A disabled US Army Iraqi war veteran in North Carolina has won USD 4 million after playing the lottery with numbers that he found in a fortune cookie.
The lucky winner of the USD 4 million (GBP 2.97 million) prize has been named by the North Carolina State Lottery as Gabriel Fierro, 60, of Cornelius, a suburban town located along Lake Norman in northern Mecklenburg County, in the state of North Carolina, in the United States.
The retired sergeant, who spent 32 years in the army, according to the North Carolina State Lottery, “took the numbers from his fortune cookie and used them in Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing, turning a USD 3 ticket into a USD 4 million prize” on 11th January.
Fierro said that the fortune cookie had come from the Red Bowl restaurant in the city of Charlotte, where he eats about once a week with his wife.
He is quoted by the North Carolina State Lottery as saying: “I don’t usually play my fortune cookie numbers but I tried them on a whim.”
The North Carolina State Lottery said: “Fierro bought his lucky Mega Millions ticket using Online Play and added USD 1 to make it a Megaplier ticket to multiply any win. He matched all five white balls to win USD 1 million, and then the prize quadrupled to USD 4 million when the 4X Megaplier hit. His USD 4 million prize became the largest win in the history of Online Play in North Carolina.”
Fierro said: “I got an email in the morning and I just stared at it dumbfounded.”
He added: “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 that after the win sank in, they “started running around the house screaming like a bunch of banshees”.
The state lottery said that Fierro “retired as a disabled combat veteran after spending time in Iraq”.
It added: “He arrived at lottery headquarters on Thursday to collect his prize and, after federal and state tax withholdings, took home USD 2,840,401” (GBP 2.11 million).
The lucky winner reportedly said that he plans to invest most of his winnings, but he jokingly added that he was planning to “buy some champagne on the way home”.
