Episode 29: After Show

What would you do if you won the lottery? Who could you trust?? We delve into the many questions about lottery winners and what happened to Tonda Dickerson after she won,

Don't forget to send us your feedback and ideas for future episode content at contact@deadlydivaspodcast.com!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hello, Divas and Dudes. Welcome to the Tonda Dickerson after show Take Two. Take Two. We scrapped the first one. You really don't want to hear it. You don't want to hear it, but we'll just say that it was heavily inspired by Pina Coladas. Um and not very much about true crime. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

So here we are, recording again for you. W this time it'll actually be an after show where we'll actually discuss the episode. The subject matter. And not just what we would do if we won the lottery.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Although I do want to briefly touch on that. Okay, so Sarah, do you play the lottery?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

I have done occasionally. It's not something I do all the time.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Okay. So I used to play it religiously. I would take $10 out of every paycheck and play it. I haven't in a long time, but today we bought Florida lottery tickets because we're in Florida. Um, and Tonda Dick Tonda Dickerson inspired me to do so. Yeah. So hopefully we win. Yeah. And we were discussing like we leave tomorrow. So what if we go back to Georgia and we win the Florida lottery and then we have to drive back? Wouldn't it be awful if we had to come right back to retrieve our million? That's right. Um, okay, so if you if if we win, what what's the first thing you're buying? After you like, you're you're obviously gonna get a financial advisor and make smart decisions, but like what's your first frivolous purchase, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

So is the house a frivolous purchase or is that not frivolous?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

The house is an essential, so I wouldn't say it's frivolous.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I don't know, frivolous-wise. I guess the convertible thunderbird. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah. Film and Louise car. The film and Louise car, and then we have to take a trip somewhere in it. A cross-country road trip. I would get uh probably a Mercedes and I want it painted paint. I want it to be a Barbie Mercedes. Do you want convertible? Yeah, certainly. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, that's what we're doing with our winnings if we win, hopefully. Amongst other things, but that's a little taste. Yes. Um, so would you share with your family and your friends?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Oh yeah. Yeah. Because I think if you win like 10 million, like say say she won the 10 million. I know she didn't, there were taxes and whatever. But 10 million is like way more than one person needs. And you want to see the people that you love not struggle. You don't want to be like, hee hee, I have the money, I'm good. Sorry about you guys. See ya. Especially, you know, kids. Yeah. You want to see see them not have to struggle when you have the means to help them. But I'd still expect them to work.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Absolutely. I would I would help, you know, my kids and my close family pay off their houses, give them a decent car, and then they need to figure out what they want to do with their lives. Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

They they still have to earn money to pay their own ongoing bills.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah. You cannot come to me with your handout constantly. I was watching a podcast. Um, I think her name is Emma Greed. She's British. And you know her because she's obviously me, her, and the Queen used to have tea all the time. Oh, I'm sad I missed that. Anyway, I was watching her podcast, and um, she was interviewing Cardi B, and Cardi B was like, Oh, somebody always has their hand out when you have money, and you just have to learn when to say no.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

That was what I was saying to you, remember? It's like you would have to be firm, like, here's your car, here's your house, and you're still gonna have ongoing bills, but I'm not paying you ongoing bills for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

You can still go to work and pay your own electric bill and get your own car insurance.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah, absolutely, 100%. We're not we're not enabling people to just be lazy, entitled people. But speaking of entitled people, can you believe how entitled Tonda Dickerson's not only her co-workers, everybody involved, but the guy who gave her the ticket, her like her. I can't believe how entitled her ex-husband was.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Like that was over.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, that was long over. He broke into her house and then kidnapped her.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I mean But I I do think that's jealousy. I think that he is the type of person that doesn't want to see their ex do well. She left him. He probably didn't want to break up, and the last thing he wants is to see her living her best life, and so therefore, it infuriated him. And being the type of person he is, he went to extreme measures, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah, it kind of seemed like he was just an all-around loser. He didn't have anything going for him. Whereas Tonda had this work ethic and some common sense about her, and she was raising her son and, you know, trying to live her life. And he's probably one of those people who just no offense to anybody, but sits in his trailer, his single-wide trailer all day with Budweiser. Doesn't want to go to work, right? So a way of not having to ever again. And he just sits there all day and ruminates and thinks, oh, that bitch Tonda, I'll show her. I mean, I know plenty of men like that, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And some women, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

And some women, yeah. But the coworkers, speaking of the generosity portion, and we don't know this, we can only speculate. Do you think that maybe Tonda perhaps tried to be generous with the coworkers and say, oh, you can each have 100K? And they're like, no, fuck you, that's not enough. We're suing you. Do we think that's a good one?

