One Million Dollar Discarded Lottery Ticket Returned to Owner

The odds of winning the lottery are astronomical. The odds of getting your winning, discarded lottery ticket returned to you are even higher. This is exactly what happened to a woman in Massachusetts who was able to claim the winnings after her lottery ticket was returned to her by the store operators from whom she had bought the ticket.

Lea Rose Fiega had bought the $30 Diamond Millions scratch-off ticket in March at a convenience store in Southwick, Massachusetts. Fiega had bought the ticket on her lunch break and like most of us who buy lottery tickets, quickly scratched it off with the expectation that she had not won anything. In her haste to get back to work, she gave the scratched lottery ticket back to the store owner to throw away. Little did Fiega know, that was the winning lottery ticket that she had just scratched off.

The ticket stayed behind the store counter for 10 days until Abhi Shah the son of the store owner finally decided to scratch the last number before throwing it out as trash. To Shah’s surprise, the removal of the last number revealed the $1 million prize money.

Being a regular customer, Fiega was contacted by the family immediately and Shah even went to her place of work to reveal the astonishing news.

“He came to my office and said, ‘My Mom and Dad would like to see you,‘ “ she says. “I said, ‘I’m working.’ And he said, ‘No, you have to come over.’

“So I went over there. And that’s when they told me. I was in total disbelief. I cried. I hugged them.

“I mean, who does that? They’re great people. I am beyond blessed.”

Fiega has been having a phenomenal year having fought off the deadly coronavirus infection in January and is now the proud winner of a $1 million. The store owners will also receive a $10,000 bonus from the state lottery commission for selling the winning ticket.

Fiega has also given the family an additional bonus while keeping the remainder of the amount for her retirement.