This Waitress Was Tipped A $10 Million Lottery Ticket — Then She Got SUED By Everyone She Knew!

Tonda Lynn Dickerson received a lottery ticket as a Waffle House tip and won $10 million. Then her coworkers sued for 80 percent, the customer sued over a promised truck, the IRS opened a tax battle, and her ex-husband abducted her at gunpoint. She survived after pulling a handgun from her purse and shooting him in the chest. This is the forgotten story of how one winning lottery ticket created three years of lawsuits, competing promises, family tax problems, and a terrifying fight for survival. We follow the restaurant agreement, the court rulings, the corporate transfer that triggered the IRS dispute, and the danger no financial adviser could have predicted. If a customer tipped your group with lottery tickets, would every employee deserve an equal share of the jackpot? Tell us what you think in the comments. Subscribe to Dumb Money Club for more unbelievable lottery winners, jackpot lawsuits, and true stories about what happens when life-changing money goes wrong. Sources and further reading: Dickerson v. Deno, Supreme Court of Alabama: https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/... Seward v. Dickerson, Supreme Court of Alabama: https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/... Journal of Accountancy, Waitress's lottery win shared with family ruled taxable gift: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/... The money was not the hardest part of Tonda's story. Keeping it was difficult, but keeping herself alive became harder than either one.