A Million Dollars Can Buy a Nice House, a Great Car, and a Whole Lot of Dreams—But Not Wisdom or Morality
A million dollars can buy you a beautiful home, a luxury car, and a variety of other dream items. But, unfortunately, money can’t buy common sense or a bit of morality. These two attributes were sorely lacking for 54-year-old American woman Patty Bigbee, who won the lottery in 2008. Instead of living a happy life, she soon found herself facing jail time.
It is unclear how Patty Bigbee spent her million-dollar winnings, but one thing is certain: within less than two years, she was back to being broke and struggling financially. Rather than looking for a job, she began thinking of how she could get her hands on another large sum of money quickly and easily.
The next “bundle of dollars” she spotted came in the form of her daughter Stephanie’s eight-week-old son, Aidan. At the time, 22-year-old Stephanie was surviving through petty theft and lacked a stable home. She intended to give the baby up for adoption. However, Patty, the grandmother, devised a diabolical plan. She reconnected with her estranged older daughter, Danielle Skiver, via Facebook and offered her the baby.
Danielle, already a mother who adored children, immediately agreed to adopt little Aidan. But there was a catch. Patty was only willing to hand over the baby for a price—$75,000 (roughly £58,000 or €70,000).
Shocked by this proposal, Danielle contacted the police. Before doing so, she managed to negotiate the price down to $30,000. Unbeknownst to Stephanie, her mother had inflated the price. Stephanie only wanted $10,000 to buy a car, unaware that her own mother had added a hefty commission fee for brokering the deal.
The whole transaction was so appalling that both Patty and Stephanie ended up in prison. The police arrested them during the money-for-child exchange. Patty served five years behind bars and is now left dreaming of winning another million dollars someday.
As for Aidan, he was placed into foster care. However, his aunt Danielle eventually succeeded in court and was granted custody of him. Today, she is raising him alongside her other children. Years later, Danielle shared her own tragic story: as a child, she too was sold by her mother to an adoptive family. Her adoptive parents had been blackmailed by Patty for years, with threats that she would take Danielle back unless they sent her money. Danielle had planned to keep her painful story private, but her mother’s attempt to repeat the horrific act 20 years later forced her to speak up.
