Did You Know: The Prize Patrol Once Found A Winner On A Plane!
At Publishers Clearing House, there’s one question we get all the time: what do you do when the winner isn’t at home? Do you still award the prize? The answer is “YES,” and here’s a story that counts as some PCH Prize Patrol trivia that you can use to impress your friends!
Yes, the Prize Patrol will ALWAYS find their winner. While going out on the road is lots of fun, one thing we take VERY seriously is making sure our winners get their special winning moment! In recent years we’ve visited people’s workplaces, like the time Danielle and the team went to winner Desiree Scudder’s job at a pharmacology lab…white coats and all!
We’ve also had winners ending up in different states, like the time we tracked down the Cella family from their primary residence in Florida all the way up to Long Island, NY, which just happened to be a quick drive over from the Publishers Clearing House Headquarters!
But no story is as funny as the time the Prize Patrol surprised a winner mid-air, while flying on a plane!
As Prize Patrol Elite member Todd Sloane tells it, a winner named Jewell was to be awarded a Big Check of $100,000. That’s a large sum of money, so as always, the Prize Patrol did a bit of research before hitting the road. It just so happened that the day before the big prize award, Todd and Dave Sayer discovered that Jewell had booked a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles for the EXACT time they were going to award the prize at her home!
Never wanting to miss a fun opportunity to give someone a memorable experience, the Prize Patrol decided to book tickets for the very same flight! This was in the days before tight airline security, so they got the ground crew to help them distract Jewell, while the Prize Patrol brought all of their gear on board the plane! Then Dave and the gang sat in their seats at the rear of the plane – no one was the wiser!
Somewhere over Texas, after the inflight snack had been distributed, the Prize Patrol got out their balloons, Big Check and even their camera equipment! Dave approached the woman and asked her if she was Jewell. Surprised, she said “yes,” and then he proceeded to present her with a BIG $100,000 check! The whole plane erupted into applause!
What Jewell also didn’t know was that one of her sons had also secretly purchased tickets for the same flight, and was able to share in the amazing moment as well.
Everyone was thrilled, though Dave says that there were a few people who were disappointed that the Prize Patrol had interrupted their inflight movie!
You may have considered yourself a Publishers Clearing House expert, but if you’ve never heard that story before there’s still plenty of “Did You Know” PCH Prize Patrol Trivia to be learned! If you want to read more, make sure you go over and “LIKE” the PCH Fan Page on Facebook where we feature cool behind-the-scenes facts and photos all the time!
Matt K.
PCH Creative
P.S. If you’re looking for even more interesting factoids, head on over to the PCHsearch&win blog today, where MaryBeth has put together an article on the History of April Fool’s! You’d be foolish to miss it! 🙂
