Crime & Safety
Police: Woman Attempted to Claim Jackpot With Fake Lottery Ticket
The following arrest information was supplied by the Cook County Sheriff's Department. It does not indicate a conviction.
An Elgin woman has been indicted on felony charges of attempted theft and forgery after attempting to claim lottery winnings with fraudulent documentation at , Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart’s office announced on Tuesday.
Police stated Leandria Williams, 28, presented falsified documents with a winning ticket for the Mega Millions that was drawn on March 30, worth $656 million.
Earlier:
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Although at first glance it appeared that Williams had the correct documents needed to claim the prize, the Illinois Department of Lottery stated to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office that according to their system, there were 3 winners for the Mega Millions, and none were from the Chicago area, police stated.
Lottery logs produced from Northstar Lottery Group, a company affiliated with the Illinois Department of Lottery, showed the receipt for Williams’ purchased ticket was actually produced on March 30 at 10:08 p.m., which was eight minutes after the actual Mega Million numbers were drawn.
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Police stated, since Illinois was the first state to sell individual Lottery tickets online last month, this was the first arrest of its kind where a user attempted to game the system.
Williams’ next court date is set for May 9 at the Criminal Courthouse, 2600 S. California in Chicago.
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