[Sportschosun, Jang Jong-ho] In Italy, a woman reportedly threw away a lottery ticket in the trash after mistakenly believing it had not won, only to later discover it was worth about 1.6 billion won.
Fortunately, she recovered the ticket after an extensive two-day search.
According to foreign media outlets including the Daily Mail, a woman living in Bitonto, in Italy's southern Puglia region, recently visited a local lottery retailer to check whether her Lotto ticket had won.
The terminal displayed the message "Non-payable," and she misunderstood it to mean the ticket had not won, so she threw it away.
In fact, the message meant the prize was too large to be paid out at the retailer. After returning home, she later realized that all of her usual numbers — 2, 4, 8, 10, and 51 — had matched the draw, making her the winner of 1 million euros, or about 1.6 billion won.
She rushed back to the retailer, but the trash had already been collected. She then contacted the local waste collection company and asked it to search for the ticket, reportedly saying she would cover the cost herself.
The waste disposal company explained, "We thought the chances of finding it were extremely low because the trash truck had already taken the ticket," but added, "We traced the route the ticket had taken, identified the truck, and immediately stopped it from operating."
The truck was then moved to a specialized facility where a safe search could be carried out. That was because waste can contain hazardous materials, making a normal search difficult.
After manually checking the trash for two days, officials successfully found the winning ticket intact.
One official said, "When we told her we had found the ticket, she burst into tears," adding, "If I had met her in person rather than calling, I would have wanted to give her a hug."
He also said he briefly held the ticket himself, hoping some of its luck might rub off on him before returning it to its owner.
He later bought a scratch-off ticket and reportedly won 42 pounds, or about 80,000 won, drawing laughter.
The story has become a local sensation as a "miraculous tale of regaining luck twice," while also serving as a reminder to carefully check the instructions when confirming lottery results.
Jang Jong-ho, Sportschosun
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
