San Jose woman has fortune cookies to thank for $421,000 Mega Millions win!

Drawing Date: 3/4/2014

March 21, 2014 - Merces Goncalves’ husband always said “If you would save the money you spend on lottery tickets you could afford a trip to Portugal each year.” Goncalves’ dedication to picking the same five sets of lucky numbers for each Mega Millions drawing paid off as she matched five of six winning numbers in the March 4th drawing, winning $421,811! And now she can afford that trip to her home country of Portugal!

What makes this story even more interesting is how Goncalves picked those sets of five numbers. She used five different sets of lucky numbers she got from inside fortune cookies! And one of those fortunate sets of numbers matched 10, 29, 31, 35, and 45, just missing the Mega number by one digit! Goncalves’ ticket had the Mega number 9. The winning Mega number was 10. Had she got the Mega number, she would have won $240 million in the March 4th drawing. “I don’t care that I didn’t hit the big one” Goncalves said.

That lucky ticket was purchased at Rinconada Liquors, which is located at 1480 Pollard Rd. in Los Gatos (Santa Clara County).

The best part about the story is what Goncalves plans to do with the money. Goncalves and her husband Alvaro plan on going on the Hawaiian honeymoon they couldn’t afford when they got married 52 years ago! Goncalves, who is a retired homemaker, says she also plans on investing some of the money.