Waste workers help find binned €1m lottery ticket in Italy
An Italian lottery player accidentally threw away a winning ticket worth €1m (£857,158) after a shop's terminal displayed a "non-payable" message, which is shown when a prize is too large for the retailer to pay out directly. He only realised his mistake when a relative pointed out that his usual numbers had come up, prompting a two-day search through waste collected by a bin lorry in Bitonto, southern Italy.
Refuse company director Roberto Nicola Toscano told Italian media the recovery was "nothing short of miraculous", noting the lorry was tracked down before its load could be compacted or sent to landfill, as the collection had taken place on a Sunday. Workers eventually found the intact ticket in a torn bag among other damaged slips on the Tuesday morning. The winner, who had signed a declaration agreeing to cover the search costs, will foot the bill for the operation; Toscano and his colleagues also later won €50 (£43) on a scratch card bought as a joke.
In short
- Italian man binned a winning €1m lottery ticket by mistake
- Refuse workers searched a bin lorry's load for two days
- Ticket found intact; winner must pay for the search
Explained simply
In Italy, lottery tickets can win prizes that a shop cannot pay directly. A terminal may show “non-payable” for a large prize, which means the player must follow another process to claim it.
The ticket belonged to a player in Bitonto, in southern Italy, and showed numbers he regularly chose. Refuse workers searched the lorry’s collected waste before it was compacted or taken to landfill, and found the ticket intact. The player had agreed to cover the search costs, so the recovery also carried a bill.
Large lottery prizes can involve extra steps beyond checking the numbers at the shop. This case shows how an everyday mistake can become difficult and costly to put right once rubbish has been collected.