Illinois Man Finds 4.85 Million Dollar Lottery Ticket In His Cookie Jar
(Source) An Illinois man who has suffered through a string of setbacks the past couple years and was facing eviction on his home discovered a winning Illinois Lottery ticket in a cookie jar worth $4.85 million.
Ricardo Cerezo of Geneva, Ill. lost his daughter Savannah last year to a sudden illness. He and his wife were given a few months by a judge to find a new home after foreclosure proceedings went into effect on their current one in February. Cerezo’s wife was cleaning the kitchen when she asked him to take the lottery tickets they stashed in a glass cookie jar somewhere to scan for winning tickets or else she would throw them away.
Cerezo struck out on his first nine tickets, while the 10th yielded a $3 win—” this will pay for my Pepsi,” he said. The 11th ticket Cerezo scanned told him he needed to verify his claim. Checking the numbers from the Feb. 2 ticket Cerezo bought at a 7-Eleven in Aurora, he began to discover he hit a jackpot and that he bought it 10 days before his foreclosure hearing.
“As each number kept matching, the smile kept going higher and higher. And when I realized we had all six numbers, it was that shocking moment of , ‘Whoa, can this really be?’ ” he said in a news conference Wednesday. “Fast forward to the next day, Monday: Called in sick from work, went down into Chicago. It’s one of feelings where it’s okay if they fire me.”
The odds of matching all six numbers in a lottery drawing are one in 10,179,260. It was at the Illinois Lottery offices in Chicago where Cerezo discovered he won $4.85 million with the ticket. (the owner of the 7-Eleven will receive a check for one-tenth the amount.) Cerezo said he plans on paying off his mortgage, buying new cars for him and his wife, donating to their church and “organizations we feel strongly about” and to continue working.
“Faith tells us our best days are ahead of us,” he said
Here’s my question. How the hell do people ever have lottery tickets they don’t check? I never understood that for one second. When I buy a lottery ticket I literally hold it in my tiny little hand until the numbers are announced. I spend the entire day dreaming about what I would do with my winnings*. The last thing I would do is just casually leave a lottery ticket lying around. That’s absolutely psycho. And in a cookie jar no less? Who even has cookie jars anymore? I want to feel happy for this guy but I just can’t. If you buy a lottery ticket you need to think you’re going to win. You have to have that attitude. People who leave their ticket lying around should never win anything. As a man with irrational self confidence, it’s a slap directly in my face. When I buy a 2 dollar ticket I treat it like I’m trading 2 dollars for 10 million, not, oh I’ll just toss this in a pile of paper and check it weeks later. Fuck that.
*First thing I would do if I won the lottery is get a 3-4 wide lot in Lincoln Park. Mega Mansion with a huge side yard. Then get like 20 dogs and one of those tennis ball guns they had in American Gladiators. This
Some people dream of beaches, I just want to chill with a bunch of dogs and do hoodrat shit all day everyday.