A lottery participant in Bitonto, southern Italy, narrowly avoided losing a €1m fortune after mistakenly discarding a winning ticket. The player had initially thrown the slip away at a local shop after being incorrectly informed that it was invalid.
The confusion arose because retail terminals display a non-payable message when a prize exceeds the store’s payout limit, rather than when a ticket is losing. The individual only recognized his error once family members confirmed that his regular numbers—2, 4, 8, 10, and 51—had been selected in the draw.
Roberto Nicola Toscano, director of the local waste management firm SANB, noted that the man contacted the company just in time. Because the recovery effort took place on a Sunday, the refuse truck had not yet offloaded its cargo at a landfill. Workers redirected the vehicle to a secure facility to begin a search.
The intensive two-day operation concluded on Tuesday morning when a staff member recovered the ticket from a damaged bag. Toscano described the outcome as a miracle. The winner has agreed to pay the expenses incurred during the search, and the sanitation crew even managed a small €50 win on a scratch card they purchased as a joke during the event.
