ScoobyNet.com - Subaru Enthusiast Forum - Really lucky or really unlucky?

True story (as I suspect someone may say “cool story Bro” feel free).

Some years ago I had the misfortune of crossing paths with the below character, I didn’t like him from the beginning he seemed like a little rat of a man to me.

Anyway, he ran a lottery syndicate for his work colleagues. All was running smoothly, with no mishaps and complete transparency of the syndicates money. He comes into work one Monday morning care free like nothing had happened, he had unfortunately been unreachable all weekend due to undisclosed reasons. He had unluckily failed to put the syndicates numbers on that weekend and was unaware of the lottery results as he had been “off Comms”. He was also unaware the syndicate had won a substantial amount of money.

Luckily for him his wife had remembered to put on her” personal” numbers and won! It just so happened her numbers matched those of the syndicates numbers. Someone smelt a rat and the police were involved. The police could not prove he bought the winning ticket and not his wife, nor could they prove the winning ticket was bought using the syndicates money.
They said he did it but couldn’t prove it and nothing could be done. He did of course refund the syndicate with their stake for that weekend.

The same guy managed to unluckily get knocked out and thrown from a vehicle in Afghanistan. I’m not suggesting that people with him at the time were the same people in the syndicate (although some may of been) but they knew of his good luck with the lottery. There was a suggestion he may get left behind by accident due to the unfolding confusion. Luckily for him word got back to a command element who made it crystal clear under no circumstances was he not to be recovered whether in bits or not.

Fast forward a few years. With his wife’s good fortune they opened up a local Deli. As an honest member of the local community he ran a Xmas club/Xmas hamper deal. Luckily for him it was well supported. All was running smoothly will complete transparency as to what was happening with the accrued funds. Now sadly for him the Deli ran into difficulties just prior to Xmas and unfortunately had to be closed, everyone laid off and then shut up shop. He, unluckily also lost his livelihood. Again the police were involved but as the funds could now not be traced and ultimately he was penniless (although his wife seemed to be doing ok). Combined with the fact the Xmas club was run on good faith their hands were again tied

I bumped into a familiar face in Sri Lanka (years later) but couldn’t place it. I asked the guy if we knew each other and had he worked at XZ and Zd. He seemed oddly defensive (looking back) but I thought nothing more of it. Sri Lanka can be idyllic but life is cheap and tourists sadly die on the roads more often than should happen. They are found washed up on the beach as well when they have got themselves into difficulties late at night and more than likely drunk. To locals it’s not a big deal.

Unluckily for me it took me a while to figure out how I knew the guy. Luckily for him by the time I did he was long gone. If I had remembered earlier I’m 100% convinced if I could reach out to a few of his former colleagues they would of been on the next flight out. I strongly suspect unluckily for him he would of had an accident.

Luckily for me I didn’t trust him from the beginning so the person stood in front of me in Sri Lanka hadn’t impacted on my life as I had nothing to do with him.

So has this guy had a 20+ years run of really bad luck, or 20+ years run of very good luck!!!