SPEAKER_01 5:47

See, because I was thinking, if it if I was in her situation, I would be like, it was my ticket, I won. I'm not splitting it all evenly, but I would also feel some kind of guilt that they all had lottery tickets too. It was pure luck that mine won. I would definitely be offering a hundred grand each, but I don't think they gave her time.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

And again, we don't know this. This is pure speculation, but from the way the tale is told, it seems like you said they took legal action almost immediately and they at least voiced it, I think, immediately.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Before she could say, Hey, you know, I'd love to give each of you a hundred thousand, they were already like, Hey, where's our share? We were supposed to split this.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, and that's the thing, like put yourself in her shoes. If you win a $10 million jackpot, imagine your to-do list. Like the top of your to-do list is not to go to your coworkers and say, Here's a hundred thousand, here's a hundred thousand, here's a hundred thousand. You're contacting lawyers and financial advisors and try you know, your life has changed overnight and you're processing it too.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I'm also protecting my child.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. So I just wonder, I really wonder um why they got so vicious and nasty if they were just vicious and nasty people and Well, I think money makes a lot of people you see a different side of them.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I don't think that they were necessarily vicious, nasty people up until that point. I think that something like that happens and it brings out that bad side in people where they're just pissed and jealous.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Because it could have just as easily have been their ticket and it wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

I think it just brought that out in them. I can't imagine them being very successful waitresses if they were like that all along.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

No, literally. And what about Edward, the one who gave her the ticket, the audacity of him to sue over a pickup truck? How much did he pay in legal fees to sue for this pickup truck? Like that was so nonsensical to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I can't remember if I said it in the first after show or if I said it in the original, but I literally would have found him the oldest, rustiest, highest mileage piece of shit pickup truck and been like, here you go.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah. I mean, I would have bought him the very nice one. I think we said that buying somebody a brand new car as a thank you when they gave you the ticket is something, yes, you would probably like to do. But when they go ahead and just sue you, saying you promised to do that, and they're just making up bullshit, that's when he would have ended up with the shitty rusty one. I would have happily bought him a brand new F-150 out of the goodness of my own heart to say thank you, given a chance. Again, like the waitresses.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

But here's the thing: we're making an assumption that Tonda was acting, you know, in good faith and she was gonna help everybody out. I mean, in some universe, the waitresses could be telling the truth here, just to play devil's advocate. I don't necessarily believe that. She didn't owe them anything.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

No, so you mean you mean they could have been telling the truth insofar as the verbal agreement?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah, insofar as the verbal agreement and and what if Tonda said, fuck you guys, I'm not giving you a fucking dime. Don't ever talk to me again.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Then it's still their own stupid fault for not having anything in writing.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And even it that wouldn't have even been enforceable, but like I'm just saying if it would have been harder for Tonda to deny it.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Her signature was on it.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Like, let's say you won the lottery and you knew, let's just say I had lost my job or something horrible and I was in dire straits. I was about to become homeless, whatever, and you just won $10 million. And I'm like, hey, $10,000 would help me out and keep me from becoming homeless, and you told me to go fuck myself, then I like I think that's fucked up, and I would fault you for that and I would be mad. True. But would I have grounds to sue you? No, I would just say, oh, well, she sucks and she's not my friend anymore. Right. Yeah. So I mean, just to play devil's advocate, if Tonda did do something like that, if she was nasty, then I kind of get it. But we don't know. We don't know. But just from everything that we've heard in the story, Tonda doesn't seem like a really mean-spirited, vicious person. So I don't think it's likely that that's what happened. I think that the waitresses and Edward kind of jumped the gun.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

