Bitonto, Italy – A €1m lottery ticket has been recovered from the rubbish in Italy after the frantic winner called on refuse collectors to help her retrieve it, according to the waste management company.
The instant win ticket was "miraculously still in one piece" after garbage workers combed through mounds of rubbish on their truck, said Roberto Nicola Toscano, the administrator of the SANB company in Italy's southern Puglia region.
Toscano explained how when the winner went on Sunday to check her ticket at her local shop after the draw, the machine indicated it was "non-payable". That was because smaller retailers can only redeem small wins.
But the woman – who remains anonymous – didn't realise she had won the big jackpot.
Key developments:
- Winning ticket: €1 million instant win lottery ticket
- Location: Puglia region, southern Italy
- Winner: Anonymous woman who played the same numbers regularly
- Mistake: Shop machine said "non-payable" because smaller retailers can only redeem small wins
- Discovery: Family member told her she had won after she returned home
- Recovery: Waste collectors searched for over a day through rubbish truck
- Condition: Ticket stub was "miraculously still in one piece"
- Emotional moment: Winner cried when told ticket was found
- Cost: Winner had to sign a promise to cover all additional search costs
- Numbers: Regular numbers associated with a loved one
"The winner always played the same numbers, as they were associated with a loved one," Toscano said.
When she returned home from the store, a family member told her that her regular numbers had won. They immediately ran back to the shop, only to discover the ticket had already been thrown away and the rubbish collected.
She called Toscano.
"We reconstructed the journey of the ticket, without much hope of finding it, as it had already been picked up by a garbage truck," Toscano said.
With a stroke of luck, however, they managed to identify the correct lorry and stopped it.
Given the risk posed by potentially dangerous material in the waste, they took the vehicle to a specialist company equipped to do the search, he said.
The workers searched for over a day, finding various tickets and ticket stubs.
"Among them was the stub we were looking for, which was miraculously still in one piece," Toscano said.
When he told the winner they had found it, "she cried with emotion", he said. "I would have hugged her, but we were on the phone."
The Cost of Recovery
However, averting the disaster came at a price. SANB, located in Bitonto outside Bari, is a public agency, meaning that the cost of the search would have been borne by taxpayers.
Toscano said the woman had to sign a promise to "cover all of the additional costs" incurred – a gamble that paid off.
A Stroke of Luck
The story has captured the imagination of Italy and beyond, with social media users celebrating the unlikely rescue of the winning ticket from certain destruction at a landfill.
For the anonymous winner, what began as a routine lottery check turned into a rollercoaster of emotions – from the disappointment of a "non-payable" message to the despair of realising she had thrown away a fortune, and finally the elation of recovery against all odds.
Her regular numbers, played in memory of a loved one, had finally delivered the jackpot she had been hoping for. The price of the recovery search, whatever it may be, will be a small fraction of the €1 million prize.
🎰 The Big Picture
A routine lottery check turned into a frantic race against time when an Italian woman realised she had thrown away a €1 million winning ticket. The anonymous winner, who played the same numbers associated with a loved one, was told by a shop machine that her ticket was "non-payable" – only to discover later that she had actually hit the jackpot. With the rubbish already collected, she called waste management company SANB, whose workers identified the correct garbage truck and spent over a day searching through mounds of waste. Miraculously, the ticket stub was found intact. The winner, who cried with emotion upon hearing the news, will have to cover the additional costs of the search – a small price to pay for a €1 million windfall.
What's Next
Key developments to watch:
- Prize collection: Winner to claim her €1 million prize
- Cost settlement: Final amount for the search costs
- Media coverage: Further attention to the incredible story
- Lottery awareness: Retailers may update their systems to avoid confusion
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