Italian garbage workers recover €1m lottery ticket win from trash | DW News

Garbage workers in southern Italy have recovered a €1 million ($1.15 million) winning lottery ticket after its owner mistakenly threw it into a trash bin, prompting an extensive search through a truckload of waste.

The unnamed woman, from the city of Bitonto, had played her regular Saturday lottery numbers before visiting a local shop on Sunday to check the result, according to DW News on Wednesday.

According to AFP and Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the lottery terminal displayed the message “non-payable” — a standard notification indicating that the prize was too large to be redeemed at the retail outlet.

Misinterpreting the message as meaning the ticket had not won, she threw it into a rubbish bin.