“Where, oh where’s my Mega Millions Lottery ticket?”

Here’s what we know thus far.

Three winning tickets were sold. One each in Kansas, Illinois & Maryland. Only one winner – the one in Kansas, whom also chose to remain anonymous – has come forward to claim their portion of the prize.

The winning Kansas ticket was purchased at Casey’s General Store No. 2668 at 940 N. Main Street in Ottawa, which has a population of little more than 6,000. The winner spent only $1 and let the computer pick a random number.

Director of the Maryland Lottery, Stephen Martino, said “The ticket has not been claimed. People need to look at their tickets.” He added that a Quick Pick ticket with the winning numbers was sold around 7:15PM on 30 March 2012 at the 7-Eleven on Liberty Avenue in Baltimore, and was the only ticket sold at that time. The drawing was less then four hours away when that ticket was sold. He also said the winner has until 28 September 2012 to claim the prize, and must do so in person. However, the winner is not required to make their identity public.

Maryland and Kansas allow winners to remain anonymous, but by law Illinois must publicly identify the winner to demonstrate that jackpots are being paid out, and winners have one year to claim winnings.

The Illinois winner has not yet been identified, and lottery officials there said the winning ticket in that state was purchased in the town of Red Bud, at the local MotoMart convenience store. The Illinois state lottery has already paid a $500,000 bonus to Moto Mart for selling the winning ticket.

Mr. Martino said that officials have examined surveillance video tape footage from the 7-Eleven which sold the winning ticket, but that there is a problem because the time stamp on the tape does not exactly match the time stamp of the lottery ticket machine, so they can’t be exactly sure who bought the ticket from that video.

He continues to urge people who purchased tickets at that store to double check their tickets again to ensure they don’t have the winning ticket.

Lottery officials have not said what would happen if the two other winning tickets are not produced, or if the solitary winner claimant would receive the entire jackpot. The most likely scenario is that any unclaimed money would be returned to each participating states.

California lottery officials have indicated that 29 tickets sold in that state had five matching numbers and were expected to pay off in the high hundreds of thousands. Nine of the 29 tickets were sold in Los Angeles County — five in Los Angeles, and one each in Montebello, Long Beach, Hawthorne, and El Monte. A five-number ticket was also sold in Anaheim. In California, lottery winnings are not taxable by the state.

Illinois state lottery officials said 12 second-place winning Mega Millions tickets were sold in that state, where those winners matched five numbers for a prize of $250,000. One second-place winner used the “Megaplier” feature to up their prize to $1 million. That ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven, 1750 W. Foster Ave. in Chicago.

Altogether, nearly $1.5 Billion worth of tickets were sold. The lump sum payoff would be $462 million, and around $347 million after federal tax withholding. Jackpot odds were 1 in 176 million, and with those odds, it would cost $176 million to purchase every possible number combination. Were one to have used such a strategy, however, winnings would $171 million less if your state also withholds taxes.

Now, for your “DUH!” moment.

A female McDonald’s employee in Maryland who claimed she was one of three winners to the biggest ever multi-state lottery jackpot in American history now claims she can’t find her winning ticket.

Speaking recently with NBC News, the Haitian immigrant mother of seven said, “I didn’t make up the story. I did not make up no story to get no attention.”

Right. Here’s your 15 minutes of fame. Now, move along.

Let’s see… for her to possess a “smart phone” would be incongruous.

Why?

Reckon it ever occurred to anyone to make a photo of themselves holding any such thing?

Naw.

Smart phones are for folks with at least two cents of sense.

Oh well.

It’s back to “wanna’ supersize that?”

At least she has a job.

Now, she can write a book… er, have someone ghost write one for her. Maybe she can cache in on (yes, I wrote CACHE purposely – you should laugh!) her seeming misfortune mixed with whatever level of stupidity.

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Self-proclaimed Mega Millions winner says she has misplaced the lucky ticket

By Maggie Fazeli Fard

Posted at 07:22 AM ET, 04/06/2012

Mirlande Wilson, the Maryland woman who claimed to have won the Mega Millions jackpot last week, now says she can’t find the winning ticket. (JOSE LUIS MAGANA - REUTERS)

The woman claiming to be the owner of a winning Mega Millions ticket sold in Maryland last week now says she has misplaced the ticket.

Mirlande Wilson, 37, who previously said she was hiding the lucky ticket in a Baltimore area McDonald’s where she works, told NBC 4 that she can’t find it.

The revelation came hours after Wilson held a news conference with her attorney to ask the media, eager to interview an apparent winner in the record-breaking $656 million Mega Millions jackpot, to leave her alone.

According to a Maryland State Lottery Agency spokesman, a legitimate winning ticket holder has not yet come forward in the state.

Last week’s lottery drawing resulted in a total of three winning tickets, including one sold at a 7-Eleven in Baltimore County. The winner has until Sept. 28 to claim the prize.

See the interview with Mirlande Wilson on NBC 4.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-buzz/post/self-proclaimed-mega-millions-winner-says-she-has-misplaced-the-lucky-ticket/2012/04/06/gIQAPjALzS_blog.html