Unconscious homeless man receives €4,100

A rough sleeper won a big prize outside a lottery shop without ever having entered. As the manager of the lottery shop arrived to open up on Friday, September 20 at around 5pm, he met with a known local resident who told him an extraordinary story about the intoxicated down-and-out who was sleeping in the shop’s doorway.

The neighbour had seen a couple leaving a white envelope next to the homeless man while he slept and suspected it contained money. Before reopening the shutters on the shop, Agustín Giménez, husband of the owner, confirmed that there was, indeed, a wad of €50 and €20 notes. There was €4,100 in total inside the envelope, along with a postcard with an image of a Catholic virgin, a page from the Bible, and a small handwritten note.

Mystery couple remain unidentified

Concerned for the safety of the sleeping man, Giménez decided to call the local police to deal with the matter, taking the envelope in for safekeeping while police carried the rough sleeper to a medical centre. A familiar face and known to many shopkeepers in Malaga’s old town, the homeless man has since been delivered his envelope. Giménez examined footage from the shop’s security camera, but the image of the generous couple’s faces was obscured by a blind spot.

The story then took another unexpected turn when the following day, the lottery shop, ‘La Tribuna’, heard that they had sold the winning ticket to the National Lottery along with other tickets with unusually high amounts in prize money.