A woman in Italy realized she had made a disastrous mistake after throwing away a winning lottery ticket worth $1.16 million. By the time she had gotten back to the store where she had thrown it the trash had already been taken but the woman and her family weren’t prepared to give up, not with that kind of life-changing money on the line. The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was apparently led to believe that the ticket was worthless after a self-service lottery terminal displayed a message telling her that the ticket was “not payable,” according to an article from People. The woman subsequently threw the ticket away only to later be informed by a family member that she had made a big mistake. The ticket was actually a winner. She soon returned to the shop only to find that the garbage had already been collected, meaning the chances of getting her winning ticket back were pretty slim. That being said, retrieving missing or stolen lottery tickets can be difficult, but it can be done. A woman in Florida whose winning ticket worth $2,600 was allegedly stolen by a USPS worker was able to get an investigation into the matter last month. Garbage workers help retrieve the lost Lottery ticket Roberto Nicola Toscano, the director of local waste management company, SANB, offered his help in finding the missing ticket, although he admitted their chances were slim. “We reconstructed the journey of the ticket, without much hope of finding it, as it had already been picked up by a garbage truck,” Toscano told local news agency, ANSA. Italian garbagemen help recover lost 1 million euro lottery ticket.The instant win ticket was "miraculously still in one piece" after garbage workers combed through mounds of trash on their truckhttps://t.co/XnFHdswjW5 pic.twitter.com/bowPigQHuR— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 5, 2026 However, they were actually able to find the vehicle which had taken the trash from the store, but then their quest to retrieve the ticket hit another snag: “It couldn’t be emptied at our facility due to the risk of waste contamination.” Toscano’s team then spent a considerable amount of time sifting through six tons of trash looking for the ticket. Despite all hope seemingly being lost the stub they were looking for was miraculously found in one piece. Toscano added that the woman who initially lost the ticket “cried with emotion,” when she was told the good news. The waste management director also joked that he “touched the lucky ticket in the hope that it might bring us some luck too.” The woman who originally purchased the ticket was able to get her winnings in the end, minus the costs she had to pay for the public agency’s help in tracking it down. However, with a big lottery pay out of of $1.16 million it’s safe to say it was worth it.