Guy Wins $344.6M in Powerball, Thanks To A Fortune Cookie

• Charles W. Jackson Jr, 66, won $344 million in Powerball.
• The man from North Carolina shared he got the winning numbers from a fortune cookie.

Let’s face it. Most of us ignore those printed messages we get from fortune cookies.

However, one man from North Carolina just made headlines after winning hundreds of millions of dollars from Powerball – thanks to a humble fortune cookie.

66-year-old retiree Charles W. Jackson Jr will surely enjoy a comfortable life after winning $344.6 million in the lottery.

According to a People report, Jackson decided to “take the lump sum of $223 million, which comes to $158 million after taxes.”

In a news conference, Jackson said:

“I never expected to win, so I just got lucky.”

He further shared that it was his granddaughter who took home the fortune cookie after dining at a Vietnamese restaurant. The cookie’s paper had numbers on them and so Jackson thought it would be a good idea to bet on those figures.

When he realized he won a prize, he initially didn’t notice the last winning number and so he assumed he won a lower amount. Upon driving to claim the cash, it dawned on him that he won the grand prize as he checked his ticket again the following day.

“I didn’t know it until this morning. I didn’t see the last digit — I thought I had just won $50,000,” reflected Jackson. “After I hung up with [my wife], I jumped back in there and looked — and I said, ‘Dang, I got em all.’ “

Now he’s a certified multi-millionaire – because of a fortune cookie.

“You play to win — but you don’t ever expect to win. It still hasn’t come over me yet how much — all that money,” he said.

Still, he refuses to let all the money change who he is as a person.

“I don’t know what to do with it. I hope it don’t change me a lot,” Jackson admitted. “I’m still going to wear my jeans — maybe newer ones.”

The People feature likewise tells us that Jackson plans to share the money with “his brother, with whom he had a deal: whoever won the lottery would give the other $1 million.”

On top of that, he plans on making donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Wounded Warrior Project.