Mirlande Wilson, it’s been nice meeting you. See you on a future season of The Celebrity Apprentice or Dancing With the Stars, perhaps?
Yes, our long regional nightmare about that winning ticket sold in Baltimore for a share of a $656 million jackpot in the Mega Millions game is finally over, Maryland Lottery officials announced. The ticket, one of three that contained all the winning numbers, was in fact purchased at the 7-Eleven store where Wilson claimed she bought hers, but the claimants could not be further from the crazypants display Wilson dragged us through last week.
Instead, the ticket was sold to a group of three friends who work at Maryland public schools—an elementary school teacher, a special-education teacher and an administrative worker. The winners, who beyond the job descriptions are choosing to remain anonymous, claimed their $218.6 million share of the jackpot yesterday.
“If it can’t be you, these are precisely the people you’d wish would win the lottery,” Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino said at a press conference, according to WTOP.
The three school employees, who presumably are the ones hiding behind the oversized novelty check, each pitched in $20 on the winning ticket. The other winners are in Kansas, where an anonymous person has claimed another third of the $656 million, and Illinois, where officials are still waiting for someone to come forward.
As for Wilson? Well, last night, NBC4’s Shomari Stone gave the McDonald’s employee who initially stepped forward saying that she—not she and her coworkers—possessed the winning ticket, one last chance when news broke that the prize had been claimed. Stone visited Wilson again last night and asked if she had found the ticket, which last week she said she lost. Wilson said she couldn’t say one way or the other.
But at least we won’t have to hear from her again after today.