BECAME BANK-ROBBING LOSER!
HOW $19M JACKPOT LED TO ADDICTION AND PRISON
IM HAYES won $19 million in the California lottery — but his life went south, and he turned into a serial bank robber! “Having money enabled me to live my wildest dreams,” he gushed. “But there’s a flip side. It’s the lottery curse.”
Hayes was 35 and working the graveyard shift as a security guard when he hit the jackpot in January 1998.
He took home $13.7 million after taxes and chose to receive 20 annual payments of $684,000.
“Mainly what I want to do is help out my family and friends in need,” he said at the time. “I’m not going to blow the money.”
But Hayes burned through the
Jcash — buying a fleet of exotic cars, plunking down nearly $1 million on an oceanfront pad and splurging on Las Vegas gambling trips. He was also generous with friends, went through a costly divorce and made some bad investments.
After undergoing unsuccessful back surgery in 2004, he got hooked on Oxycontin while trying to ease his pain. Without a steady job or health care, he bought the Oxy with cash. In 2007 he filed for bankruptcy — and started using heroin, which was cheaper than the pain pills.
But the cash-strapped addict still needed money to score — and decided to rob banks. His first heist was in April 2017.
“It felt like I had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other,” Hayes recalled.
“The angel was saying, ‘Don’t do it. You could go to prison for 20 years.’ And the devil was saying, ‘It’s Friday. You’re broke. Are you really gonna go the whole weekend without drugs?’ ” He handed the female teller a note and got out with $3,300 in cash in less than three minutes.
Over the next five months, Hayes hit ten more banks around L.A. and Santa Barbara, swiping nearly $40,000 before FBI agents nailed him.
Hayes, 56, is now serving a 33-month prison sentence.
“Prison is the most horrible thing ever, but I’m thankful it happened. It saved my life,” he said.
“Now I’m eight months sober.”