Frane Selak, an elderly Croatian man, is known around the world for being the luckiest man alive. What has happened with him has been more like movie scripts, which are larger than life but mostly unbelievable. However, Selak believes that reality is much stranger than anything the film industry can offer. Let's explore this intriguing story of a man whose life has been filled with a remarkable string of incredibly awful events.
This modest man was born in 1929 in Croatia. As a music teacher, which is hardly a thrilling job out there, he had a quite ordinary life. That is, until a tragic bus and train ride that started an absurdly long chain of events
According to the BBC, Frano Selak is an octogenarian music teacher from Croatia. His run of near escapes began back, he says, in 1957, when he plunged into the river on a bus. Six more brushes with death followed. His train derailed and hurtled into a river; he walked away from not one but two exploding cars and survived a plane crash by landing on a haystack after being thrown clear. A protruding tree saved him when he drove off a cliff, and he bounced back from being hit by a bus. Then, as if to prove that he was the luckiest-rather than the unluckiest-man in the world, Selak won around $1 million (Rs 8,36,77,100) in a lottery, giving most of it away to friends and family.
According to Ripley's, in the mid-2000s, as though to make up for the horrible, horrible deal Lady Luck had given him, Selak won the lottery in Croatia. His jackpot was worth around $1 million (Rs 8,36,77,100). With this, he bought a luxurious home, only to have a change of heart and sell it in 2010. He returned to a humble life with his fifth wife.
Whatever happened along the way, Frane's story has a happy ending. He spent the last of his winnings on a hip operation and on a shrine to the Virgin Mary in thanks for his good fortune.
