Syndicate furious at refusal to share ‘win’

A McDonald’s employee claims she holds a winning ticket from the Mega Millions jackpot worth $640m (€480m) — and is refusing to share her winnings with her syndicate colleagues.

Workers at the fast-food outlet in Maryland formed a syndicate and pooled their cash for tickets. They reacted with fury as their colleague claimed she won with a separate ticket she bought for herself.

With doubt circulating last night over whether the woman even has all the numbers drawn, The New York Post reported that McDonald’s employee Mirlande Wilson holds the winning ticket. The newspaper said that Wilson, a Haitian immigrant living in a rundown neighbourhood, planned to contact lottery officials last night.

Maryland Lottery officials said no one in the state has contacted them about a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket.

Spokeswoman Carole Everett said the ticket, one of three winning tickets purchased for the record-breaking $640m prize, had yet to be claimed.

Lottery officials say a winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven store in Milford Mill. The other two were sold in Illinois and Kansas.

“I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket,” the single mother of seven, who is also engaged, said.

The winnings would amount to an after-tax lump sum of $105m, or $5.59m a year for 26 years.

Wilson’s co-workers — earning around $7.50 an hour — were furious when it emerged their co-worker was claiming the winnings as her own.

“She can’t do this to us” said Suleiman Osman Husein, a shift manager and one of 15 members in the pool.

“We each paid $5. She took everybody’s money.”

Another employee confirmed Wilson bought tickets for the group at the 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, where the winning ticket was sold.

Wilson insisted she bought extra tickets out of her own money and even called her co-workers expecting they would be celebrating her windfall.

She rang colleagues, crying: “I won! I won!

But they were far from a celebratory mood.

One unnamed employee told how he ran to Wilson’s home and banged on her door for 20 minutes until she finally answered.

Confronting her about her sole claim to the ticket he warned her: “These people are going to kill you. It’s not worth your life.”

She allegedly answered: “All right, all right, I’ll share, but I can’t find the ticket right now.”

But clerks at the store where the ticket was bought were dubious that Wilson had the winner, and believed the person with the golden ticket was actually a man.

Birul Desai, owner of the McDonald’s branch, said he also doubted Ms Wilson’s claims. He added: “It’s all bullshit if you ask me. It’s speculation.”

Americans spent nearly $1.5bn (£936m) in the run up to the draw — the equivalent of $5 for every man, woman and child in the country.

The Wilson case has similarities to that of a man who claimed he won $24m.

Americo Lopes was part of a New Jersey lottery syndicate but claimed the prize for himself.

The case was disputed in court last month.

Lopes was ordered by a jury to share the prize with his construction colleagues.