Woman wins £80,000 on lottery with coffee-stained ticket she binned by mistake

A woman scooped an £80,000 lottery prize binning the coffee-stained ticket by mistake.

Frantic Mary Elliott, from Virginia, first realised that she had thrown her ticket away, but later found it in the trash.

She was worried that the coffee stain would have made the ticket invalid after the barcode didn't scan.

However, she was still given the £83,600 prize from Virginia Lottery's Cash 5 with EZ Match game.

Mary said: "When I saw I'd won, I couldn't stop shaking to save my life!"

Virginia Lottery said: "When Mary Elliot discovered she'd matched all five winning numbers in the Virginia Lottery's Cash 5 with EZ Match game, she had a brief moment of panic.

"She had thrown the ticket away!

The lottery ticket was still accepted after it was covered in coffee stains (stock image) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

"So the Buckingham County woman went digging through the trash and found it.

"But now there was a new problem - The ticket had coffee stains on it, and the barcode wouldn't scan when she tried to confirm her win."

The lottery company added: "But this story has a happy ending.

"Ms Elliott took the ticket to the Virginia Lottery's Prize Zone West in Henrico, where Lottery officials were able to confirm the win and award her the USD 110,000 prize!"

Virginia Lottery said: "She won the top prize in the February 24 drawing with a ticket she bought at the Food Lion in Dillwyn.

"The winning numbers were 6-13-18-21-25. She selected the numbers on her ticket using important birthdays.

"Cash 5 with EZ Match features a rolling jackpot, starting at a minimum of USD 100,000.

"If nobody matches all five winning numbers, the jackpot increases for the next drawing."

However, not everyone who has damaged their ticket has been as lucky.

Last year, one woman, lost out on a $26 million (£18million) jackpot, after allegedly putting her ticket in the laundry.

The woman, who hasn't been named, says she matched all six numbers back in November last year, after purchasing the ticket from a shop in Los Angeles, United States.

She had 180 days to come into the store to claim her prize, however on the final day of the deadline she told the store manager what had happened.

The woman's claim has even been backed up by the store manager, who has CCTV evidence of her coming into the shop and buying the winning ticket, but sadly lottery officials have said this isn't enough for them to grant her the winnings, according to KLTA.