Indian American Convenience Store Owners Praised for Returning $1 Million Lottery Ticket

May 26, 2021

People are praising the Indian American owners of Lucky Stop, a convenience store in Southwick, Mass., for returning a $1 million lottery ticket to a customer.

What happened: Lea Rose Fiega purchased a $30 Diamond Millions scratch-off ticket in March, according to CBS News.

Thinking she did not win anything, Fiega handed the ticket to Lucky Stop’s owners for them to throw away.
The son of the store’s owners, Abhi Shah, checked the ticket more than a week after Fiega’s visit.
“One evening, I was going through the tickets from the trash and found out that she didn’t scratch the number,” he told WWLP-TV. “I scratched the number and it was $1 million underneath the ticket.

A family discussion: Shah told his parents about the ticket, and they discussed the situation with Shah’s grandparents living in India.

“We didn’t sleep two nights,” Shah’s father, Maunish, said. “He called my mom, grandparents in India, they said, ‘Give it back, we don’t want that money.’”
Shah told CBS Boston that his grandmother urged him to return the ticket, claiming “it’s not right” if they kept it.

The aftermath: Shah tracked down Fiega, a regular customer.

He visited Fiega at her workplace and asked her to go to Lucky Stop.
“So I went over there and that’s when they told me,” Fiega told Salem News on Monday. “I was in total disbelief. I cried, I hugged them.”
After surviving a near-fatal bout of COVID-19 in January, Fiega said she felt like a double winner, reported The Guardian.
Since Lucky Stop sold the winning ticket, its owners will receive a $10,000 bonus from the state lottery commission. However, Fiega said she will give the Shahs “an additional reward.”

Featured Image via CBS Boston

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