Deli workers dig through bags of trash to find woman's winning lottery ticket: 'You don't expect people to do that for you'

Kristine Solomon
The Lucky Spot manager Dena Thompson proudly holds the winning lottery ticket belonging to Mary Peabody, after she and fellow workers went dumpster diving to rescue it. (Photo: Courtesy of Oregon Lottery)
Lucky Spot manager Dena Thompson proudly holds the winning lottery ticket belonging to Mary Peabody, after she and fellow workers went dumpster diving to rescue it. (Photo: Courtesy of Oregon Lottery)

Employees at a Portland, Ore. deli took customer service very seriously when they sifted through a dumpster full of trash to recover a winning lottery ticket that a customer had left there.

Mary Peabody had entered Lucky Spot deli in Southeast Portland to redeem her $1,200 prize, but quickly learned she’d have to go to the Oregon Lottery office in Salem, Ore., instead because her prize exceeded $600, according to a news release shared with Yahoo Lifestyle.

So the woman left the deli, accidentally leaving her ticket behind too, and grabbed the congratulatory receipt instead. Peabody didn’t realize the major misstep until the next day — when she also remembered she hadn’t signed the ticket, so anyone who found it would be able to claim it.

"By law, Lottery tickets belong to the person who signs the back of the ticket," said the Oregon Lottery, "which is why the Oregon Lottery always urges people to sign the back of their tickets as soon as possible."

Mary Peabody will be able to redeem her $1,200 jackpo thanks to a few intrepid deli workers. (Photo: Courtesy of Oregon Lottery)
Mary Peabody will be able to redeem her $1,200 jackpo thanks to a few intrepid deli workers. (Photo: Courtesy of Oregon Lottery)

So Peabody raced to Lucky Spot the next day in hopes that the staff had found her winning ticket and put it aside for safekeeping — but no such luck.

“The clerk was really upset that the ticket was lost,” Peabody said in the release. “At that point, we thought we had lost $1,200.” Disappointed, she went home and wrote off the prize.

But the manager of Lucky Spot, Dena Thompson, wasn’t going to give up that easily. The ticket might have landed in the garbage, she figured, and luckily the dumpster hadn’t been emptied yet. So she and other deli employees — along with some friends — decided it was time to get their hands dirty.

After rifling through “six different large bags of garbage,” someone spotted the winning ticket — and it was clean and intact. “I couldn’t help thinking that this was crazy, we found it!” said Thompson.

Then the manager had to wait for Peabody to come back to the deli because she didn’t have the woman’s contact information. But a few days later she did return, and she was shocked to have the ticket handed to her in an emotional reunion with Thompson.

“You don’t expect people to do that for you,” Peabody said. “[Thompson] was almost in tears when she told me they found the ticket.” And the lottery winner wasn’t about to take any chances. “The first thing we did was sign it!” she said.

Thompson congratulated her staff not just for their dumpster diving, but for their kindness. “I am so proud of our staff for being so honest,” she said. “Anyone could have found that ticket and signed the back and claimed the prize.”

As for Peabody, she and her husband, Larry, are counting their blessings — literally. “The funny part is that this all happened during the Feast of Saint Anthony,” Larry pointed out of the serendipity. “He is the patron saint of lost things.”

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