Italian Woman Throws a €1 Million Lottery Ticket in the Trash

A woman in Italy came close to losing a €1 million prize from a lottery ticket. Believing the ticket was a loser, she accidentally threw it in the trash. However, after several hours of searching, sanitation workers found the valuable ticket and returned it to her.

The incident occurred in the city of Bitonto. When the woman had the lottery ticket checked at a store, she was told that it was “not payable.” She mistakenly understood this to mean that the ticket had not won anything.

In fact, this message is displayed when a regular store is unable to pay out large prizes on its premises.

After returning home, the woman told her family that the numbers she regularly chooses—2, 4, 8, 10 and 51—had won her a prize of one million euros. After clarifying the lottery’s payout procedure, she immediately returned to the store.

By then, however, the ticket had already been thrown away and taken by a sanitation truck.

Million-euro ticket searched for among the trash

The woman contacted the sanitation service and asked for help. Workers identified the vehicle that had collected the waste and stopped it. The waste was then taken to a designated site, where the search for the ticket began.

It was reported that the woman had to sign a written agreement to cover any additional expenses arising during the search.

Sanitation workers searched through the waste for more than 24 hours. Finally, the lucky lottery ticket was found undamaged.

When the woman was told that the valuable paper had been returned to her, she could not hold back her tears of joy. Thus, the ticket that had been thrown in the trash because of a simple misunderstanding was found, and the woman’s €1 million prize was saved.