Lottery ticket found in a cookie jar after being there for months has left a Chicago man very happy, and it couldn't have come at a better time as he was facing foreclosure on his Geneva, Ill., house .
Ricardo Cerezo, 44, had bought around 11 lottery tickets over the last few months and had been storing it in a cookie jar for a rainy day. After his wife suggested he take the tickets to the store to see if he had won anything, he came home with more than they had bargained for.
On Wednesday, the Illinois Lottery handed Cerezo a large commemorative check for $4.85 million - the result of matching all six numbers in the Feb. 2 Lotto drawing.
"I'm awestruck, this is unbelievable," he said.
When Cerezo had taken the tickets to be checked, the first seven weren't winners. However, the eighth proved to be lucky, when the message "File a claim" appeared after placing it under the scanner.
"I thought I had probably won about $600," Cerezo told the Geneva Patch.
"When I realized we had all six numbers, it was that shocking moment of 'Whoa, can this really be?' So I called my son over and asked him to double check this," Cerezo told Chicago's WGN-TV. "And he looked it through and goes, 'Yep, looks like a winner.'"
Cerezo said February holds special significance for him and his family because his daughter Savannah was born in that month. She died from a sudden illness last year.
"It is very important to us that we help others with this money," Cerezo said.
