A Victorian couple’s reaction after winning a $4.25 million house has left Aussies gobsmacked, with people blasting them as “ungrateful” over their “embarrassing” response.
Kevin and Andrea Griffin were recently gifted the multimillion-dollar home in Gisborne — 54 kilometres north-west of Melbourne — which was featured on reality TV series The Block.
Melbourne business man Adrian Portelli reportedly paid $4.25 million for the property in November last year after it was passed at auction, before announcing to his followers that he would raffle it off as a prize through his business LMCT+.
The Griffins, who had been paying a $20 a month membership to LMCT+ for just over 12 months when they won the home, described the prize as “life changing”, to the Herald Sun.
But the situation has since soured, with the couple accusing Mr Portelli of “stealing” $100,000 worth of items from the home before handing it over to them.
This has led to the multi-millionaire releasing a video of the couple’s peculiar reaction when shown through the property for the first time, with Mr Portelli saying he has been “backed up against a wall” and forced to defend himself against their allegations.
The video starts with Ms Griffin asking, “Is that heated?” to which Mr Portelli responds that he doesn’t know.
“It would want to be,” Mr Griffin adds.
The home features a pool as part of a landscaped outdoor area.
Mr Portelli said that he wasn’t “too sure” but noted there were multiple bathtubs in the home, before offering to show the couple the rest of the house.
“Where did me wine fridge go? There was a wine fridge there,” Ms Griffin said upon entering one of the living areas.
“There’s a couple of lamps in there. We can sell those on eBay,” she is heard saying in another clip.
While looking into one of the rooms, Mr Griffin notes that they “forgot to give that ceiling its final coat”.
“I am going to pick the s**t out of this,” he said, adding that “someone is in for a hell of a lot of trouble”.
In another clip, the Victorian man is seen holding an extension cord and shaking his head, claiming: “They didn’t rectify that problem”.
“I have got all this time now to be an a**hole to whoever built this joint,” Mr Griffin noted.
Mr Portelli claimed these were some of the scenes they initially had to cut out of their final edit of the video in order to “make it seem like they were actually grateful to receive the prize”.
“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.
Mr Portelli was joined in the video by Gold Coast influencer, Troy ‘Candy’ Williams who noted there were “so many deserving people” out there that would have loved to win this kind of prize.
“People that are struggling to make ends meet weekly whether it’s just putting food on the table, paying the mortgage just trying to get through it,” he said.
The footage was shared to LMCT+’s social media pages and sparked uproar from followers.
“I’m actually gobsmacked watching the handover video …. that was enough for me,” one person wrote.
Another person slammed their reaction as “un-Australian”, noting there were so many people “doing it tough” who can’t even get their hands on a rental property, let alone afford a home loan.
“Imagine winning a fully furnished home in this climate and being this much of a brat about it️. So ungrateful it’s embarrassing,” another said.
The response from Mr Portelli comes after the Griffins accused him of removing more than $100,000 worth of items from the home before handing over the property.
CCTV reportedly taken before the property was handed to the couple, shows Mr Portelli and a group of men removing items from the home, including wine, kitchen appliances, a toolbox, a meat smoker and a treadmill.
Ms Griffin told the Herald Sun she “couldn’t believe it” when they uncovered the footage.
“We were just like, what the hell? Why has he done this?” she said.
Her husband told the publication that if he had known valuable items were going to be taken from the property, then he would have opted to take the $3m cash that was offered as an alternative prize by Mr Portelli.
“If I’d known back then what I know now; all the headache and the heartache that’s gone with it,” he said.
However, Mr Portelli has said that the items that were taken from the home were not included in the terms and conditions of the giveaway.
“The Block contestants do receive many items from sponsors that aren’t included. So in the in the shed there was a lot of items like a treadmill, there was the wine that contestants won, there was toolboxes, etc,” he explained.
“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.”
He said that he did take some items from the home, but reiterated they were never things that were included in the terms and conditions.
Mr Portelli said it was up to him to decide what he did with the items that were removed, adding, “Who bloody cares?”
He also shared an itemised list of dozens of items the Griffins are allegedly claiming were removed from the property.
Along with the bigger ticket items already mentioned, the list also includes things like candles, books, towels, lotion, wooden spoons, gumboots, dog bed and dog food.
All of these items allegedly top $100,000.
In light of all this, Mr Portelli announced a “final twist” in the saga, announcing a $1 giveaway on all the items they removed from the house.
“Because we want it to go to someone that is going to be grateful and deserving,” he said, adding all 100 per cent of the proceeds from the giveaway would be donated to Australians affected by homelessness.
“Because we’re discussing how many people out there will just be grateful to have a roof over their head, let alone a $4.3 million furnished home mortgage free,” he said.
“So what better way to get you guys involved. We are going to get rid of this, someone’s going to win it for $1 and all the proceeds are going to go towards changing people’s life who will be grateful just to have a better night.”