The Powerball is a popular US-based lottery game.
On the 30th of March, 2005, 110 second-prize winners were confirmed, sharing between them $19,400,000.
89 winners received $100,000 and, because they were 'Power Play' selections, 21 received $500,000.
Due to the amount of winners, it was suspected that fraud was in play, or that there was at least an error with the reporting. However, this was not the case.
It was discovered that a batch of fortune cookies by Wonton Food Inc. had fortunes with the numbers "22, 28, 32, 33, 39, 40", almost an exact match to the winning numbers except for 40, which was actually "42" in the winning selection.
After an investigation, it was deemed coincidence and the payouts were made because the numbers weren't exact, none of the Wonton Food employees had played the numbers, and the nearest state with Powerball was Connecticut.
The fortune on the cookie read: "All the preparation you've done will finally be paying off."