Woman Recovers 1 Million Euro Lottery Ticket Thrown in Trash

A woman in Italy experienced a terrifying ordeal when she discovered that the lottery ticket she had discarded was actually a 1 million euro winner. The incident, which occurred in the Puglia region of southern Italy, led to a high-stakes race against time involving sanitation workers.

The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, had purchased a lottery ticket with numbers that held personal significance. Upon checking the ticket at a local store on Sunday, August 2nd, she received a "non-payable" message, leading her to believe she had won nothing. Unbeknownst to her, the ticket was indeed the grand prize winner, but small shops are not authorized to validate such large sums.

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We retraced the ticket's route, without much hope of finding it, as it had already been picked up by a garbage truck.

Tragedy nearly struck when a family member informed her that her numbers had won. Upon returning to the store, she learned the devastating news: the ticket had already been thrown away, and the trash had been collected. In desperation, she contacted SANB, the public sanitation operator in the Bitonto area.

Roberto Nicola Toscano, the administrator for SANB, recounted the challenging recovery operation. "We retraced the ticket's route, without much hope of finding it, as it had already been picked up by a garbage truck," he said. The affected garbage truck was identified and stopped before the waste was processed. The search for the ticket took over a day, with workers meticulously sifting through tons of refuse at a specialized facility. Miraculously, amidst numerous other tickets and fragments, the winning ticket was found, still intact.

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She cried with emotion. I would have hugged her, but I was on the phone.