If you and a friend are buying lottery tickets together, get your deal in writing.
A Trumbull man is suing his friend for a share of a $1 million lottery jackpot.
Armando Martins of Trumbull claims that he and Nuno Nascimento of Bridgeport had an agreement to buy lottery tickets every week and to share if they won.
The deal started like this: They were having lunch in February and Nascimento suggested they share the cost of lottery tickets, according to the Connecticut Post.
Nascimento would decide how many tickets to buy. Martins would hand over half the cash, he said. Then, should a ticket win, they’d share the prize, the Post reports, citing the lawsuit.
Every week, it seems, they bought stacks of tickets. Martins says he’d give his buddy $75 a week. In a bizarre case of the stars aligning, on April 1 – April Fool’s Day, no less -- he was short one dollar, so he handed over $74. That day, one of the tickets in the stack hit for $1 million.
It turned out that April Fool’s Day would be a turning point in that ill-fated friendship.
Local
Nascimento and his wife collected a check for $700,000 after taxes, never telling Martins about the prize.
But Martins got wind of the winnings and asked about it, the Post reports. Nascimento said he had received a windfall from selling property in Portugal. Later, he admitted to winning and offered Martins $375.
Apparently Martins wants some more zeros on that, so he's off to court.
