A man who played the lottery using numbers from a fortune cookie “on a whim” won $4 million, officials announced Friday.
Gabriel Fierro, a 60-year-old disabled combat veteran who living in Cornelius, North Carolina, played the numbers from the fortune cookie he got while eating at Red Bowl Asian Bistro in Charlotte, wrote the North Carolina Education Lottery in a statement. Fierro reportedly served in Iraq for decades.
He decided to purchase the Mega Millions ticket online and added $1 to make it a Megaplier ticket, which would multiply his win, according to the statement.
He told lottery officials he doesn’t usually play his fortune cookie numbers but “tried them on a whim.”
Fierro learned the next morning that he matched all five of the white balls and received the 4X Megaplier, resulting in the $4 million win.
“I got an email in the morning and I just stared at it dumbfounded,” Fierro told lottery officials. “I took it and showed it to my wife and she thought it was an April Fool’s joke or maybe a scam.”
He said when he and his wife realized they won the lottery, they “started running around the house” while “screaming like a bunch of banshees.”
After tax withholdings, he took home $2,840,401 and plans to invest most of the winnings, according to the lottery.
But they had one celebratory purchase to make first.
“We are going to buy some champagne on the way home,” Fierro said in the statement.
Newsweek reached out to the lottery for further comment. This story will be updated…
