Lottery ticket worth over RM4 million found in rubbish pile in Italy
Waste collectors in Italy's Puglia region spent more than a day sifting through refuse to recover a €1 million ticket accidentally thrown away by its winner.
ROME – A lottery ticket worth one million euros (RM4.72 million) that was tossed into a rubbish bin has been recovered in Italy after its panicked winner sought help from waste collection workers, the waste management company told AFP.
The instant-win ticket was miraculously still intact after workers combed through the rubbish inside their truck, said Roberto Nicola Toscano, an administrator of the SAMB company in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
Toscano said the woman went to a shop near her home on Sunday to check her ticket after the draw results were announced. The machine showed the ticket as not claimable, because small retailers are only allowed to pay out low-value lottery prizes.
The woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, did not realise she had actually won the top prize.
"The winner always chooses the same numbers because they are linked to someone she loves," Toscano said.
After returning home, a family member told her that her usual numbers had won the jackpot. They rushed back to the shop, only to find the ticket had been thrown into a bin and the rubbish already collected.
The woman then contacted Toscano.
"We traced the ticket's journey without much hope of finding it, because it had already been taken away by the collection truck," he told AFP.
Luck was on their side: they managed to identify the truck carrying the rubbish and stopped it. As the waste could contain hazardous material, the truck was taken to a specialised company with facilities to carry out the search safely.
Workers took more than a day, finding numerous tickets and scraps of lottery tickets along the way.
"Among the piles, we finally found the piece of the ticket we were looking for and miraculously it was still intact," Toscano said on Tuesday. When he informed the woman, she wept, overwhelmed with emotion, he added.
The rescue operation was not free, however. SAMB, based in Bitonto near Bari, is a public agency, meaning the cost of the search would fall on taxpayers.
Toscano said he asked the woman to sign an undertaking to cover all additional costs incurred during the operation — a gamble that clearly paid off. – AFP
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