- He said he bought it 'on a whim,' that he never does that.
North Carolina retired Army veteran is now a multi-millionaire after winning with numbers he used from a fortune cookie. His name was in the drawing for the Mega Millions that happened on Jan. 25.
Gabriel Fierro, 60, cashed in his $3 lottery ticket for a staggering $4 million dollars in winnings. “I don’t usually play my fortune cookie numbers but I tried them on a whim,” Fierro said.
He used an online play option to buy his ticket and add an extra $1, making it a Megaplier ticket to multiply any winnings.
With the Megaplier hit, his original winnings of $1 were multiplied by four. His original ticket matched all five white balls, winning him the original $1 million that was then multiplied and totaled at $4 million in total. Cool!
“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.”
Once the family accepted their win, they began to celebrate.
“We started running around the house,” Fierro said, “screaming like a bunch of banshees.”
Even after all the nasty taxes from from federal and state withholdings, Fierro still went home with a nice $2.8 million dollar win.
After disability from his time in Iraq, Fierro started his retirement. He spent 32 years in the army and served as a master sergeant.
His is now looking forward to investing most of his winnings, but does want so get some smaller things.
“We are going to buy some champagne on the way home,” Fierro laughed. (Maybe he should buy another fortune cookie haha.)
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number is 1 in 302,575,350, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.
The Mega Millions game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Mega Millions actually had a winning ticket for the $421 million jackpot, but as of January 31st, no one had claimed their winnings!
The Chevron station located at 6061 Topanga Canyon Blvd in Woodland Hills was the gas station in California that sold the ticket and the winner will have the choice between receiving the jackpot in 30 graduated payments of 29 years or a lump sum payment of $289.5 million.
The numbers drawn Friday were 3, 16, 25, 44, 55 and the Mega number was 13. The drawing was the 28th since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.