I th I think they all didn't expect any of the tickets to ever hit ever. And when it did and it wasn't them, that nasty side came out where their jealousy showed up and the green-eyed monster took over and they wanted a piece of the action.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah, I agree. There's just entitlement and greed and audacity, a crazy amount when that amount of money is involved.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And I think that I fault Edward more than the waitresses, because the waitresses all probably hated their job. He gave all of them lottery tickets all of the time. They were in a position where they were like, oh, it could have just as easily been mine. But for for Edward to be in the habit of giving lottery tickets as tips, he should have known that eventually one of them could hit. And it seems like he thought they never would. And he wanted a piece of the action when it did, because he could have kept it, you know, or that could have been mine. Well, it was I mean, I went into the store and bought lottery tickets for us today, and I bought yours and mine. I could easily say, Oh, that first that first one was supposed to be mine. I was the one that handed over the cash because it wasn't a card with your name on. Right. I mean, you know what I'm saying? It's like if you give something as a gift or a tip, and a tip is a gift, in my opinion, then you don't get to change your mind when it turns out to be a winning ticket and you thought it wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Exactly. You don't get to give somebody a goose and then find out it lays golden eggs and say, wait, that's my goose. No.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

I didn't mean to give you that one. Have this goose.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Have this goose that lays the shitty eggs.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

I think the ex-husband is the biggest piece of shit, but I think Edward is pretty pretty close.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

I agree. The ex-husband definitely is because he literally kidnapped her. Um but I think the most confounding thing about all of this to me is that Edward had the winning ticket in his possession for like a whole day because the lottery had been drawn the night before. And but he kept it in the envelope and gave it to Tondo.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Which is probably why he was kicking himself thinking I could have checked that damn ticket before I gave it to him.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, but that's that's the risk that that you take, Edward. That's the risk that you take.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Right. I'm sure he was obviously somebody that played the lottery for him to give them as tips, right? So I'm sure that he bought himself lottery tickets as well. Right. So when you buy some for yourself and some you give away, that is the risk you take. I think tipping lottery tickets if you're gonna then try and get it back if it wins is a dumbass idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I agree. Um, and this just goes on to the next point of like the states that require you to reveal yourself if you win the lottery. I think that's wrong. It is. I mean, I understand why they do it because A, it drums up more attention for the lottery, and B, it's transparent, like they're showing people, hey, we're not just taking your money, people actually do win. And I do think that that is important, but at what cost? I mean, it's costing people their their lives in some cases. People have been murdered.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Right. So that that's why I think it's wrong and it should be enforced in all states. And I think that they can still say, hey, the winning ticket was sold at this shell gas station in this city to a female who was, you know, middle-aged or something, they can give something that still makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Give people the opportunity to volunteer. Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yes, some some people might want to anyway.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Give them some kind of incentive like, hey, we'll give you an extra 100K, you know, or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

To use your face for advertisement. Yeah. Right. So so, but then a lot of stupid people will do it. Yeah. But anyway, I was just thinking that when somebody says, hey, somebody won somebody bought a winning lottery ticket in your local grocery store, it does make it feel as close to home as if you see the person's face on the TV. And I think that that's still proving that they give it out to somebody.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

I don't think you need to know the name, the face, everything else. There should be a a certain amount of privacy.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Well, I think it's something like it's currently 18 states require you to reveal your identity. Florida is one of those states. And in a lot of the states that do require you to reveal your identity, you can get a lawyer, and there's some loophole that you can use to get out of it. But in Florida specifically, they don't allow any of those loopholes. Like if you win, you are getting plastered across the media.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Whether you like it or not. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

What about Georgia, where we're based? That's a good question. Let me ask my trusty Google over here.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

If you could just look that up for me real quick, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Oh, we watched Office Space last night, you guys. My first time ever, and I loved it so much. Okay. If you could just get that over to me right now. That'd be great. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

That'd be great. Just don't forget the cover sheet.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

