I'm not sure what you bought the day you first went to prison, but if you're Michael Vick, you bought a $99,000 Mercedes Benz. Because, uh, I guess it's beats buying it once you get out of jail, right?Yes, for people who are wondering how in God's name Vick managed to burn through $18 million in two years, including while he was in prison, here are some of the wonderful details.
The day Vick went to prison, November 19th, 2007, our dogfighting hero dropped an impressive $201,840. My guess is Vick thought that once you go to jail, all your money gets burned up something, because that's about the only way this makes any sense. Anyway, on the day he went to prison, Vick bought that Mercedes, gave $28,000 to the mother of his oldest child, paid a public relations firm $23,000 and gave a friend $16,000. The rest of the money I assume was spent on one last dogfighting bet.
And Vick was spending cash like it was going out of style just before he wound up in prison. From Aug. 27, 2007, the day he pleaded guilty in a Richmond federal courthouse, until Nov. 19, the day he bought the new Mercedes before reporting to jail, Vick shelled out $3,627,291. That's insane. In fact, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has a fairly detailed account of what exactly Vick spent all of his money on over the full two years. It's simply mind-blowing.
He bought four more houses, all in Virginia, and began building another.
He bought a condominium in Miami Beach.
He bought interests in two farms — one in Virginia, one in Rockdale County, east of Atlanta.
He bought six Paso Fino horses, worth about $450,000.
He bought two boats, one for $100,000, the other for $125,000.
He bought cars: a Bentley, two Land Rovers, Cadillacs, an Infiniti sport utility vehicle and an Infiniti sedan, two Ford pickup trucks, a Dodge, a Chevrolet, the $99,000 Mercedes.
And he bought as much as $450,000 in jewelry. The pieces included two Swiss watches, a bracelet, a pair of diamond stud earrings, and a charm inscribed, “World is mine.”
Vick shared with family and friends and with family of friends.
In 2006, for instance, he bought his sister, Christina, a GMC Yukon. The next year, he gave a Lincoln Navigator to Tameka Taylor, the mother of his first child. The mother of Vick’s other two children, Kijafa Frink, got a Land Rover; her mother, a Cadillac Escalade.
Anyway, this is just yet another example of a guy who grew up with nothing, then suddenly had everything, and got taken advantage of in the process. Because let's be honest, Vick is not a smart guy. And there are plenty of people out there who are more than happy to take advantage of rich athletes who can't spell their own name. Hell, Vick's own family members were more or less taking advantage of him. He was the gravy train for a truckload of people, and even if he'd never been convicted for dogfighting, this circus would have caught up to him at some point. Like say a month after he retired.
In a lot of ways, it's a sad story about what money and success can do to a individual, and how much harm the people he surrounds himself with can do to him in the process.
But it's not the first time this has ever happened, and it certainly won't be the last time either.
Records show how Vick burned through fortune [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
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