Massachusetts woman who accidentally threw away $1million winning lottery ticket gets it back after store owner's son discovered it in the trash
A Massachusetts woman who accidentally threw away a $1million lottery ticket still got her jackpot thanks to the kindness and honesty of the owners of the store where she bought it.
Lea Rose Fiega bought the $30 Diamond Millions scratch-off ticket in March at the Lucky Stop convenience store in Southwick, near were she works.
'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,' she said Monday.
Lea Rose Fiega won $1 million from the Massachusetts lottery after a convenience store owners' son found her winning ticket in the trash
The ticket lay behind the counter for 10 days, before the store owners' son decided to check the discarded tickets on March 26.
'I was going through the tickets from the trash and found out that she didn't scratch the number,' Abhi Shah recounted to WWLP-TV. 'I scratched the number and it was $1million underneath the ticket.'
He remembered his mother, Aruna, selling the ticket to Fiega, whom Aruna and store owner Manuish knew as a regular at the convenience store.
Shah decided to visit Fiega at work three days later.
'He came to my office and said "My Mom and Dad would like to see you,"' Fiega recalled. 'I said "I'm working," and he said "no you have to come over."'
She started worrying something was wrong, Shah later told Mass Live, but he assured Fiega: 'No, it's something good. It will change your life.'
Fiega was a regular at the Lucky Stop in Southwick, which will now receive a $10,000 bonus for selling a winning lottery ticket
Fiega bought the $30 Diamond Millions scratch-off ticket in March, but forgot to scratch off one diamond, which revealed she won $1 million
When she entered the store later, Shah handed Fiega the ticket, and began to cry.
'I mean, who does that?' Fiega asked, rhetorically. 'They're great people. I am beyond blessed.'
She said she overcame a near-fatal bout of COVID-19 in January, which was also like 'winning the lottery,' so she feels doubly fortunate.
The store gets a $10,000 bonus from the state lottery commission for selling the winning ticket, and Fiega said she gave the family an additional reward. She's saving the rest for retirement.
