A man in Jamaica came to collect his lottery prize dressed as Darth Vader, the fictional supervillain in the Star Wars movie saga. Gail Abrahams, vice president of the local lottery company handed W. Brown a cheque for 95 million Jamaican dollars (more than $650,000).
Lottery winner hides identity with Darth Vader costume https://t.co/x3bFAFBpbH pic.twitter.com/lGtWIJYpNI
— NewsBop! (@NewsBop) July 20, 2020
Local media reported that people in Jamaica often wear a disguise when collecting prizes in order to hide their identities. Another winner of the lottery a woman only known as N. Gray collected her $1.2 million prize wearing a smiling emoji mask.
"Unfortunately, Jamaica is not like other markets. In other markets, they don’t necessarily do it, but here I think they opt to do it to keep themselves safe. We are not going to tell them not to do that because their safety is of paramount importance to us as well. People have been coming with their own disguises. They usually don’t need our help, and they are usually very creative, perhaps beyond anything that we could think of or imagine, and it has been very effective over the years”, Simone Clarke-Cooper, assistant vice president at the lottery company told the Daily Star.
The man dressed as Darth Vader told local media he always believed he would win the lottery to change his life for the better. The lucky winner revealed that he is still pondering how to spend the money, but said he will use it to help his family and friends.
"Life has always been very rough. I come from a poor family, sometimes I couldn't attend school because my parents didn't have it, but I told myself that God will help me one day so I can help my family", he said.
