Bored of the amount of litter hanging around street corners, roadsides, parkland and beaches etc. the professional litter picker, (a while ago), decided to refine his litter picking practices. From then on, for the time being, it was to be a matter of picking up just discarded lottery scratchcards, and also those horrible multiple plastic ring things holding beer cans together that get hooked up in wildlife’s legs, wrapped around their bodies, and tied around their necks, usually resulting in starvation, huge stress, and death. (Long paragraph, I know).

Pick up the scratchcards. Check if they are missed winners. If they are, then claim the winnings and smile. If they’re not winners, then just bin ‘em. As for the horrible plastic ring things, simply pull them apart, breaking the deathly rings, and bin those too.

Recent bike rides to and from work see multiple stops to pick up the offending items.

Missed winners can be found on the scratchcards, admittedly not often, but you can find them.

I found one the other day, (lie). There is a spot outside a newsagents that regularly sees a pile of dumped newly scratched scratchcards, (true).

There were ten in the last pile, purchase value of one hundred and five pounds. The week before, same spot, seven newly scratched scratchcards, purchase value thirty five pounds. A couple of days before that, same spot, sixteen cards, purchase value of eighty two pounds.

So what is the scenario? Newsagents ten yards away, regular newly scratched scratchcards dumped in same spot, just on the road right next to the kerb. Is it a pedestrian? Is it a driver? Is it another scenario?

Wouldn’t it be good to get video evidence! Not to get the person in trouble, not to report the person. The professional litter picker was just interested to see who was doing it.

The scratchcard with a missed winner he picked up the other day had a prize of ten thousand pounds left on it, (lie). All he had to do was walk into the newsagents, present the card, and claim his winnings. Ten thousand pounds for picking up a piece of litter. Not a bad days work. Would you try and find the person who dropped it? Would you put an Ad in the newsagent’s window, “Winning Scratchcard Found, Owner Sought”? Or would you just keep it, happy that the universe was giving you a well earned gift?

The professional litter picker was passing the shop the other night, (true). He was catching a bus to his office. The bus stop is just outside the newsagents.

A person walks out of the newsagents, (true). The person walks to his car holding a wallet and several newly bought scratchcards in his right hand, (true). The person opens their car door, leaving it open, right over the spot where previous piles of scratched scratchcards are dumped, (true).  The person gets into their car.

The professional litter picker gets out his phone, flicks the video on, and starts filming, phone held low down so as not to appear to be blatantly recording proceedings.

Car door still open, cards start to be scratched. Person peeks a look at the cameraman, returns to scratching, peeks at cameraman again, scratches, finishes scratching, folds cards up, peeks at cameraman again, crumples cards up and with considerable effort jams them in their trouser pocket. Not the easiest of things to do whilst sitting down.

It would have been much easier to drop them in the same spot that others had been dropped before.

Car door closes. Driver drives off. No scratchcards on roadside next to kerb. Scratchcards are in driver’s pocket.

Ten thousand pounds is a lot of money. Would you have approached the driver and asked if they dropped scratch cards here before-because you had found a missed winner?

Was this the mystery scratchcard dropper caught on video? If it was, will the dropping stop?

What would you do with a ten thousand pound gift?

Will the saga continue, or is that it?