ITALY: The Lottery Ticket

Gabriele Mussi's mother, Candida, played the national lotteries all her life, but cautious Gabriele never did. A slight, earnest man of 35, Gabriele is a farm foreman at Sant 'Ilario, near Genoa, where he lives quietly with his wife. Last year his chance-taking mother died, at 75. Last month Gabriele, walking in downtown Genoa, passed a vendor selling tickets on the Merano lottery, Italy's oldest and largest. He remembered that it was the first anniversary of his mother's death. For the first time in his life—in memory of his mother—Gabriele bought a ticket, No. H-64306.

Along with the ticket Gabriele received a postcard bearing the same number: a free ticket to a tie-in lottery run by a film company. Gabriele wrote his name and address on the postcard and mailed it off to Rome—but without the stamp. A few days later, while he was on holiday at the coastal town of Recco, a pickpocket got Gabriele's wallet, containing some $24 and ticket No. H-64306.

Last week added grief came to Gabriele Mussi. The radio announced that No. H-64306 had won first prize of 50 million lire ($80,000). How could Gabriele prove that the winning number was rightfully his? He appealed to the film company for help. With 300,000 postcards to riffle through, and the added likelihood that Gabriele's stampless card had not arrived at all, the film people refused.

The government was equally firm. On the back of each ticket appears the legend: "Winning ticket must be produced in the original and no equivalent whatsoever will be accepted." Somewhere, if it has not been lost or destroyed, is the $80,000 ticket, in the hands of a thief who does not dare get caught with it.