That scene where he's having sex with the girl and he's getting it. Unbelievable. Okay. So Google says, yes, you can stay anonymous after winning the lottery in Georgia. Under state law, winners of prizes of $250,000 or more are permitted to keep their identities completely private. So that's good news. But if we win the Florida motto, we're SOL. We're gonna have to go in the media. And here's another thing that I found out, you guys, that I did not know before. Apparently, shortly after Tonda won the lottery and during all of the legal proceedings, but before the the coworkers won that first legal battle, Tonda actually gifted a large portion of, or not gifted, but gave a large portion of the jackpot to her pastor. And we don't know who, what, why, where. There there are no specific details on that, but the speculation is that she did it to try to keep the money safe because everybody was coming after it. And I just wonder if she went to her pastor seeking like advice, you know, religious counsel or advice or whatever. And, you know, she's like, hey, like, I want all this money and I am terrified. Like everybody wants a piece of it, and what should I do? And the pastor's like, oh, well, if you donate it to my church, we're tax exempt and I'll keep it safe for you, no worries. It's also a tax write-off for her because it's a charitable donation. Right. Um, and hopefully this pastor was somebody that she could trust. I have no idea. I wouldn't tr mm-mm. I wouldn't trust anybody either. Um, but I also wonder if and this is pure speculation, but was that pastor somebody just trying to get his hand in the pot too? Did he solicit her or did she go to him? We don't know. We don't know how that turned out. But um the uh the some of the people that were suing her, you know, the waitresses and Edward found out about it, and they were like, Oh, this is just her trying to muddy the waters and hide the money from us so that we can't get our fair share. And it's like, yeah, maybe so, but it's not your fair share. That's the whole point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

But they obviously thought it was or wanted to convince the world it was, whether they really thought that or not.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Interesting. So you think maybe he was holding on to it until everything was over to give back to her?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

I that would have probably been the agreement, but that's the thing is would you have trusted him with two, three million dollars?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Well, no, not only that, but her giving it to him, she's tax exempt. Him receiving it is tax exempt, but him giving it back to her, how could they get away with that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yeah. And maybe that was one of the reasons that the IRS came after her so hard. That's speculation. I I don't know. Right. Um, but that would be sticky.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

And it wouldn't have looked good in the charity accounting books, would it?

SPEAKER_00 18:30

It would not look good.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Unless their charity is to support lottery books.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

So this this brings up a good conversation. How many people in your life do you think you could truly trust if you won ten million dollars? Like, how many people do you think would still have your best interest at heart and be genuine like relationships? You don't have to give me specific people, but like I mean less than I could count on one hand. Really? I think the same. Yeah. Which is so sad.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Like maybe three or four.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yeah, the same. That's so sad. Well, you could trust me. So I hope I'm one of those. I hope I'm one of you. Yeah, you are.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

But yeah, I mean if But unlike you, my brother and my sister I would unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah. But good. I'm happy for you. What's your brother's name?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Stuart.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Stuart um S-T-E-W. How cute.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

So interesting with my life.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Didn't you have something?

SPEAKER_01 19:34

There wasn't a lot about what she was doing now or what happened to her later in life. But we did manage to find out a little bit. And she's got remarried and changed her name, which is my maybe why some you know it's harder to find stuff on her. Um, but from all accounts, her, her new husband, her little puppy, and her now adult son do seem to be traveling a lot and living their best life.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

They seem to be truly happy and enjoying the money or enjoying the experience or whatever it is, who knows how much she has left. She seems to be traveling a lot, so I hope that you know it it helped her achieve that in some way. But she seems to be living her best life right now, and I'm glad for her.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah, hopefully all that hell.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

I'm very close to her now adults.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah, good. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

We don't want to say what that name is or where we saw information on her because obviously it was hard to find, so she may be trying to keep out of the spotlight and good for her.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yeah, I I would she's traumatized.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Right. So we're respecting her privacy with that.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

But we thought it was nice for everybody to know.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Oh, I don't think we went over this. Do you believe there's a lottery curse?

