A person holds a slew scratch-off lotto tickets on January 3, 2013 in Paris.
William Johnson from Southwick, Mass. wasn’t expecting much when he cracked open a fortune cookie last week after finishing dinner with his wife. “You will soon come into a lot of gold,” the slip of paper read.
While most of us would be inclined to dismiss the prediction, Johnson decided to do just the opposite. The following day, feeling lucky, Johnson bought a $10 Massachusetts Millionaire Mania scratch-off ticket and promptly forgot about it.
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A few days later he encountered the scratch-off ticket again and decided to take his chances. Fortunately, in this little twist, it turns out Johnson had hit the $1 million jackpot.
Instead of collecting the money over time, Johnson and his wife have decided to take the lump sum payout of $650,000 on Monday. The couple is entertaining the thought of buying a lake house, but hasn’t yet fully decided on what they will do with the money. The store in Agawam where Johnson bought his ticket will receive a $10,000 commission on the sale.
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According to the lottery’s website, the actual odds for winning the scratch-off game are about 1 in 3.5 million.