Man finds winning lottery ticket in cookie jar, saves home from foreclosure

Ricardo Cerezo was cleaning out a cookie jar storing old lottery tickets when he discovered a winning one: it was worth $4.85 million.

"I can't believe I had $4.85 million in a cookie jar for over three months!" Cerezo said of his win. "I'm awestruck, this is unbelievable!"

Cerezo's wife wanted the kitchen cleaned up — the family was facing foreclosure on their Geneva, Illionois, home and had just months before they would be evicted — and told him to either check or toss their stash of old tickets.

"It was either take them, get them checked, or she was going to trash them that night," Cerezo told CBS Chicago.

So he took the tickets to a local gas station. One ticket won $10. The final ticket told Cerezo to file a claim.

"I thought I had probably won about $600," he said.

Cerezo double-checked the winning numbers on illinoislottery.com. His ticket matched all six numbers of the February 2nd Lotto drawing.

"When I realized we had all six numbers, it was like whoa, that shocking moment like can this really be. I called my son over and asked him to double check this. And he looks it through and goes, yup looks like a winner," Cerezo told WGN.

After taxes, Cerezo will take home $3.395 million.

"It couldn’t have happened at a better time. I just thought, 'This is how God works,'" he told the Beacon-News.

They will also be replacing their vehicles and giving some of their windfall to their church and favourite charities.

Cerezo and his wife plan to continue working.

"It is very important to us that we help others with this money," Cerezo said.

His advice for other lottery players?

"Play within your means, and when you buy a ticket believe that you can win...And check your old tickets!"