Waste Workers Dig Through Rubbish Truck to Recover €1 Million Lottery Ticket

(Waste workers. Photo by D.com)

Waste collectors in southern Italy have recovered a €1 million winning lottery ticket after its owner mistakenly discarded it, triggering an extensive search through an entire truckload of refuse.

An unnamed woman from Bitonto in the Puglia region had played her regular Saturday lottery numbers and subsequently visited a shop on Sunday to verify results.

When the lottery terminal displayed a standard notification indicating the prize exceeded the amount redeemable at retail locations, she misinterpreted the message as confirmation that her ticket had not won.

She promptly disposed of it in a rubbish bin.

A family member later recognised that her numbers matched the winning combination, prompting the woman to realise her error.

By that time, the bin containing the ticket had already been emptied into a collection vehicle.

Following an urgent call to the waste management company, operatives traced the truck's route, identified the correct collection vehicle and halted it before the refuse could be processed.

The truck was redirected to a specialised facility where workers spent an entire day methodically sorting through the rubbish to locate the ticket.

The administrator of the waste management company described conditions during the search as "anything but pleasant" but confirmed that workers successfully recovered the ticket, which remained intact despite its time among household waste.

The woman was informed by telephone that the ticket had been recovered and reportedly became emotional upon learning the news.

The waste management company administrator attributed the successful outcome to professional operations, organisational capability and considerable fortune, acknowledging that the achievement would not have been possible without the sanitation workers' efforts.

As the waste management entity operates as a public organisation, costs would ordinarily be borne by taxpayers.

However, the ticket holder pledged to cover all additional expenses incurred during the recovery operation.