate in London. While out celebrating, thieves burglarized and and pillaged his house. At the time, police believed that it was possible that the thieves were attempting to find and steal the winning lottery ticket. They didn't get the ticket, but they did manage to steal some sentimental jewelry.

"These people are just low-life," Terry Benson said about the break in. "I would call them animals but animals are better than that. Animals are nice. The burglary could have happened any time to anyone - rich and poor - but to come back to this is just horrendous."

It's true, the burglary could have happened any time to anyone, but often burglars will target someone for a specific reason and a winning lottery ticket might just be that reason.

See, it might just be a good idea to keep your big lottery win to to yourself until you actually get the money.