A big winner in bogus prizes

Recently I have come into an uncommon streak of good luck that simply defies the odds.

I have twice received notifications from Portugal (by official mail) that I have won one of the prizes in a European lottery that I didn’t even enter. Each time the prize was over $1 million, and it wasn’t even the top prize.

Of course there were some logistics involved to collect the prizes, such as getting over to Lisbon or paying for a courier to pick up and deliver the checks, and various other fees and charges.

The latest was a phone call informing me that an attempt was made to deliver a $2 million check from Publishers Clearing House last Aug. 27 but supposedly nobody was home. The informant identified himself as Andrew Goldberg.

Since I supposedly was not home to collect the check at the time, there would be a technicality to complete to register the check as required by the rules and regulations. For some reason in no case was it sufficient for the charges simply to be deducted from my winnings.

So, sadly I had to pass on these wonderful windfalls. I wonder if I can use the $3 million sacrifice as a tax deduction for the next 18 years?

The last guy said he was delivering other checks to winners in Bradenton, although he sounded like he was calling from Nigeria on a bad connection. I told him to give the money to someone else.

Any other Bradenton winners?

This story was originally published November 7, 2016 at 4:13 PM with the headline "A big winner in bogus prizes."