Winners, losers and fake friends deal with Prince of Penzance’s Melbourne Cup win

A Melbourne Cup bettor has learned the hard way that ‘friends’ on social media don’t always match the textbook definition.

A women from Perth, Australia identified only as Chantelle is having her 15 minutes of global fame after she posted a winning ticket from Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup race to her Facebook page, only to have one of her ‘friends’ cash the ticket before she could.

Chantelle scored $825 by backing 100:1 shot Prince of Penzance and was so excited she promptly took a selfie in which she held the ticket up by her face. However, she neglected to edit out the ticket’s bar code before posting the image to her Facebook account.

Within 15 minutes of Chantelle’s post, some alert observer spotted her gaffe, downloaded the photo to their mobile device then scanned it at an automated machine, which dutifully paid out as programmed. Chantelle discovered the heist when she went to the TAB window, only to be told the prize had already been claimed.