Leandria Williams, Elgin Woman, Allegedly Forged 'Winning' Mega Millions Ticket (VIDEO)

Woman Forged Winning Mega Millions Ticket, Police Say

A suburban Chicago woman faces a bevy of charges after allegedly forging a Mega Millions ticket, in an attempt to pass it off as a multi-million dollar jackpot winner.

Leandria Williams, 28, of Elgin, Ill., was charged last week with falsifying documents in the incident and has been further charged with attempted theft and forgery, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to the Associated Press, Williams came to the Illinois Department of Lottery's Des Plaines, Ill. office with a ticket that she had purchased online a matter of minutes after the March 30 Mega Millions drawing. She had subsequently altered the ticket's timestamp in order to make it appear that she'd won a share of the $656 million jackpot.

While the ticket did, indeed, have the jackpot-winning numbers, state records showed that none of the three such tickets sold nationwide came from the Chicago area. The nearest jackpot-winning ticket was sold downstate in Red Bud, Ill. The scam is the first of its kind to occur in Illinois, according to the Tribune.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart described the incident as a case "where criminals think that people on the other end of it are just so outrageously stupid," CBS Chicago reports.

"This is one where I couldn’t imagine my 4-year-old coming to me and trying to sell this one," Dart told CBS of Williams' attempt to pass herself off as a jackpot winner.

Williams was arrested April 16 and released on $10,000 bail on April 18.

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