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Um not as such. I think that there's an issue with people that aren't used to having that much money knowing how to handle it. And having such a major change in your life, not everybody's up to it. Yeah. And so I think that the the what's known as the curse is literally just something that happens as a matter of life when you go from being a waitress in a Waffle House to a multimillionaire overnight. That's just not something that we are programmed to be able to deal with. It you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

I agree. I I mean, look at the state of the world right now. Money is absolutely the root of all evil. We are destroying our planet. Like for money, what are you gonna spend this money on when we're not here anymore? Like it it's just absolute chaos and destruction. You should be able to have enough to live on and and take a vacation when you want to, but you don't need a private jet and four yachts. And the only way to get that kind of lifestyle is to exploit people. So I I yeah, I think it's I think it's the money. I don't think it's the lottery, I think it's just large. Of money in general.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, it's money and just the the speed of which it's happening to people that have never had money like that before. And it changes their world overnight, and we're just not mentally equipped to handle it. Sounds great. Yeah. Everybody thinks, oh yeah, give me 10 million, I'll be fine. But you've never known how to deal with that money before. Suddenly you think you can overnight.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yes. I mean, so if you're working at Waffle House, and this is no shade to anybody because I grew up in poverty, you are in poverty, and you have not had access to most things in life. And then suddenly overnight, you have access to fucking everything. So it's very easy to overdo it.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Make bad choices, invest badly, trust people that you shouldn't trust. I mean, you you don't have the experience.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah, and so many people get addicted to drugs and gambling and things like that and set up Or addicted to shopping or addicted to collecting yachts or addicted to something stupid that they never would have had the money to before.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Uh so many lottery winners end up homeless. Yeah. When they had a perfectly decent life before the lottery. Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

It's like the episode, and this is just funny, you watch Family Guy. On and off. There's this episode of Family Guy where they win the lottery and they're living high on the horse and then they blow it all and they're poor and they're on the side of the road in a cardboard box. And then they win the lottery again. And they repeat the same vicious cycle. They're out on the street again. And so Quagmire, when Peter first won the lottery, Quagmire's like, Hey, um, do you want to invest in my cousin's like Viagra pills? Like he's creating these new Viagra pills. You want to invest? And Peter's like, Oh, yeah, sure, whatever. And you don't hear about it again. And then at the end of the episode, when Peter and his family are on the street, Quagmire's like, I'm gonna fix you up. I'm gonna buy your house back. Remember those um dick pills that you invested in? Well, they really took off. Here's your return on your investment. Yeah. But um it it happens. Like there was the one lady who won twice in New Jersey and just ruined her life. Yeah. And those are astronomical odds just to win once. And you win twice. And I mean, that right there proves it that, like you said, we can't deal with it. We're not equipped for it. Anyway, I want to end on a positive note. Um, I'm glad that Tonda Dickerson is doing well now. And if you play the lottery and if you win the lottery, make good decisions, have good people around you.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Hire a professional that knows how to deal with that amount of money to advise you and help you. And it doesn't matter how much they cost, it's worth every frickin' penny because you need somebody that knows how to handle that kind of money, how to invest it so that you do never run out, how to save it in high yield so that you make money off your money. Like these are all things that you never knew how to do because you never had this kind of money before, and you can't learn how to do it overnight. So you need somebody good advising you that knows how to do those things.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Don't worry about paying like for a pool boy and a house cleaner and a driver. You can do all those things yourself. You've been doing those your whole life. Pay first, right up front, the very first person should be some kind of financial advisor. And you can you can have them as your own personal 24-7 private advisor. They don't have to work for anybody but you because you've got the money. But you need somebody that that's prepared to tell you no, that's a stupid decision.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

And that because people like that tend to have just a lot of yes men around them that are like, oh, this is a great idea. Yes, yes, yes, and it's the dumbest shit in the fucking universe. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Whereas your financial advisor advisor should be somebody that really is looking out for the best interests of your money. So that's what you do.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Okay, well, I hope you guys enjoyed the tale of Tonda Dickerson. Tonda Dickerson, we hope you're doing well. Hope you enjoyed this episode. We want your feedback as always. Thank you for being a subscriber. Thank you. Um, and until next time, be divas.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

But not deadly. Bye. Bye. And don't try and steal your friends' lottery weddings.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Don't do it.