Couple's $75.5 million lottery ticket ripped in half, thrown in trash

Aug. 2 (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."

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.

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.