Italian waste workers recover €1 million lottery ticket thrown away by mistake in Bitonto
A player in Bitonto, near Bari, threw away a winning instant lottery ticket worth €1 million after misreading a payment message, then enlisted the local waste company SANB to search tonnes of rubbish.
The misunderstanding
A woman in Bitonto, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, had played the same numbers on an instant lottery ticket, numbers she always used because they were linked to a loved one. On Sunday she took the ticket to her local shop to check it. The machine displayed a message that the prize was "non pagabile" (not payable), because small retailers can only pay out modest sums. Not realising the message meant she had won a prize too large for the shop to handle, she assumed she had lost and threw the ticket into the bin.
The realisation
When she got home, a family member told her that her usual numbers had in fact been drawn. She and her relatives rushed back to the shop, only to discover that the rubbish had already been collected by a SANB waste truck. The winner then contacted Roberto Nicola Toscano, the sole administrator of SANB, the company responsible for waste collection in Bitonto, Terlizzi, Corato and Ruvo di Puglia.
We reconstructed the ticket's journey, without much hope of finding it, since it had already been picked up by a garbage truck.
The search
Toscano and his team traced the exact truck that had collected the bin. Because the waste could contain hazardous material, the vehicle was taken to a specialised sorting company in the Bari area where a safe search could be carried out. Workers sifted through the load for more than a day, finding numerous other tickets and stubs. At 5:30 in the morning, an operator pulled out the winning ticket from a torn bag. It was one of the few items still intact.
Among them was the ticket we were looking for, which, miraculously, was still intact.
The aftermath
Toscano called the winner to tell her the ticket had been recovered. "She cried with emotion," he said. "I would have hugged her, but we were on the phone." Because SANB is a public company, the cost of the operation could not fall on taxpayers. The winner signed a commitment to cover all additional expenses incurred during the search. To celebrate, the waste workers bought a scratch card of their own and won €50.
This story is miraculous. A person played the usual numbers on an instant lottery, as they always do because they are linked to a loved one. And that's what they did the last time, without realising they had won a million euros.
- Player checks ticket at local shop; terminal shows 'not payable'. She throws ticket away, thinking she lost.
- Family member alerts her that her numbers were drawn. She returns to shop but rubbish has been collected.
- SANB traces the exact waste truck and moves it to a specialist sorting facility for a safe search.
- Worker finds the ticket intact inside a torn bag among other ruined tickets.
- SANB administrator Roberto Nicola Toscano confirms recovery; winner agrees to cover all extra costs.
