Lottery winner shows up as Darth Vader to collect his $650K jackpot and we totally get why

In the Jamaican lottery market, there is an ongoing trend that is as entertaining as it is necessary. Individuals who win big cheques at the contests tend to disguise themselves in fun costumes. In a remarkable feat, one such winner named W. Brown went and collected a grand lottery prize of 95 million Jamaican dollars (USD 650,000). The whopping amount undoubtedly turned heads and to avoid all that attention from strangers, the man decided to disguise himself as the iconic Star Wars villain, Darth Vader. He also spoke to Newsweek about his firm plans on how to spend the money. 

Not only did he wear the characteristic ominous mask, but Brown also ensured that the entire dark costume was in place complete with the cape. It may have really served its purpose as not an inch of Brown was exposed to the public making him unrecognizable from all angles. Speaking of his lucky moment, he had purchased the winning lottery ticket at the Di Endz Sports Bar in May Pen and received the check from Supreme Ventures’s Vice President Gail Abrahams on July 16, 2020. Interestingly, he said he had a premonition, referred to as “rakes” in Jamaican culture, about his winning ticket number, which he has been picking for the last 20 years.

Brown has big investment plans with his award money but the foremost thing he wanted to purchase was a bus. In addition, he was happy to share that the cash prize would significantly improve his family’s standard of living and help him get back on his feet. "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," Brown shared. Therefore, he wanted to be extra careful about his expenditures with the prize money and did not even tell anyone about his grand moment. "I want to decide what is the best thing to do before spending anything. I need to decide what my goals are, but I know I want to own a bus," Brown said. 

The primary reason the lottery winners follow the common trend of disguising themselves is because of the high rates of crime in the Caribbean nation. Jamaica reportedly has a poor record of safety when it comes to cash prize winners and Supreme Ventures’ assistant Vice President Simone Clarke-Cooper admitted the fact that these grand numbers may predispose the winners to risk. "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," she said. 

$650,000 is a lucrative amount of money and it may not be all that wise for the winner to flaunt their authentic self publicly during the official collection. In a similar incident, another man from Jamaica dressed up as the masked villain from the classic thriller, Scream. He had won 158,400,000 Jamaican dollars ($1.2 million in USD) but wanted to protect himself from, not goons, but his own relatives and friends.