In brief
An anonymous Bitonto lottery player thought he had lost his €1m winning ticket after a shop’s “non‑payable” notice. Only when family noticed his favourite numbers were drawn did he realise it was tossed away in a bin. Waste company SANB, led by Roberto Nicola Toscano, mobilised lorry crews to locate the discarded ticket. After a two‑day search in a mountain of waste, the intact slip was found, giving the player a sudden fortune. The recovery cost will be borne by the winner as per his declaration, while the workers celebrated with a celebratory scratch‑card win.
A €1m Lottery Ticket Rescued from the Trash in Italy
In the southern Italian town of Bitonto, a lottery ticket that should have flown to a jackpot instead found itself in a trash bin. The player, who had originally dismissed the ticket as “non‑payable,” later discovered that the numbers were massive winners.
According to waste‑company director Roberto Nicola Toscano, the incident happened when a shop is unable to pay out a prize that exceeds a certain limit, causing the slip to be automatically discarded. The unlucky customer was initially certain that no prize could exist.
The twist came when the player’s family noticed that his favourite numbers—2, 4, 8, 10 and 51—had already been drawn. They urged the player to re‑check his ticket, realizing it had been mistakenly tossed away.
Toscano and a team of waste collectors immediately traced the bin lorry that had picked up the ticket. As luck would have it, the collection had happened on a Sunday when the bag was still stored at the depot, sparing it from immediate landfill.
Through dedicated efforts, a waste worker recovered the intact ticket on Tuesday morning, effectively turning a discarded item into a €1 million (≈£857,158) prize. The winner had already signed a declaration covering the recovery costs, meaning he will be liable for the search expenses.
Toscano admitted the story was “nothing short of miraculous.” To celebrate, the waste crew surprised themselves by buying a scratch card, which turned out to be a small €50 win. This tale underlines that even routine jobs can occasionally uncover unexpected fortunes, reminding us that luck sometimes lives in the most unlikely places.
