Mega Millions ‘winner’ a loser of winning ticket

Imagine the joy of winning millions in the lottery.

Mirlande Wilson, center, will be able to afford even fancier hats if she finds the 'misplaced' winning Mega Millions ticket. (AP Photo)

Now imagine losing that winning ticket.

Now imagine lying about everything to any reporter who will listen.

That would seem to be the case of alleged Mega Millions winner Mirlande Wilson, 37, of Maryland, who’s claimed to have won a third of the world record $656 million lottery jackpot.

As you’ve doubtless read before, Wilson refused to share her presumptive millions with her McDonald’s co-workers, whom she had purchased tickets with in a pool.

Wilson, a Haitian immigrant and mother of seven, quit her fast-food gig by calling in to tell her former friends she was a millionaire and would not be sharing because she purchased the winning ticket separately from the office pool.

Today, NBC News reports Wilson has “misplaced” the ticket.

When asked if she was a teller of tall tales, Wilson told NBC “I did not make up no story to get no attention.”

Even her own attorney has never seen the alleged winning ticket, which makes me wonder about his mental state as much as his client’s.

So far, winners in  Kansas and Illinois have yet to step forward. Baltimore must be full of tricksters — another man there claimed to have been the Maryland winner, but it was a cruel joke that made his mother cry instead of laugh.

Maryland lottery officials are urging people who bought tickets to check their numbers again to make sure they don’t have the winner. The fear is that the real winner may have thrown out a ticket worth millions because they thought someone else had already won the big prize.