In the southern Italian town of Bitonto, near Bari in the Puglia region, a stroke of luck turned into a frantic race against time. A lottery player had unknowingly discarded a €1 million winning ticket, only to realize the mistake after returning home. The ticket, which had been thrown into a bin at a local tobacconist, was recovered intact on Tuesday after a two-day search through six tonnes of rubbish.
The story was recounted by Roberto Nicola Toscano, director of Sanb, the waste collection company responsible for the area. Speaking to the Italian news agency ANSA, Toscano detailed the extraordinary efforts that led to the ticket's recovery.
The anonymous winner had used a self-service terminal at the tobacconist, which displayed the message “not payable.” Under the rules of the Italian lottery, retailers can only pay out smaller prizes directly; larger sums must be claimed through a different process. As a result, the terminal flagged the ticket as not payable at the shop, prompting the player to discard it.
It was only after the player got home that a relative recognized the winning sequence—a combination the family always played. Realizing the gravity of the situation, they rushed back to the tobacconist, only to find that the rubbish had already been collected by a waste crew.
“That was the start of the race to recover it,” Toscano said. The family contacted Sanb, and staff were able to identify the correct lorry and stop it before its contents were emptied into a waste compactor. “Once we located the compactor, we isolated it and placed it under armed guard,” Toscano told TgCom24.
Workers then began the painstaking task of sifting through six tonnes of rubbish. At around 5:30 am, one of the workers finally found the ticket. “It was inside a torn bag with other damaged tickets. This one was one of the few that was still intact,” Toscano said, adding that he “touched the lucky ticket in the hope that it might bring us some luck too.”
And apparently, it did. “The team and I stopped for a coffee and, just for fun, bought a scratchcard,” he said. “We ended up winning €50.”
A reminder of lottery rules
The incident highlights a common misunderstanding among lottery players. In Italy, as in many European countries, the rules for claiming prizes vary by amount. While small wins can be cashed in at any authorized retailer, larger jackpots require a formal claim process, often through a bank or a regional lottery office. The “not payable” message on the terminal is not a rejection but a directive to follow the proper procedure.
For the lucky winner in Bitonto, the ordeal ended happily, but it serves as a cautionary tale. Toscano noted that the ticket was recovered just in time, as it would have been destroyed in the compactor. The family, whose identity remains undisclosed, can now claim their prize—a sum that would buy a €1 million home in many parts of Europe.
The story has captured attention across Italy, where lottery fever is a cultural staple. It also echoes other tales of lost fortunes, such as the legal battles over Amy Winehouse's estate, though this one has a far more cheerful outcome.
For the workers at Sanb, the find was a morale boost. “We are used to dealing with waste, but this was a unique experience,” Toscano said. “It’s not every day you find a million euros in a rubbish bag.”
The ticket is now in the hands of the lottery authorities, and the winner is expected to come forward to claim the prize. Meanwhile, the town of Bitonto can celebrate a story that turned a potential disaster into a remarkable piece of luck.
