The world's luckiest man?

June 19, 2003 7:00 AM

Is he the world's unluckiest man or the luckiest? Either way, Croatia's Frane Selak, who had already gained attention for escaping death seven times, has just hit the jackpot with his first lottery ticket in forty years. How can we normal mortals compete?
posted by rory (13 comments total)

paging Mr. Glass...
posted by GeekAnimator at 7:02 AM on June 19, 2003

Louis Wu?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:05 AM on June 19, 2003

It's the details that make the story for me: Selak landed in a haystack after being sucked out of a DC-8; had his hair burned off by a burning Wartburg; almost ran head-first into a UN truck; and jumped out of his Skoda into a tree just before it fell 300 feet and exploded. After his first few lucky escapes, "my friends had stopped visiting me." £600,000 will probably change that...
posted by rory at 7:06 AM on June 19, 2003

Note the tailored advertisement at the foot of the Ireland Online story: "Ready to buy a new Car? Click here to get a free Competitive quote."
posted by rory at 7:10 AM on June 19, 2003

The solo accidents (cars on fire, hit by bus) aren't as disturbing as the planes & trains, GeekAnimator is right, it's almost purposeful. To add another much much lamer hollywood reference, it's like death reaserting itself in those awful Final Destination movies. Not sure how the whole lottery ticket aspect plays into it, but that definitely ups the hollywood factor significantly, if you can have it end with a happy ending after so much tragedy.
posted by jonson at 7:36 AM on June 19, 2003

While the story is great, the picture is priceless. You call that a story? Lemme tell about the time when I took this Yugo-air flight!
posted by thijsk at 7:45 AM on June 19, 2003

About a third of people who win the lottery go bankrupt soon afterwards. Still the unluckiest.
posted by donth at 8:02 AM on June 19, 2003

I wonder if any of those near-misses were orchestrated by him.
posted by widdershins at 9:38 AM on June 19, 2003

He's buying a speedboat and marrying a woman 20 years younger than he is?

Sounds like numbers eight and nine in the making.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:12 AM on June 19, 2003

I'm gonna go with "luckiest" on this one. He survived a train crash, a plane crash, a bus wreck, his car catching fire (twice), being hit by a bus, and a car crash. Ask any of the families of the many people who have died in similar accidents whether this guy was lucky or unlucky.

Maybe it's a glass half-full/half-empty kind of thing, but if so I'm out of my usual element here, as I'm usually the one who is loudly proclaiming that the glass is half-empty.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:53 AM on June 19, 2003

All I know is I don't want to travel in the same vehicle as him.
posted by piper28 at 12:59 PM on June 19, 2003

Hmmm, survival doesn't really count if you keep facing fresh, new disasters.

Thanks rory for this great makes-you-think story.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:32 PM on June 19, 2003

I'm thinking this guy should be an expert for the next book in the series of "Worst Case Scenario" guides....How to survive an airplane crash or How to escape from an automobile plunged into an icy river perhaps?
posted by jennak at 4:03 AM on June 20, 2003