This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

It was the night of March 30th, 2005, and the Powerball Jackpot was $25 million.

On TV, the white ping pong balls rolled out

one by one as the host announced the winning numbers.

22, 28, 32, 33, 39, and your powerball is 42.

42.

That's producer Avery Truffelman.

And there was a winner in Tennessee.

But the way that Powerball drawings work,

there are usually some second place winners who guess all of the numbers

except for the very last one. On average there are three or four of these

players. But on March 30th 2005 there were 110 second place winners.

Was there a computer glitch that played all the same number?

Like has someone compromised a system.

This is journalist Jennifer 8 Lee.

Lottery officials are panicked, you know, because like something is up.

So the next day as the winners around the United States came to collect, the Powerball officials

asked them.

So where did you get your number from?

And each of them had the same answer. They had gotten

their numbers from a fortune cookie. They were different cookies in different

states but they all had the same fortune and the same lucky numbers.

...