Woman falls victim to fake lottery ticket – everything lost
A woman in Bitonto, Apulia, Italy nearly lost a 1 million euro lottery win after misunderstanding a machine message and throwing her ticket away. The local waste company SANB launched a frantic search and found it.
The woman had checked her usual number combination at a small lottery outlet on Sunday. The machine displayed "nicht auszahlbar" ("not payable"). She took that to mean the ticket was worthless and tossed it in the bin.
At home her family realized the truth. The message did not mean no win. It meant the prize was too large to be paid out directly at that outlet and had to be claimed centrally. By then the ticket was already gone with the garbage.
The family rushed back to the outlet, but the trash had already been collected. In panic they called SANB. Company boss Roberto Nicola Toscano said they traced the route of the specific garbage truck and tracked down the load.
Because the waste could contain hazardous material, a specialist firm was hired. Workers spent hours sifting through the contents of the truck at a sorting facility. At around 5:30 a.m. an employee found the ticket intact in a torn garbage bag, mixed with damaged tickets.
Toscano called it "something wonderful". The woman reportedly cried with relief when she got the news. She will have to cover the costs of the search operation, which he said was agreed in writing.
The winning numbers were 2, 4, 8, 10 and 51. Without the physical ticket there would have been no payout, so the recovery saved her entire 1 million euro prize, about 950,000 CHF.