For most Singaporeans, winning the lottery sounds like a good dream to wake up to.

One woman happened to strike gold with a winning 4D number, but ended up panicking after she found out that she accidentally threw the ticket away. 

Speaking to AsiaOne on Thursday (Dec 1), Pearlyn Yap shared that she placed a $12 bet at an authorised retailer near her home in Geylang Serai on Sept 11 – only to realise that the lottery ticket was missing a few hours later.

CCTV footage from her home showed that she had accidentally thrown it into the rubbish chute, Yap, who's in her forties said, adding that her fears came through after checking the results.

To Yap's horror, one of the numbers on the ticket, 1234, had won her $500. 

"Such a rare chance to win 4D and I literally threw it away," she lamented.

Yap said that she initially thought that she should just forget about her loss, admitting that she did not lose sleep over the costly mistake.

But throwing away the prize money of $500 proved too hard to ignore, she added. "Even though there's a possibility that it can't be found, I decided to give it a try."

"The next morning at 11am, I called Sembcorp's customer service and explained the situation to them. An hour later, three [garbage disposal] workers showed up at my block."

Describing the tedious search operation, Yap shared that two workers stood on both sides of the garbage truck, and swiftly picked out trash that was accumulated from the previous day for her to check.

After rummaging through the garbage in the hot and humid weather for around 30 minutes, the "treasure" was finally found.

"I really salute them. It's not a clean environment - the pungent smell with flies around," said this grateful woman, adding that she gave each worker $12 for their efforts.

Going the extra mile

Other Singaporeans had previously taken to social media to share how garbage disposal workers fished out their missing items.

In a Facebook post shared on Dec 2020, Michelle Lim thanked a pair of Malaysian rubbish collectors for returning a brand new iPad to her.

The grateful Singaporean shared how the good Samaritans had emailed her with the good news.

Lim also revealed that the rubbish collectors were university degree holders.

"Eday and Yuamirul deserve a more fulfilling and rewarding job. They are young, hardworking and most importantly, honest and humble," she said. 

And in July 2021, Melvin Yong, the Member of Parliament for Radin Mas SMC, praised two migrant workers who went the extra mile for a resident.

In a Facebook post, Yong shared how the workers from Tanjong Pagar Town Council dug through the piles of rubbish to find a missing engagement ring.

"They told me that they had to keep calm and remain positive as the search dragged on because they understood what the ring meant to the resident," he said.

That ring was eventually found. 

ALSO READ: Honest man looking for owner of winning 4D ticket

chingshijie@asiaone.com

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