Man Eats Winning Lottery Ticket on Ryanair Flight

Here’s one for the bizarro file. A man purchased a scratch ticket onboard a Ryanair flight. Yes, Ryanair sells scratch tickets onboard—are you really that surprised? The passenger scratched the ticket and lo and behold, it was a winner! €10,000, or roughly $13,600!

At this point, the story is already strange enough. Who buys a scratch ticket, let alone a winning one, on an airplane? Heck, it’s pretty odd that an airline even sells scratch tickets. But what happened next truly baffles the mind: the man ate the ticket.

According to the BBC, the passenger, whose name has not been released, demanded that the winnings be paid immediately. This, of course, is completely absurd, as no airline would stash a spare €10,000 on its planes, and no crewmember is going to write a check.

Nevertheless, the man insisted he receive his money, and threatened to eat his ticket if he didn’t get it. I can’t really imagine what he hoped this would accomplish—after all, it’s no skin off Ryanair’s back if they don’t have to pay the guy—but apparently it seemed like a real good idea at the time. Passengers and even crew tried to convince him it was in fact a horrible idea, but logic did not prevail. The world’s most expensive in-flight snack was consumed.

Honestly, maybe it’s all for the best. I mean, if a guy is willing to eat $13,600, imagine what he’d spend it on!

Folks, what is the silliest, most inexplicably strange thing you’ve ever seen a passenger do on an airplane?