There is an old local superstition that you should take down the license plates of cars which were involved in accidents. Whatever for?

To buy the lottery.

A misfortune for one may be a windfall for another.

For certain punters, this urban tale pulled through.

Here’s what happened.

Marsiling Hawker Stall Caught Fire Causing One Casualty

Earlier this month, a hawker stall at Marsiling Hawker Centre unexpectedly caught fire. The hawker stall in question sold Teochew fish soup.

The fire started when the employee at the hawker stall was frying eggs. The heat from the oil had rushed upwards towards the air vent, causing the stall and the grease hood to catch fire.

As a result, over 40 people were evacuated. Thankfully, the two employees who were working in the stall managed to escape. One of them, however, was sent to the hospital for treatment.

The fire occurred at around 8.20 am in the morning. According to a scoop received by Lianhe Zaobao, black smoke was seen billowing from the hawker centre, and the firefighters alerted to the fire.

The hawkers had also tried to extinguish the fire using fire extinguishers.

Due to this fire, over 20 other hawker stalls were affected.

Punters Who Bet on the Hawker Stall’s Unit Number Struck the Lottery

While it was unfortunate that this fire occurred, causing property damage (which means a loss of money), it seems that the incident was lucky for others.

Some punters who bought the lottery using the hawker stall’s unit number struck the lottery.

One of the lucky winners was, in fact, the hawker who owned the Teochew fish soup stall, which caught fire. Ms Zhen (Hanyu pinyin), a 50-year-old, had bought 4D using unit number 01-41. This turned out to be one of the winning numbers in last Sunday’s results.

She won a consolation prize, bagging $600.

Speaking to Shin Min, Ms Zhen expressed that this was a small, fortunate matter which occurred to her. She was glad that the fire brought about some rewards for herself and others and considered the whole event to be a tiny lucky event against the backdrop of a larger, more significant misfortune.

The lucky hawker was not alone, as at least 50 others scored a prize using the same numbers. The winners included other hawkers and some customers of Marsiling Hawker Centre.

Perhaps for the other hawkers who won, it was the good karma that they accumulated when they extended a helping hand to Ms Zhen when the fire broke out.

Some of the other punters who had Lady Luck shining upon them were 64-year-old Ms Wang, who had made three separate bets on the stall number and ended up winning $3,000, and a 57-year-old salesperson who won $60 after placing a $1 bet.

Not bad at all.

If you were wondering if you could take the idea of recording car plate numbers of accident-tangled cars literally, it seems like you can. There have been instances where people who bought 4D using the car plate number of a car which got into an accident struck the lottery.

Take, for example, the instance in 2016. A lucky taxi driver bought the 4D lottery number 1333, inspired by the car plate number of a car which got into an accident (SHA1333H). He ended up winning the first prize.

What do you think? Is this merely a superstition, or could there be greater forces at work?