GOOD KARMA

Massachusetts Store Owners Return Lucky Woman’s Tossed $1M Lottery Ticket

Lea Rose Fiega threw the ticket out when it “didn’t look like a winner.”

A Massachusetts woman who accidentally tossed a winning lottery ticket had it returned to her by Good Samaritan store owners. In March, Lea Rose Fiega had bought a scratch-off ticket at a convenience store near her job in Southwick. She explained to the Associated Press that she “just scratched it real quick, and looked at it, and it didn’t look like a winner,” so she’d handed it to the cashier to toss. But 10 days later, Abhi Shah, whose parents run the store, came across the ticket in the trash and realized it was worth $1 million. Fiega is a regular at the store, and Shah immediately recognized that it was her ticket, so he tracked her down at her job. “I was in total disbelief,” Fiega said. “I cried, I hugged them.” Fiega has gifted an undisclosed portion of her winnings to the Shahs, who will also receive $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.