The Lottery Winner Who Pulled Off The Greatest Disappearing Act EVER - The IRS STILL Looks For Him

Summary

The video follows Dale Corrigan, a quiet Kansas warehouse worker who wins a $286 million lottery jackpot in 2018. Rather than celebrate, he follows a plan he has been building for years: avoid publicity, protect his identity, and disappear. His caution comes from studying lottery winners whose sudden wealth brought theft, relentless requests for money, and even murder.

Dale waits 47 days to claim the prize, keeps the ticket unsigned, and has a lawyer collect it through the anonymously named Cottonwood Gray Trust. After the cash option and initial tax withholding, the trust receives about $122 million. But Dale knows the withholding isn’t the whole tax bill: according to the video, he still owes roughly $22 million to the IRS by the following April. That looming deadline becomes the turning point.

He quietly quits his job, sells his old pickup, cancels his phone, and leaves his trailer without a forwarding address. He avoids creating the usual paper trail, then moves the money through companies in Wyoming and Delaware and into accounts abroad. In January 2019, he leaves the United States, apparently believing he can stay away until the IRS’s collection deadline expires.

The plan’s central irony is that leaving the country doesn’t end Dale’s tax obligations. According to the video, spending extended time abroad can pause the IRS collection clock. The unpaid bill keeps growing, while his attempts to conceal the money could bring criminal scrutiny. Renouncing his citizenship wouldn’t erase the debt either and could trigger other tax consequences. His escape plan, meant to buy freedom, instead traps him in a life where returning home or using his real identity could be risky.

Over the years, unconfirmed sightings place Dale on a Caribbean sailboat, in a rented villa in Portugal, and on a farm in Paraguay. None is verified. His brother Ray learns about the win from the newspaper, while former coworker Tommy Reyes receives an anonymous $40,000 gift for his daughter’s surgery. The gesture suggests Dale still cares about people he left behind, even as he cuts off contact—including with family.

The video ends with a postcard sent to Ray in 2025. It has no return address and says, “Still here, still free.” The handwriting reportedly resembles pages from Dale’s notebook. The story’s final contrast is between Dale’s elaborate disappearance and the quieter option it says other winners chose: claim privately where possible, get professional advice, set aside enough for taxes, and stay close to loved ones. Its bittersweet takeaway is that Dale kept his fortune but may have lost his home, family life, and freedom to live openly.

Personalities Mentioned

• Dale Corrigan — The lottery winner at the center of the story
• Ray Corrigan — Dale’s brother
• Linda Corrigan — Dale’s ex-wife
• Tommy Reyes — Dale’s former coworker
• Jack Whittaker, Abraham Shakespeare, and William “Bud” Post — Lottery winners cited as cautionary examples
• The anonymous South Carolina winner, the New Hampshire “Jane Doe” winner, and Edwin Castro — Other winners discussed in relation to anonymity and publicity