In BITONTO, southern Italy, a lottery player tossed a €1m winning ticket into a shop bin after the machine printed a "non‑payable" message.
The player, confident they had not won, only realised their favourite numbers – 2, 4, 8, 10 and 51 – had been drawn when a relative checked the numbers that night.
Once the realization hit, the entire family rushed to the shop to confirm the ticket had indeed been discarded. Waste‑collection boss Roberto Nicola Toscano explained that the "non‑payable" notice appears when a prize exceeds the shop’s payout limit.
The ticket was recovered from the bin by the local waste‑collection vehicle, which had collected 40 tonnes of municipal waste that day. "This story is nothing short of miraculous," Toscano said to the Italian news agency Ansa.
After the waste truck was diverted to a special reclamation site, a two‑day search turned up the intact ticket inside a hole‑riddled bag.
The recovery cost will be charged to the winner, who had signed a declaration to cover the expense. Toscano added that he and his team celebrated by buying a scratch card together, winning a €50 prize.
