Maryland Mega Millions Ticket Claimed

In a press conference Tuesday morning, Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino confirmed that the winning ticket from Maryland in the record $656 million Mega Millions has come forward. Fox New carried the press conference live in which Martino also confirmed that it was claimed by one of three co-workers, two woman and a man, who each spent $20 and by all intents will share the money between them. Although they intend to remain anonymous, he did confirm that they are employed in a local school system, not a local McDonald's Restaurant.

This puts to rest the controversy that has raged since a couple of days after the record draw when a Maryland woman who worked at a McDonald's claimed to hold the ticket. She set off the controversy when she said she had no plans to share her earnings with co-workers who said they always pooled their cash for tickets.

“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. The ‘winning’ ticket wasn’t on the group plan,” Mirlande Wilson, 37, told The New York Post a couple of days after the drawing. However, despite hiring an attorney and participating in a bizarre press conference, Wilson never actually produced the ticket.

But not everybody was convinced that she was the true winner all along.

Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett told USA Today, "I never expected, based on that story, that this is the actual winner. We really won't believe anybody till they walk in with a ticket and the ticket is valid — and they have identification."