(Trends Wide) — Why do you think they are called fortune cookies?
After his weekly meal at a Chinese restaurant, a North Carolina man used the numbers on his fortune cookie to play the lottery. And now he’s $4 million richer.
“I don’t normally play my fortune cookie numbers, but I tried them on a whim,” Gabriel Fierro, 60, of Cornelius, a disabled veteran who served 32 years in the Army, said in a Lottery statement. of Education of North Carolina.
Fierro and his wife had their weekly meal at the Red Bowl restaurant in Charlotte. He then used the numbers to buy a Mega Millions ticket online and added $1 to convert it to a Megaplier ticket. So when he matched all five white balls on January 18 to win $1 million, he quadrupled.
His $4 million prize became the largest win in North Carolina online gambling history, the lottery said.
“I got an email in the morning and I looked at it dumbfounded,” Fierro said. “I took it and showed it to my wife and she thought it was an April Fool’s joke or maybe a scam.”
Fierro received $2,840,401 after federal and state taxes.
This is not the first time that cookies have turned into fortunes for lottery players.
In 2019, a Maryland man won $100,000 after his fortune cookie said it was his lucky day.
In 2014, a New York woman won a $2 million jackpot using numbers from her fortune cookie.
And in 2005, 110 people across the country won about $100,000 each playing fortune cookie Powerball numbers. Lottery officials discovered that all the cookies came from a place that produces 4 million of them a day.
So… Where are you going to eat tonight?
