Italian lottery ticket worth €1m found in trash

A €1 million lottery ticket was recovered from a garbage truck in Italy after the winner realised it had been thrown away and asked waste workers for help.

Roberto Nicola Toscano, administrator of the SANB waste management company in southern Puglia, said the anonymous winner had gone to a local shop on Sunday to check her instant-win ticket after the drawing. The machine indicated the ticket was non-payable because smaller retailers can redeem only small wins, and she did not realise she had won the jackpot.

Toscano said the woman regularly played numbers linked to a loved one. After she returned home, a family member told her the numbers had won. They went back to the shop, but the ticket had already been thrown away and the trash collected.

Workers traced the ticket to the right garbage truck and took the vehicle to a specialist company because of possible hazards in the waste. They searched for more than a day before finding the winning stub still in one piece, Toscano said.

SANB is a public agency in Bitonto, outside Bari. Toscano said he had the woman sign a promise to cover the extra costs of the search.