U.S. Army Veteran from Cornelius Won $4 million

A retired U.S. Army Veteran from Cornelius won $4 million playing the lottery after using numbers from a fortune cookie he got at a Charlotte restaurant, lottery officials announced Friday. Fierro served 32 years in the Army and retired as a master sergeant.

He said the fortune cookie came from the Red Bowl Asian Bistro off Mount Holly-Huntersville Road in Charlotte. Fierro eats at the restaurant with his wife about once a week.  Fierro bought his Mega Millions ticket using Online Play and added $1 to make it a Megaplier ticket to multiply any win.

He matched all five white balls to win $1 million and the prize quadrupled to $4 million when the 4X Megaplier hit. His $4 million prizes became the largest win in the history of Online Play in North Carolina. The Army Veteran said that he received an email in the morning, and he just stared at it dumbfounded. He took it and showed it to my wife, and she thought it was an April Fool’s joke or maybe a scam.

After the win sunk in, the celebration began. He said that they started running around the house and screaming like a bunch of banshees. Fierro, 60, is retired as a disabled combat Veteran after serving in Iraq. He went to the lottery headquarters on Thursday to collect his prize. He took home $2,840,401 after federal and state taxes. He said he planned to invest most of that money and had one small purchase in mind. Fierro said that they are going to buy some champagne on the way home. Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot climbed to $376 million.