Refuse collectors in Italy unearth €1m winning lottery stub from discarded waste

A life-changing €1 million ($1.15 million) lottery ticket was rescued from a trash bin by garbage workers in southern Italy, after its owner inadvertently discarded it, sparking a thorough search of a truckload of waste.

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The ticket's owner, a woman from Bitonto, had played her usual Saturday lottery numbers and checked the result at a local shop on Sunday, only to misinterpret the "non-payable" message on the lottery terminal as a sign that she had not won.

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According to reports, the woman threw the ticket away, only to later realise her mistake when a family member noticed that her numbers - 2, 4, 8, 10, and 51 - matched the winning combination.

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Roberto Nicola Toscano, administrator of waste management company SANB, explained that the woman played the same numbers every time, as they held sentimental value, being associated with a loved one.

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After the woman contacted SANB in a panic, the company tracked the waste collection vehicle, identified the correct truck, and stopped it before the refuse was processed, diverting it to a specialised facility to ensure a safe search.

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The search, which took an entire day, was a challenging task, with workers sorting through household waste in difficult conditions, but ultimately, the ticket was found "miraculously still in one piece", according to Toscano.

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Toscano described the search conditions as "anything but pleasant" and said the workers' efforts were crucial to the successful recovery of the ticket, with the woman bursting into tears upon being informed of the good news.

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The recovery was made possible by a combination of professionalism, organisation, and luck, with Toscano acknowledging that the outcome would not have been achievable without the dedication of the sanitation workers.

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As the recovery operation would normally be funded by taxpayers, since SANB is a public entity, the woman has promised to cover all the additional costs incurred during the search and rescue of her winning ticket.