SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) — One Massachusetts family returned a lottery ticket to the customer who had tossed it after the family discovered the ticket had won $1 million.
Abhi Shah, the son of the owner of Lucky Spot, where the ticket was sold, said his mother, Aruna Shah, sold the winning ticket to one of their regular customers. The ticket sat discarded in the store for 10 days after the customer assumed it wasn’t worth anything and handed it back to be tossed out for the second-chance drawing.
“One evening, I was going through the tickets from the trash and [noticed] that she didn’t scratch the number,” Abhi Shah said. “I scratched the number and it was $1 million underneath the ticket.”
The Shahs said it wasn’t an easy decision to return the ticket.
“We didn’t sleep two nights,” said Maunish Shah, owner of Lucky Spot. “He called my mom, grandparents in India, they said, ‘Give it back, we don’t want that money.’”
The family then decided to return the ticket. Since the customer visited the store often, they knew where to find her.
“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. “She sat down on the floor right here.”
The Lucky Spot, proving to be a lucky spot, is also home to some very kind people.