Czech man salvages lottery win despite tearing up ticket

A Czech student has learned a valuable lesson about throwing away lottery tickets too hastily, dpa reported.

After erroneously checking his ticket against the previous week's winning numbers, the 20-year-old tore it up and threw it away - only to realize the next day that he had actually had the winning numbers for a prize amounting to the equivalent of about 52,600 dollars.

Luck ended up being on his side in the ensuing frenzied search through the trash: he found all the pieces of the ticket and the Czech lottery agency accepted him as the winner, the CTK news agency reported on Friday.

The man reportedly plans to split his winnings between a new car for his mother and a savings fund for a future apartment, the lottery agency said.