A lucky veteran won the jackpot after he turned in his fortune cookie numbers for a Mega Millions jackpot. The North Carolina veteran won a $4 million prize, simply from a seemingly ordinary restaurant meal.

The veteran, Gabrial Fierro, and his wife are regular customers at the said restaurant, a quaint little Asian cuisine place called the Red Bowl Asian Bistro in Charlotte, N.C. They visit the place almost once a week, as per the North Carolina Education Lottery but this time, their visit turned out to be unbelievably lucky.

pixel2013/Pixabay.Fierro used his fortune cookie numbers on a whim, and he hit the jackpot.

In a lter interview, Gabriel Fierro claimed that he played the numbers obtained through his fortune cookie ‘on a whim.’ The spur-of-the-moment decision made him an instant millionaire, as he won the largest prize in the history of Online Play in the North Carolina state.

Fierro had bought the lottery tickets using an app called Online Play and simply spent one dollar to make his ticket the Megaplier ticket. This ticket can multiply any win. He then ended up matching all the five white balls to win his one million dollars–and that was before the ‘4X Megaplier' hit! This sudden turn of luck ended up quadrupling his winnings, increasing his $1 million winnings to a whopping $4 million, the largest win to ever occur through Online Play.

Completely awestruck, Fierro couldn’t believe his luck when he came to know about the shocking, life-changing news. According to the newly-minted millionaire, he got an email the next morning and just stared at it in awe for a few moments to let it sink in. Ecstatic, he rushed to his wife to show her the electronic document and her first thought was that it must be an April Fool’s joke or a shady scam. However, when the reality finally sunk in, the veteran and his wife ran around their house in jubilation, screaming, ‘like banshees’ as he puts it succinctly.

Waldemar Brandt/Unsplash. Fierro’s winning quadrupled as he used the Megaplier ticket.

Soon after, Fierro collected his highly-coveted four million dollar prize. After tax withholdings, he was left with a sizeable $2,840,401. It was a life-changing experience for the veteran, who had retired as a disabled veteran after serving in the armed forces for 32 years and had also spent a significant time in the Iraq war. Fierro later said that he has plans to invest a huge chunk of his winnings in various financial endeavors.

sranson/Pixabay. The lucky winner was a disabled veteran, who had served the country for 32 years.

According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, in which they strived to find out the amount of luck a fortune cookie number can actually bring in, it was found that there is a complicated relationship between fortune cookie numbers and lottery winning numbers. It was later revealed that since no direct relation was found between the two, and it was sheer luck that the fortunate veteran won the $4 million lottery.