NEW YORK: Indian-Origin Family In US Returns $1 Million Ticket To Woman Who Threw It Away

NEW YORK: A woman in the US state of
Massachusetts threw away her shot at USD 1 million, but as luck would it, she
got a second chance at the fortune, thanks to an Indian-origin family who
returned the discarded lottery ticket to their long-time customer, earning
appreciation for their honesty.

Lea Rose
Fiega bought a Diamond Millions scratch-off ticket in March at Lucky Stop, a
store owned by the Indian-origin family in Southwick, where she was a regular
customer.

“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,” Ms Fiega said on Monday.

But the
ticket was not fully scratched off and it sat in a pile in the store for 10
days until Abhi Shah, son of the store owners, noticed the unfinished USD 30
ticket in the trash, the New York Post reported.

Mr Abhi
said the winning ticket was sold by his mother Aruna Shah to one of their
regular customers.

“One
evening, I was going through the tickets from the trash and [noticed] that she
didn’t scratch the number. I scratched the number and it was USD 1 million
underneath the ticket,” Mr Abhi was quoted as saying by the local TV
station WWLP.

“I
was a millionaire for a night,” he joked.

Mr Abhi
said he initially thought of buying a Tesla car, but later decided to return
the winning ticket.

“I
mean I had USD 1 million in my hand and on the other hand I wanted to do
something good,” he said.

The
family said it was not 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,” Mr Maunish said.

The
family then decided to return the ticket. Since the customer visited the store
often, they knew where to find her.

The
younger Shah came to find Fiega at work and told her his parents wanted to see
her, according to the lottery winner.

“I
said ‘I’m working,” and he said ‘no you have to come over’. So, I went over
there and that’s when they told me. I was in total disbelief. I cried, I hugged
them,” Fiega said.

The other
customers of the store are not surprised that the Shahs did the right thing.

“They’re
just purely good people. You can tell by just talking to them,” one
customer was quoted as saying by WBZ TV, a CBS-owned-and-operated television
station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts.

The
family is now fielding congratulatory calls and interview requests from across
the country.

“If
I had kept that million, I wouldn’t have been this famous. So, I’m glad I gave
it back,” Mr Abhi said.