A MCDONALD'S employee has been sued after she allegedly tried to scam her co-workers out of a $105million lottery jackpot.
Mirlande Wilson claimed she bought the victorious Mega Millions ticket in 2012 at a 7-Eleven near the restaurant where she worked outside of Baltimore, Maryland.
Mirlande Wilson was accused of trying to scam her co-workers out of their share of a $105million lottery jackpotCredit: ReutersWhen it was time to cash in the ticket, Wilson was never able to produce it for lottery officialsCredit: NBCIt was one of three winning tickets worth $105million, the New York Post reported.
The $105m was part of a record $656m payout.
Wilson was part of a lottery pool with 14 other employees at her restaurant.
Winning Set For Life numbers for Monday January 2 £10k a month jackpotThey all pitched in $5 to participate in the Mega Millions drawing.
But Wilson claimed she didn't buy the winning ticket with funds from this pool.
"We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself," she told the Post.
"I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket."
Wilson's co-workers had trouble believing this, which is why they eventually filed a lawsuit against her.
"She can’t do this to us!" Suleiman Osman Husein, a shift manager at the McDonald's, told the Post.
"We each paid $5. She took everybody’s money!"
But Wilson eventually claimed she had misplaced the winning ticket.
Around that time, three other Maryland residents came forward to lottery officials with it.
"I don’t know who lied. I’m not the liar!" Wilson told the Post in a follow-up report.
I'm a lotto expert - here's the draw you should enter if you want to win bigShe also provided the outlet with text messages between her and one of her co-workers in the pool.
"We all know that you have the winning ticket . . . you cannot steal it," the fellow McDonald's employee wrote.
"I don’t have it. If I do, we’re going to share it," Wilson replied.
Later that year, the co-workers filed a lawsuit against Wilson claiming she handed the ticket off to a smaller group so she wouldn't have to split the winnings with so many people, the Daily Mail reported.
In the suit, Wilson's former live-in boyfriend said she told him about the scheme.
It's not clear what the outcome was.
If she did in fact buy the winning ticket, Wilson's case would be strikingly similar to that of Americo Lopes.
The New Jersey construction worker was sued after he tried to scam his co-workers out of their share of a $24million jackpot.