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It’s quite common for co-workers to “pool” their cash when playing the lottery, in hopes of increasing their chances of winning the bulk of cash. It’s also quite common for disputes to arise if a winning ticket is amongst the “pool” of tickets purchased.
Hence the story of Merlande Wilson, the holder of ONE the THREE winning tickets sold in the $656 Million dollar jackpot…
“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The ‘winning’ ticket] wasn’t on the group plan.”
To her co-workers dismay, McDonald’s “winner’’ Wilson insists that she bought her one ticket separately outside of the pool and it just so happens that the ticket she bought alone is one of the three tickets nationwide that will split a record $656 million payout.
“I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket.”
Wilson, a single mother of seven, claims she has the ticket hidden for safekeeping but would present it to lottery officials later today. She also changed her tune a bit as her fast-food co-workers questioned her about the winning ticket.
“I don’t know if I won. Some of the numbers were familiar. I recognized some of [them],’’ she said. “I don’t know why’’ people are saying differently. “I’m going to go to the lottery office [today]. I bought some tickets separately.”
The two other tickets were sold in Illinois and Kansas, and Wilson reportedly holds the single Maryland ticket, which could net her an after-tax lump sum of $105 million, or $5.59 million a year for 26 years if she chooses an annuity.
Wilson’s co-workers only make about $7.50 an hour and are not happy about the notion that she could possibly be running off with their winnings.
“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!”
A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of a McDonald’s manager named Layla, who was part of the pool, said Wilson bought tickets for the group at the 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, where the winning ticket was sold.
The group’s tickets — along with a list of those who contributed to the pool — were left in an office safe at the burger joint, said the man, who gave only his first name, Allen, as he stood next to Layla. She declined to comment.
Then, late Friday, before the night’s drawing, the owner of the McDonald’s, Birul Desai, gave Wilson $5 to buy more tickets for the pool on her way home from work, and she went back to the 7-Eleven and bought them, Allen said.
Wilson took those tickets home with her, Allen said. READ MORE
Do you believe Wilson’s story about purchasing a 2nd ticket?
What would YOU do if this was your co-worker?
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ooooooh hell nawl!!! That’s what folks get. They should have made a copy of all the tix purchased by the job that way eveybody would hae access to the ticket numbers. When you trust one person to the hold the tix stuff like this is sure to happen.She just pulled the oldest trick in the book and for that she deserves a community beat down!! She’s gonna be like ZImmerman if she don’t split it with those co-workers…….."Dead Man Walking!!"
This isn’t surprising. But what folks who enter into these pools fail to realize is that once money is exchanged and they write stuff down, they can be taken to court and sued for the winnings. Just because the deal wasn’t made in front of a notary or a judge, means nothing. You exchanged money, wrote it down – you have to pay up and a court will see to it. Shameful. This is why you don’t pool w/ more than 3 people.
No I don’t believe her and who would. She has seven kids and worked at McDonald’s- of course she wants to keep it all. It’s wrong, she may want to keep a low profile.
And that is not a flattering picture of her, but I’m sure it showcases her characteristics
p.s. 37? clearly, she’s had a hard life.
Thats why u always make copies of the tickets before the drawing and distribute them to everybody so everybody knows what tkts belong to the group and everybody can see the numners
I get why she’d want to hoard the cash..
she HAS 7 KIDS! But she DOES need to do the honorable thing and split that money.. cuz that is EVIL. She’s DEFINITELY gonna get way more than she bargained for if she doesn’t get like Spike and Do the Right Thing.
I don’t believe the coworkers. They would have made her bring back the tickets b4 going home. They know what time it is. She ought to break them off a lil sumthing sumthing tho.
WOW!
Personally, I don’t believe the coworkers. If had the original tickets purchased in a safe at the place of work, I’m assuming they’d be smart enough to place the extra tickets they’re saying they made her buy after into the safe as well.
Goes to show people should create and sign agreement in these cases stating any tickets purchased and copied or locked and stored away are the ONLY tickets purchased by the group and divided amongst the group amongst said group upon winning. People never learn.
