A Perth woman went from elation to deflation in a matter of minutes, after a racing windfall was stolen by a so-called friend on Facebook.

Chantelle, from Perth, placed a winning bet on Prince of Penzance for Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, at odds of 100-1.

The lucky punter, who watched the race from Ascot Racecourse in Perth, posted an overjoyed selfie after the race with the winning ticket – which raked in $825 from a $20 bet – and the text “winner winner chicken dinner”.

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But her bliss soon turned to defeat, when a connection on Facebook used the photo to scan the ticket and claim the bet.

“To the low life who is obviously my friend on Facebook and used my photo to claim our winnings. You’re a massive dick. You ruined my day,” Chantelle reportedly wrote on Facebook.

The money was gone just 15 minutes later when she went to the TAB to claim her winnings.

She told Triple M on Wednesday she had never put on a bet before and had wanted to share the win with her friends.

“When we found out we naturally took a bit of a selfie to show my friends,” she said.

“When Prince of Penzance’s name came up we were stoked, we were so happy.”

Police investigated the incident and had found the machine used to withdraw the money, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, and believed they would be able to locate the culprit.

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