North Carolina Man Wins Big Lottery Prize Thanks To Fortune Cookie Warning

A craving for Chinese cuisine ultimately led to a man in North Carolina scoring a massive lottery prize after he discovered an inspiring message inside his fortune cookie.

John Carter , of Trinity, told lottery officials a leading warning he found hidden inside a fortune cookie after dinner led him to try his luck playing the lottery, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery .

"We had Chinese food last night and we got a fortune cookie that said, 'Don't miss out on your chance to win big,'" he said. "I was thinking the fortune cookie was a sign. It had to be fate."

The Randolph County man took the hint seriously and purchased a $5 Pot of Gold scratch-off ticket from the Hillsville Country Mart on Hillsville Road. He didn't even wait until he got outside to start scratching the ticket and quickly learned he won the game's final top prize of $200,000.

"I started seeing zero, zero, zero," he recalled. "I thought, 'This has got to be a dream .'"

Carter claimed his prize at lottery headquarters on Thursday (August 1), taking home a total of $143,001 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. According to lottery officials, he plans to use his new winnings to pay bills and buy a fishing boat.