Illinois Man Facing Foreclosure Finds $4.8 Million Lottery Ticket In Cookie Jar

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 16, 2013 7:40PM

Talk about serendipity: 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 worth $4.85 million in a cookie jar.

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