I wouldn’t split the money equally. I would definitely share the money with them, even if it was just 1 million for each worker in the pool. That won’t hurt her to give them each that amount. She knows they are all in a bad situation financially. That would be wrong for her not to give them anything.
NO…she ought to be a shame of herself…Greed!
Hell no I don’t believe it & they gonna catch hell trying to prove it too!!!!!
Greedy little piggy
money change you quck…
That is wrong as hell :-/ nothing good will come from her doing her coworkers like that
SMH! Well you should gotten copies of tickets/written agreement.Now jus words you say I guess we be hearing about this in court
that some straight bull!!!
wow!!
Karma is a BITCH!!! She will get hers!
@gerald this happened before & the co-workers won!!! They need to sue her…they will prevail!
wow thats cold! smh imagine what her co-workers are feeling like having to get up and go to work this morning while she planning how she gon spend all that money! she should at least give em a milli to split before she come up missing!
She already had this pre-meditated. God don’t like ugly. She’ll get hers
That’s why i will never buy tickets with other people! too many people lose their memory when money is involved!
Her behind is about to be sued!
Why were they giving five dollars anyways for one dollar tickets?
Her time will come , greed is an ugly thing…thats not a good way to begin her new life…god dont like that…smh
And how are you going to give someone money and not even know what numbers she got? That will probably be the call there
I have done pools at ny job before and when I’m in charge everyone who participate gets a copy of all the tickets they ate included in and when I’m not in charge of it but partipate I ask for the same a copy just so there won’t be any problem like this. I would be mad and sue her if she.had my pool money.
She not gone enjoy that money because she being dirty about it. The only way she gone be happy is if she actually did buy a separate ticket. Greed will cause your life to be unhappy and miserable. She beyond Wrong!!!
HELL NO !!! When I have been in office pools, we made copies of the tjc@ets for everyone so we know what our numbers were. Greed rears its ugly head, people have such nerve!! BUT I guess $218 million will give anybody the nerve to say KISS MY ASS !!
They probably lying. Trying to tie up her money.
thats some F-CKED-UP SH!T/
They better find a lawyer and sue! Once the case is filed they’ll freeze the money and she can’t spend it until the case is over.
thats cold…
she should understand that she won’t get far in life by doing this….KARMA
Selfish Biatch…
That is so selfish, is it really that bad to have to share all that money with 20 people.
see this is why i don’t participate in shit like this cause i’d be in jail right now! real talk
@paris ,…i agree…get a lawyer
Lisa I hope so!
She needs to slip with her McDonald co-workers.
HELLL NOOO!!!!
Beat that ass
Suleiman Osman Husein……youre a muslim! you aint supposed to be playing no lottery….thats gambling!!! no doubt the grief you have now over not getting any of that money, and the future grief you will have when you dont get any, is sufficient a punishment!
She doesn’t owe these folks not $1.00…and believe me…in office pools…esp..dealing with black folks..you better believe the tickets they paid for was in that office safe….The co-workers are the shaddy ones…and I’m straight happy for this lady…Hey…thats just how it goes sometime…she was allowed to buy tickets without them even if it was outside the pool….
I want my money
nope.. its some nigga shit and it will get her killed!
THIS IS FUNNY AS HELL!!!!! This won’t fly with Black people, they are going to shoot up this broad’s house!!!! LMAO
see its all good till somebody boil her rabbit!…she know she wrong..but thats what money will do to people
I’d sue her. They can check the ticket number of the losing tickets, and if the losing ticket numbers are in sequential order with the winning ticket number, I’m certain a judge would consider the winning ticket to be part of the pool. I saw an episode of “Dateline NBC” like this. In that particular case, the coworkers won their lawsuit. The only downside was that on appeal, the coworkers lost because their state didn’t have lottery (winning ticket purchased in another state).
wink wink ; )
Everyone is so quick to say she is lying, but all I see here is poor lottery pool handling. I was responsible for putting together lottery office pools before where tickets were bought in the pool as well as me buying my own, but there were guidelines and contribution cut off times. Meaning you had until lunch time of the day before the drawing to contribute. The tickets were purchased on my lunch break and I would return to the office and compile a excel sheet of all people who contributed and how much. I then also made photo copies of every single ticket purchased and each participant received a copy before leaving work that evening. That way there was no confusion. I personally feel like she did buy her own cause I used to also, but if they did give her more money after the fact to purchase more tickets and she accepted it then she’s wrong…but I think the other employees are lying..just my opinion.
