A woman had her entire life changed after she won nearly €500,000 on a scratch card - only for her ticket to be allegedly stolen by a tobacco shop owner.
The woman, from Naples in Italy, had entered the shop to get her lucky win verified to see if she had taken the top prize of €500k.
Police launched a manhunt for the 57-year-old suspect after the alleged robbery.
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Italian media at the time reported that the woman in her 60s had bought two scratch cards in a shop and, after scratching one of them, she realised she had won the top prize of €500,000.
The incredulous winner asked an employee to verify the win, but then the worker asked Gaetano Scutellaro - whose wife is the owner of the shop - to double-check the winning ticket.
However he allegedly ran away on his motor scooter and never came back during the incident in September of last year.
A manhunt was launched that night, with Carabinieri - an Italian police force - trying to find him.
To prevent anyone from illegally cashing in the win, the Italian tax office - which manages scratch cards in the country - froze the entire block of tickets sold in the tobacco shop.
The suspect was stopped by police at Rome's Fiumicino Airport as he tried to board a flight to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.
When officers found him, the tobacconist did not have the winning scratch card with him, Italian news agency Ansa reported.
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