Florida man wins $500,000 playing lotto numbers from fortune cookie
Homemade Fortune Cookies . (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, N.C. - A Florida man is $500,000 richer after winning the North Carolina lottery with numbers he got from a fortune cookie.
Ernesto Sorzana said he picked up his favorite Chinese take-out of fried rice and shrimp along with the fortune cookie. He then bought a lottery ticket from a 7-Eleven store in Huntersville, North Carolina based off the fortune cookie’s numbers.
The numbers matched all four white ball numbers plus the Powerball from the Feb. 27 drawing - winning him the jackpot.
"That was a good investment," Sorzano said in a news release.
Sorzano, who is moving to North Carolina from Estero, Florida, took home more than $353,000 after taxes and plans to buy a home in Huntersville.
"Unbelievable," Sorzano continued. "I’m just super happy that my dreams came true."
Lottery officials said no one won the state’s Powerball jackpot which then climbed to $90 million. The next drawing is set for Wednesday.
The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.
This story was reported from Los Angeles.