Elgin Woman Faces Charges For Trying To Scam Mega Millions Lottery
Updated 05/01/12 - 8:57 p.m.
ELGIN (CBS) -- An Elgin woman faces more charges for allegedly trying to cash an altered lottery ticket worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Authorities say 28-year-old Leandria Williams of Elgin walked into the Des Plaines lottery claims office trying to claim part of the record $656 million Mega Million drawing.
As CBS 2's Brad Edwards reports, at first it appeared Williams had the correct documents for buying a winning ticket on the Internet, until the Illinois Lottery determined none of the three winning tickets was sold in the Chicago area.
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Lottery logs showed Williams actually bought the ticket online at 10:08 p.m. March 30, eight minutes after the actual drawing, and had doctored her receipt.
"This definitely is one of those ones that takes the cake as far as where criminals think that people on the other end of it are just so outrageously stupid," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said. "This is one where I couldn't imagine my 4-year-old coming to me and trying to sell this one."
He said it was unbelievable that Williams thought she could simply change the time printed on her ticket and fool officials into giving her a share of the winning jackpot, especially for the biggest Mega Millions jackpot in history.
She tried to claim a share of the prize after buying her ticket with the winning numbers from the record jackpot, then changing the timestamp on her ticket. Williams allegedly provided a falsified email to Lottery officials, and filled out official forms, but officials caught on fast.
"Sherlock Holmes was not called out of retirement for this one," Dart said.
Felony theft and forgery charges have been added to wire fraud charges that were filed a week ago.
After a laugh when a reporter arrived at Williams' home, those inside had no comment on the case.
It appears to be the first case of a Lottery ticket buyer committing an act of fraud after buying a ticket online. Internet sales of Illinois Lottery tickets began in late March.
