Woman accidentally threw lottery ticket in trash — almost 2 weeks later, a stranger approached her with life-changing surprise

The woman didn't notice a crucial detail on the ticket because she was in a hurry.

PUBLISHED 10 HOURS AGO

(L) Woman looking at a piece of paper. (R) A person throwing something in a trash can. Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Madrolly; Finn Bjurvoll Hansen

There are certain lost belongings that a person might not expect to get back at all. So a woman was very surprised when she got her $1 million lottery ticket back after she accidentally put it in the trash can. The woman, Lea Rose Fiega, bought a $30 Diamond Millions scratch-off ticket in March 2021 at the Lucky Stop convenience store in Southwick and trashed the ticket because she was in a hurry, but things took a turn after that, per The Guardian.

Woman paying for something at a store. Representative Image Source: Getty Images | d3sign

"I was in a hurry, on lunch break and just scratched it real quick and looked at it and it didn’t look like a winner, so I handed it over to them to throw away," Fiega recounted. The ticket even stayed behind the counter for 10 days until the store owner's son, Abhi Shah, went through the trash can and found a ticket that had a number that was not scratched off. He scratched it and found out that it was a $1 million ticket. "One evening, I was going through the tickets from the trash and found out that she didn’t scratch the number. I scratched the number and it was $1 million underneath the ticket," Shah told WWLP-TV.

A person scratching a lottery ticket with a coin. Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Thanasis

"We had mixed emotions. We didn’t sleep for two nights, but I don’t know what happened. My inner soul told me: 'That’s not right. You know who that person is. You should give that ticket back to them.' And that’s exactly what I did," Shah recounted to the Washington Post. He also thought of buying a Tesla, a house, or another store at first, but then he decided to do the right thing and return it. The man decided to go and see the woman at work, per The Guardian. "He came to my office and said, 'My mom and dad would like to see you.' 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," Fiega recounted.

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The woman had also recovered from a fatal bout of COVID at that time and felt really lucky to have won the money. "I mean, who does that? They’re great people. I am beyond blessed," she commented. The store got $10,000 bonus from the state for selling the winning ticket and a special reward from Fiega for their honesty. She planned to save the rest of the money for her retirement. Other customers who frequent the family's store told CBS News that they were not surprised by the incident because the family were good people and known for their kindness.

Many people appreciated the store owner for his honesty in the comments section of the video. @zebrinapendula922 wrote, "Happy to know there are still good, honest, decent people among us. Here's asking God to bless the family in a special way." @sevenbells96 commented, "Glad the store owners are honest people. Yes, I agree you can't take someone's fortune as yours." @burchcassidy925 remarked, "So cool, if everybody was like this, the world wouldn't be the way it is. It takes so much more courage to do what they did than to pick up a gun. It's harder to be good than bad. Let's make the world a better place."