By Ben Hooper, UPI
A Scottish couple said their $75.5 million winning lottery ticket was initially ripped in half and thrown out by a clerk who thought it was a dud.
Fred and Lesley Higgins, who collected their EuroMillions winnings from operator Camelot this week, told officials that Fred, 67, took their ticket from the July 10 drawing to a store in Aberdeenshire to check if it was a winner.
"I handed the ticket over and the young man put it through the machine, telling me it wasn't a winner," Fred Higgins said. "He ripped the ticket in two and threw it into the bin, as they would with all non-winning tickets."
Congratulations Fred and Lesley Higgins on your £57.9M #EuroMillions win 🍾! We can’t wait to hear what you’re going to spend it on... pic.twitter.com/MaF1EFzyW8— The National Lottery (@TNLUK) August 2, 2018
Higgins said the ticket was retrieved when the machine then printed out a message.
"The terminal produced a chitty which said I needed to retain my ticket and call Camelot," he said. "The retailer immediately grabbed it out of the bin and handed it to me.
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Camelot officials said they performed checks on the ticket including reviewing CCTV footage from the store to verify the ripped ticket, which bore the numbers 3-8-26-33-45 with the Lucky Star numbers 7 and 10.
"I wasn't ever concerned that we wouldn't get the money as I knew it was an honest mistake -- it just had to be looked at to make sure everything was correct," Higgins said.
That moment you get handed the winning cheque! #BehindTheScenes #YouSawItHereFirst pic.twitter.com/rEsqpP7rKZ— The National Lottery (@TNLUK) August 2, 2018