The curse of the lotto will follow her if it’s determined that she is not telling the truth. The workers should have developed a contract with everyone’s signatures, copies of all Tix purchased, etc. If they sue her; then more than likely her monies will be frozen. It’s a shame that $$ changes everything. Hell that lady has 7 kids to feed! She said deuces and bout to get paid
If you have a lottery pool, make copies of the tickets and have everybody sign it. That way if you buy your own separately, you don’t have to share. But I think if it was me, I would share anyway. That’s a lot of money.
There was 15 of them..they would get $7 mil each
I’ll take that. LOL
Sasquatch won’t split the winnings, lolololololo. That is a very very unflatering pic of her. And they are going to have a hard time proving that but they do have something on there side, her own statement and where she bought the tickets. If they can show that 5 dollars of tickets where bought at said store and no other then that would go a long way to proving that it was their 5 dollars.
I believe her. I played a pool with my friends. We all put in $5, but at 10:30pm, I went out and purchased 5 tickets for myself. Just in case………….
It is her co-workers fault because they should have had the numbers after she purchased the tickets for them.
I’m sure they purchased separate tickets for themselves. They would be fools not too.
Another thing is each ticket has a time stamp on it. If legal issues arise, she can just show that the time stamp on the winning ticket is around the time when she purchased her separate ticket.
She is a lucky Soma ma ma. Wish it were me……………
Stupid!!
She don’t want to share, SAD
I SURE HOPE SHE DOSE NOT END UP IN THE NEWS AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME ON A TRAGIC NOTE I AGREE WITH WHAT THE LADY SAID ABOUT THE TIME STAMP, IF SHE CAN PROVE IT WAS ON HER GREAT. I THINK BECAUSE I WAS IN A POOL, AND I HAVE THAT MUCH MONEY I WOULD BREAK ALL 15 OFF A MILLION. PRAISE JESUS!
She looks older than me, and I’ll be 40 in 12 days. At my job, we have an agreement: if it’s your week to buy the tickets and you want to buy a private ticket, you MUST do it at a different store. If you buy them all at the same store, you can’t prove the winning ticket wasn’t part of the pool; if you have one ticket purchased at a separate store, then it’s obvious it’s NOT part of the pool.
She’s gonna have to share whether she bought that ticket separately or not because there is no clear line between her personal purchase and the pool. That other guy was just ordered to share his winnings under the same circumstances, therefore setting precedent. Smh. Stupidity or cheater–she might as well just give it up without the lawyer/court fees…
Wow, even if she bought the ticket separately, why wouldn’t she share with her fellow Micky D’s co-workers this time? Folk win the lottery and tell you to kiss their behind.She is going catch it fooling around with people’s emotions.With seven kids, you need to be doing right by people instead acting like I don’t know what you guys are talking about.Also, Ms. Wilson make sure you get appropriate shirts/clothing before heading outside, trying to make a come-up off people you work with and your breast about to pop out of that shirt…SMH
damn
Talk about blocking a blessing. Nothing good is going to come out of that if she doesn’t share. God don’t like ugly & she is definitely not cute. Yeah right, she bought a separate ticket….
That’s why I don’t do pools.
There is more to the story. The group tickets were bought and kept at the McDonald store safe. The manager gave her an "Additional" $5 on Friday and said buy more tickets for the pool. So she went and bought more tickets Friday and it is one of the Friday tickets she bought that won.
So here money is mixed in with the "pool" money and thus is impossible to separate. This has happened before and the court made the holder split the money which is probably what will happen with her.
I hope she gets struck by lightning or hit by a truck KARMA BITCH!!!