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“We Were Just Like, What The Hell?”: Aussie Couple Furious After Winning $4.2 Million House
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“We Were Just Like, What The Hell?”: Aussie Couple Furious After Winning $4.2 Million House

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What would you do if you were gifted a $4.2 million home after winning a lottery prize? To a couple from Victoria, Australia, the answer is quite simple: complain about a list of missing items that were allegedly promised in the giveaway’s promotional video.

Kevin and Andrea Griffin’s reaction to winning the house has left many Aussies speechless.

Image credits: lmctplus

The pair were recently given a multimillion-dollar home in Grisbone—54 kilometers away from Melbourne—which was featured on the reality television series The Block. The TV show follows couples as they compete against each other to renovate homes and sell them at auction for a higher price.

Adrian “Lambo Guy” Portelli, a Melbourne-born businessman, bought the property last November to raffle it off as a star prize in his company, LMCT+.

The Griffins had been paying a $20 monthly subscription to LMCT+ for over a year before winning the big prize, which they described as “life-changing” to the Herald Sun

However, the couple wasn’t entirely pleased with their new property.

The Aussie couple won the big prize after participating in an LMCT+ giveaway

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Image credits: lmctplus

Image credits: lmctplus

After realizing that a few items were missing from the home, they discovered CCTV footage of Portelli removing $100,000 worth of items before handing the house over to them.

Among these items were luxury appliances like a robot mower, a treadmill, a BBQ smoker, and a wine fridge, as well as less pricey items like candles, books, and towels.

The Griffins have accused the businessman of “stealing” these goods and issued a bill for the list of lost items.

“We were just like, what the hell? Why has he done this?” Ms. Griffin said after seeing the video surveillance footage.

If he had known that the property wouldn’t come with the valuable items, Mr. Griffin explained, then he would’ve preferred to take the $3 million in cash that the businessman offered as an alternative prize.

The pair claims that the original owner, Mr. Portelli, “stole” several items that were featured in the giveaway’s promotional video

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Image credits: adrian_portelli

Mr. Portelli hit back at the complaints by releasing behind-the-scenes footage that had been cut out of the final edit of the video that showed the couple being handed the keys to the home. 

The clip, which enraged Aussies, shows the Griffins’ peculiar reaction to seeing their brand-new property for the first time.

“Is that heated?” Ms. Griffin says at the beginning of the video while pointing to the outdoor pool, to which Mr. Portelli responds that he doesn’t know.

“It would want to be,” Mr. Griffin then adds.

When she enters one of the living areas, the woman says: “Where did my wine fridge go? There was a wine fridge there.”

“They forgot to give that ceiling its final coat,” Mr. Griffin complains when inspecting another room.

The woman notes: “There’s a couple of lamps in there. We can sell those on eBay.”

Adrian Portelli responded to the allegations by posting a behind-the-scenes video showing the couple complaining about their new home

Image credits: areyoukiddingme420

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Image credits: areyoukiddingme420

Of course, people didn’t take long to respond to the clips, stressing that many Australians struggle to pay for rent, and the pair’s attitude was “ungrateful and embarrassing.”

In the video, posted on LMCT+’s social media, the business owner defended himself by highlighting the couple’s controversial reaction.

“I am sure you guys would all agree if you were handing someone a $4.3m prize … if they started acting like that, you would want to get the hell out of there as well,” he said.

The Griffins can be heard saying that the wine fridge was “missing” and that they “forgot to give the ceiling a final coat”

Image credits: areyoukiddingme420

According to Mr. Portelli, the removed items were only intended to be used for the promotional video of the giveaway and were part of sponsorship deals with different companies.

Additionally, he explained that the products were not included in the terms and conditions of the lottery.

“The Block contestants do receive many items from sponsors that aren’t included. So in the shed there were a lot of items like a treadmill, there was wine that the contestants won, there were toolboxes, etc.”

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“Now, in our terms and conditions, we do state that the house comes fully furnished and yes, it came fully furnished with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of furniture, however, apparently there’s hundreds of items that are missing.”

