Waffle House Waitress Gets Tipped Winning Lottery Ticket, Then Chaos Ensues

On March 7th, he gave Tonda and four other employees lotto ticket tips. The next week, everything changed when Tonda won $10 million from her unusual tip. However, there wasn’t much time to celebrate when Tonda’s win quickly spiraled into a wild story full of lawsuits, IRS battles, and even a kidnapping. Let’s dive in!

While Tonda’s tale has many twists and turns, this type of story isn’t uncommon. In fact, many people who win the lottery end up dealing with challenging side effects as distant family and friends want a piece of the prize. Some of these situations end in lawsuits, others end with violent altercations, and a select few winners end up in witness protection.

Each one said that Tonda Dickerson would share the $10 million winnings with them, and that Dickerson did not hold up to her end of the agreement. After all, each employee working that shift that day received lottery tickets. Any one of them could have been a winner, and Dickerson’s co-workers were feeling slighted that through chance, Tonda received the lucky ticket. Would Tonda have to share her winnings?

Judge Kendall awarded participating attorneys several days to determine how the four plaintiffs and Dickerson would share the lottery proceeds. Upon trial conclusion, Dickerson reportedly left the courtroom in a hurry without any response to reporters’ questions.

Matthew Adams and Jackie Fairleyand seem to have not made themselves readily available for picture taking before, during, or after the trial. Here, Deno and Tisdale rejoice in their momentary victory, but the court battle between the plaintiffs and the defendant were far from over.

He also says that he “expected the restaurant employees to share any winnings,” according to the Associated Press. Although seemingly reluctant to have his picture taken, co-worker Matthew Adams does say, “It was always stated that if we hit, we split.” That’s what he told the jury during trial.

The court denied hearing Seward’s case altogether. Essentially his case boiled down to “hearsay” and verbal agreements that couldn’t have been proven one way or another. There is actually an Alabama law against oral agreements when it comes to gambling, and thus Seward had no grounds for a lawsuit. However, the original lawsuit from the Waffle House staff was about to come back into play.

The Alabama court later overturned the verdict in 2000 based on arguments that the verbal agreement between Dickerson and the plaintiffs renders void on the grounds that it violated the state’s gambling laws. While Tonda seemingly won this time as she no longer owed her co-workers money, more complications yet ensued, none of which Dickerson, her former co-workers, or Seward Jr. would have predicted.

Upon setting up a business, it complicated tracing the money back to a pact that Tonda’s former co-workers claim they made with her to split any lotto winnings. This provided a way for the Dickerson family to say that the revenue originated from a business rather than the original lottery proceedings. This was a seemingly smart move to keep the money protected, but Tonda also came to realize she needed to keep herself protected too.

While reportedly holding Tonda hostage in her own truck, Stacy drove his ex to an isolated boat launch in Jackson County where he threatened her life in exchange for some money. However, Tonda managed to quickly reach into her purse, pull out a gun and shoot her ex-husband in the chest in self-defense. She then took him to the hospital where the police arrived on scene, yet no charges appear to be on record for either party. Her ex-husband survived the altercation.

In 2012, the Court ordered Tonda Dickerson to pay more than a million dollars in taxes to the IRS from lottery ticket winnings. Since she placed her money into a corporation and gave her family 51% of the stock in this company, she was required to pay a gift tax of $1,119,347.90. Tonda challenged the charge, but ultimately lost and had to pay the over one million dollar fee.

Her ex-husband, Stacy Martin recovered from his gunshot wound and according to legal records was never charged for the kidnapping. As for Tonda, instead of sharing her wealth with her Waffle House community, she put the majority of her money into a corporation titled “9 Mill” and gave 51% of the shares to her family members. In the end she had to pay the IRS a $1,119,347.90 tax gift, but other than that Tonda is trying to disappear into the background and return to a “normal” life.