What if the PCH Winner Isn’t Home?
People often ask what happens if the winner isn’t home when the PCH Prize Patrol arrives for the sweepstakes winning moment?
The answer is the Prize Patrol will find a way to award the cash sweepstakes prize to the Publishers Clearing House winner. Sometimes we’ll find out where the winner is and travel to that location to make the surprise prize award. Many a prize has been awarded at a winner’s workplace or a relative’s house nearby. Once we even awarded a prize on an airplane to a PCH winner who was headed out on vacation! Other times, we may leave the prize at the winner’s home with a trusted relative, or, if all else fails, we will mail the prize check.
Here’s an email sent from the road to the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes headquarters from Dave Sayer, Executive Director of the PCH Prize Patrol. He’s reporting on a prize delivery for a contest winner who wasn’t home when they arrived.
“The $10,000 Labor Day prize was delivered on Sunday to the home of Jane Kennedy in San Diego. Her husband Larry accepted the prize — as Jane was in Arizona visiting her mother. Larry … had … a good reaction, a good usable “Outstanding!” for TV commercial punctuation. We talked to Jane on the phone and she was very excited.”
Well done, Dave! Even though the PCH prize winner wasn’t home, she will still get her prize. Plus, we will have an excited winning reaction from her husband to be seen on TV!
Deborah Holland
Executive Vice President
Publishers Clearing House (PCH)