Waste workers help winner find binned €1m lottery ticket
Waste workers help winner find binned €1m lottery ticket in Italy
- Level
- A2
- Estimated time
- 30–40 minutes
- Reading
- 1 min read
The story
A person in southern Italy lost a lottery ticket that was worth €1m. The player checked the numbers in a shop and the machine said “non-payable”. The player then binned the ticket at the shop and went home.
The person’s family saw the drawn numbers and they realised the ticket was a winner. They all went back to the shop. The ticket had been collected by a bin lorry and taken away. They were searching through a mountain of waste. People were looking through bags and damaged tickets.
The company found the bin lorry and stopped it before the load went to landfill. The team moved the truck to a special site and the workers searched there for two days. Finally a waste worker found the small paper ticket in a hole-ridden bag and everyone cheered.
The company said the winner will pay the cost of the search because they had signed a declaration. The refuse boss said, "This story is nothing short of miraculous." Later, the workers bought a scratch card and won €50 as a joke.
Key vocabulary
- ticket
- A small paper that shows you have a game entry or prize.
- binned
- Thrown away into a rubbish bin.
- shop
- A place where people buy things.
- family
- A group of people related to each other.
- search
- To look carefully for something.
- waste
- Garbage or rubbish.
- worker
- A person who does a job.
- landfill
- A place where rubbish is taken and buried.
Comprehension check
Write your answer, reveal the model answer, then score yourself honestly.
1. How much was the lottery ticket worth?
2. Why did the player bin the ticket?
3. Who first told the player that the numbers had been drawn?
4. How long did the search for the ticket take?
5. Who will pay for the cost of the recovery operation?
Grammar focus
Past continuous
We use the past continuous to describe actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past. It often shows that people were doing something for some time.
- They were searching through a mountain of waste.
- People were looking through bags and damaged tickets.
Grammar exercise
Complete each sentence with the past continuous form of the verb in brackets.
1. While the workers (search) ______, they did not stop.
2. The crew (collect) ______ the bins before the search.
3. People (look) ______ through bags and damaged tickets.
4. The truck (escort) ______ slowly to the special site.
5. When they (buy) ______ a scratch card, they won €50.
Discussion
For reflection or speaking practice — not graded.
- Would you return to the shop if you thought you lost a winning ticket? Why?
- Do you think the waste workers should be paid extra for this search? Explain.
- How would you feel if a small mistake suddenly became very important?
- What can shops do to avoid this kind of confusion?