A veteran in North Carolina is $4 million richer after winning a Mega Millions jackpot by using numbers from a fortune cookie.
According to NC Education Lottery, Gabriel Fierro and his wife were eating at the Red Bowl Asian Bistro in Charlotte, as they did every week when he decided to use the fortune cookie numbers "on a whim" to play in last Tuesday's drawing.
The lottery explained that Fierro bought his ticket using Online Play. He then made it a Megaplier ticket, which multiplies any win, by adding $1.
He won $1 million by matching all five white balls, which then ballooned to $4 million by hitting the "4X Megaplier."
Fierro's win is the most significant win in the history of Online Play in the state.
"I got an email in the morning, and I just stared 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.”
The retired master sergeant, who spent 32 years with the Army, couldn't believe his luck.
“We started running around the house screaming like a bunch of banshees," Fierro said.