You can watch the video below

@areyoukiddingme420♬ Sunrise – Official Sound Studio

Following the outraged reactions brought about by the video, the businessman has decided to raffle off the removed objects for a ticket price of $1, expressing that he wants the products to go to “someone who is going to be grateful and deserving.”

All of the proceeds of the giveaway will go to Australians affected by homelessness.

Most people slammed the couple for being ungrateful, stressing that the house is a life-changing prize

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However, some said the couple is in their full right to complain about the prize

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Marina Urman

Marina Urman

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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Marina is a journalist at Bored Panda. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she holds a Bachelor of Social Science. In her spare time, you can find her baking, reading, or watching a docuseries. Her main areas of interest are pop culture, literature, and education.

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Marina Urman

Marina Urman

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Marina is a journalist at Bored Panda. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she holds a Bachelor of Social Science. In her spare time, you can find her baking, reading, or watching a docuseries. Her main areas of interest are pop culture, literature, and education.

Donata Leskauskaite

Donata Leskauskaite

Author, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

Hey there! I'm a Visual Editor in News team. My responsibility is to ensure that you can read the story not just through text, but also through photos. I get to work with a variety of topics ranging from celebrity drama to mind-blowing Nasa cosmic news. And let me tell you, that's what makes this job an absolute blast! Outside of work, you can find me sweating it out in dance classes or unleashing my creativity by drawing and creating digital paintings of different characters that lives in my head. I also love spending time outdoors and play board games with my friends.

Read less »

Donata Leskauskaite

Donata Leskauskaite

Author, BoredPanda staff

Hey there! I'm a Visual Editor in News team. My responsibility is to ensure that you can read the story not just through text, but also through photos. I get to work with a variety of topics ranging from celebrity drama to mind-blowing Nasa cosmic news. And let me tell you, that's what makes this job an absolute blast! Outside of work, you can find me sweating it out in dance classes or unleashing my creativity by drawing and creating digital paintings of different characters that lives in my head. I also love spending time outdoors and play board games with my friends.

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Sunny Day
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Most people who win houses can't afford to keep them and end up selling them anyway. This couple should have taken the 3 million cash.

Bailey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

While the attitude of the people sounds poor, this sounds more like a dodgy company trying to spin public opinion in their favour. It wasnt a freebie or "gifted" to them, it was a prize by a company who charge a monthly subscription for people to enter their raffle competitions. They don't need to be "grateful" to him, his business is making money off these competitions, it's not like he is doing it out of kindness or charity. If they asked people to pay to enter a competition where the impression was given that the furnishings shows were part of the prize, then the winners have every right to complain when they are not included . The company is already under investigation by the gambling commission and CBS in Australia, so would seem like they are more probably the issue here

Imagineer
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I immediately figured that many of the items, especially when it listed candles and books, were in there for the photos only. These people are ungrateful, and not the class of people who would actually be able to take care of the place.

Load More Replies...
Nancy T
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How will they afford to pay taxes, maintenence and utilities on the home?

Pieter LeGrande
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

On top of forking out the money to replace the missing items. And they need to be of a sufficiently high standard that they do not devalue the house. Note: always take the money.

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
Sunny Day
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Most people who win houses can't afford to keep them and end up selling them anyway. This couple should have taken the 3 million cash.

Bailey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

While the attitude of the people sounds poor, this sounds more like a dodgy company trying to spin public opinion in their favour. It wasnt a freebie or "gifted" to them, it was a prize by a company who charge a monthly subscription for people to enter their raffle competitions. They don't need to be "grateful" to him, his business is making money off these competitions, it's not like he is doing it out of kindness or charity. If they asked people to pay to enter a competition where the impression was given that the furnishings shows were part of the prize, then the winners have every right to complain when they are not included . The company is already under investigation by the gambling commission and CBS in Australia, so would seem like they are more probably the issue here

Imagineer
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I immediately figured that many of the items, especially when it listed candles and books, were in there for the photos only. These people are ungrateful, and not the class of people who would actually be able to take care of the place.

Load More Replies...
Nancy T
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How will they afford to pay taxes, maintenence and utilities on the home?

Pieter LeGrande
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

On top of forking out the money to replace the missing items. And they need to be of a sufficiently high standard that they do not devalue the house. Note: always take the money.

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
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