A fortune cookie, according to a North Carolina man, provided him with the lucky numbers that won him a $4 million prize in a Mega Millions drawing.
The 60-year-old man, Gabriel Fierro, of Cornelius, informed North Carolina Education Lottery officials that he bought his Mega Millions ticket online and used the numbers from a fortune cookie that he had gotten while eating with his wife at the Red Bowl Asian Bistro in Charlotte on Tuesday.
He said, “I don’t usually play my fortune cookie numbers, but I tried them on a whim.”
Fierro’s ticket matched all five white balls in the drawing, winning a $1 million prize that was quadrupled when the 4X Megaplier ball was drawn, bringing the total prize to $4 million.
Gabriel said, “I got an email in the morning and I just stared at it dumbfounded. I took it and showed it to my wife and she thought it was an April Fool’s joke or maybe a scam.”
According to Fierro, the shock subsided and everyone became excited.
“We started running around the house, screaming like a bunch of banshees,” he said.
Fierro said he planned to invest most of his prize money, although he did have one ‘tiny buy’ in mind. “We are going to buy some champagne on the way home,” he said.
