The woman, from Bari province in Italy’s southern Puglia region, brought the ticket for the July 31 draw to a local shop on Aug. 2 to check whether she had won.

The scanner returned a "non-payable" message because the prize was larger than the amount the shop was authorized to pay. Not realizing what the message meant, the woman concluded that the ticket was worthless, left it at the store and went home.

A relative later discovered that the ticket matched the numbers for the €1 million prize. They hurried back to the shop, only to learn that it had already been discarded and collected by a garbage truck operated by local waste management company SANB.

The woman then contacted SANB administrator Roberto Nicola Toscano for assistance. "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 The Guardian.

SANB identified the truck that had picked up waste from the shop and managed to stop it before its load was compacted. As the garbage could contain hazardous materials, workers were unable to search it on site, so the truck, carrying about six tons of waste, was sent to a specialized processing facility in Bari.

Lotto. Photo from Pixabay

There, workers opened bags one by one and searched through discarded lottery tickets and other rubbish. At around 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 4, one worker finally found the winning ticket intact inside a torn bag, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The woman collected the ticket shortly after SANB informed her of the discovery. Before returning it, Toscano reportedly touched the ticket for good luck. He and several colleagues later bought a scratch card themselves and won about €50.

The recovery effort, however, came at a cost. Because SANB is a public company, the woman was required to sign an agreement covering expenses related to transportation, labor and waste processing before the search began.

The company did not reveal how much she ultimately had to pay.