A resident of the Italian town of Bitonto nearly lost a fortune after throwing away a lottery ticket that turned out to be worth one million euros. Fortunately, local waste collection workers came to the rescue, sifting through tons of refuse, reports infohub.kz.
The man bought a lottery ticket and, checking it at the store, saw the message "not payable." Assuming the combination had lost, he tossed the ticket. However, relatives later noticed that the drawn numbers 2, 4, 8, 19, and 51 matched his ticket. The message merely meant that the store's cash register could not pay out such a large prize.
By that time, the household trash had already been collected. The man contacted the local waste company SANB. The company's director ordered the garbage truck to be stopped and redirected to a special facility. Fortunately, the incident occurred on a Sunday; otherwise, the waste would have gone straight to the landfill.
Employees spent two days sorting through the trash and, among many damaged receipts, found the winning ticket. The millionaire-to-be promised to reimburse all search expenses. Inspired by their success, the garbage workers bought a scratch card after handing over the ticket and won 50 euros.