5 Brampton Friends Won $14.2 Million After Picking Lottery Numbers From A Fortune Cookie

Talk about lucky!
Lotto 6/49 Winners From Brampton Got The Winning Numbers From A Fortune Cookie
OLG | Handout
Staff Writer

A group of five friends in Brampton owe their greatest Christmas present ever to an unusual source — a fortune cookie.

The five Lotto 6/49 winners are a combined $14.2 million richer after striking gold on their latest ticket, which was purchased from a Rabba Fine Foods in Brampton.

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$14.2 million The lottery amount won

Gregorio Ballesteros, Ariel Serame, Eric Escolano, Henry Gyamfi, and Rey Pantilano Pilla are all co-workers from Brampton, and they have been playing the lottery together for eight years.

This time, they picked their numbers from a fortune cookie — and talk about good fortune.

Only Ballesteros collected the $14.2-million cheque due to COVID-19 precautions, and the ring-leader was also the first one to learn about the win.

He called his co-workers as soon as he discovered they'd won.

“No one believed me at first!” he told OLG.

They plan on using the money to invest, pay off bills and purchase property, according to OLG — with no word on whether or not they planned to buy a few more fortune cookies from wherever they found the first one. 

The OLG also publishes unclaimed lottery tickets on their website, where they say that someone in Mississauga is currently sitting on an unclaimed ticket worth $1 million.

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  • Cormac O'Brien
    Cormac O'Brien was an Associate Editor at Narcity Canada, covering all things exciting and trending about Canada. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Journalism from the University of Victoria, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the campus newspaper and was awarded the BCYNA Community News Scholarship for his writing. He was also the producer and co-host of Now On Narcity, Narcity's flagship podcast.

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