Spanish City Searches For Winner Of $6.3 Million Lottery

City Searches For Mystery Lottery Winner
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY DANIEL SILVA 'Christmas-Spain-finance-economy-lottery' A man buys ticket for the annual Christmas lottery 'El Gordo' in Madrid on December 17, 2008. The Spanish are still feeding 'El Gordo' or 'The Fat One', the annual Christmas lottery that is billed as the world's richest yearly draw, despite a global economic slowdown that has saddled Spain with Europe's highest unemployment rate. AFP PHOTO / PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU (Photo credit should read PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images)
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY DANIEL SILVA 'Christmas-Spain-finance-economy-lottery' A man buys ticket for the annual Christmas lottery 'El Gordo' in Madrid on December 17, 2008. The Spanish are still feeding 'El Gordo' or 'The Fat One', the annual Christmas lottery that is billed as the world's richest yearly draw, despite a global economic slowdown that has saddled Spain with Europe's highest unemployment rate. AFP PHOTO / PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU (Photo credit should read PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images)

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - The Spanish city of Coruna has begun a search for the person who missed out on 4.7 million euros ($6.3 million) by buying a winning lottery ticket but leaving it behind in the shop.

The winning ticket for June 30, 2012, was discovered by the owner of the lottery shop who, after keeping it for a year in the lost and found box, decided to scan it before throwing it away.

Shop owner Manuel Reija told a Galician TV station: "I couldn't believe it the first time I checked the ticket so I checked it again just in case there was a computer error. I was standing up but I had to sit. I almost broke the chair."

Reija will get to keep the money if no one responds to a notice on the website of Coruna's town hall urging the winner to come forward. Claimants have been told to expect tough checks. ($1 = 0.7491 euros)

(Reporting by Anna Valderrama; Editing by Tracy Rucinski and Mark Trevelyan)

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