Woman threw out $1 million lottery ticket. Store owners in Massachusetts returned it

A Massachusetts woman bought a $1 million lottery ticket, but threw it out before she knew she had won.

Lucky for her, the store owners found and returned it.

Lea Rose Fiega of Springfield bought a $30 lottery ticket at Lucky Stop in Southwick, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery. The prize is $1 million in cash for the lucky winner — plus a $10,000 bonus for the store that sold the ticket.

Abhi Shah, whose family owns the shop, said Fiega gave the ticket to his mom to throw out, MassLive reported. When Shah checked the ticket, which had been sitting in the discarded pile for 10 days, he realized it hadn’t been completely scratched off.

“It was $1 million under that number,” Shah said, according to the publication.

The family deliberated about what to do next with the ticket.

“We didn’t sleep two nights,” said Maunish Shah, owner of Lucky Stop, according to WWLP. “He called my mom, grandparents in India, they said, ‘Give it back, we don’t want that money.’”

The family knew Fiega because she came to the store often.

“As soon as she came in, I hand her the $1 million ticket, and she freaked out and cried like a baby,” said Maunish Shah, the station reported. “She sat down on the floor right here.”

Fiega said she overcame COVID-19, which was already like “winning the lottery,” The Associated Press reported. When the Shahs came to see her at work and told her the news, she said she was “in total disbelief.”

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

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