Waste workers recover €1 million lottery ticket discarded in a bin

In Bitonto, a small town in southern Italy, a lottery player accidentally discarded a winning ticket worth €1 million (about £857,000) when a shop sign read “non‑payable.” After a family member pointed out that the numbers the player had chosen had been drawn, the ticket was identified in an apparently ordinary bin.

Roberto Nicola Toscano, director of the local waste collection company SANB, led a two‑day search on a compacting truck which was still on the road on a Saturday. He described the find as “nothing short of miraculous.” The team sifted through a heap of waste and located a mostly intact ticket hidden in a damaged bag.

The recovery operation will be billed to the winner, who had already signed a declaration agreeing to cover search costs. Tecason told reporters that he was not authorised to reveal the winner’s identity. In a lighthearted moment, Toscano and his staff bought a scratch card as a joke and won €50.

The incident highlights the unexpected ways that “non‑payable” error messages may lead to accidental loss of large fortunes and shows the dedication of waste workers who occasionally uncover priceless items hidden in plain sight.