“Winning Moments” Are Hard to Predict
“You never know” are words you hear applied in many situations: in the worlds of entertainment, politics, sports, finance, human relations, even weather forecasting.
We Prize Patrol’ers “never know” either and have given up trying to predict what will happen when we leave PCH headquarters to deliver a Big Check. You think that a winner of millions of dollars will react in a more excited, more dramatic way than someone who wins, say, $10 thousand. But no: we’ve seen winners of $10 Million look stone-faced and unemotional, while winners of $10 thousand go crazy and wind up on our reel of “classic winning moments.”
When I learned that Bruce Spears of Pawnee, Oklahoma was to be awarded our “$10,000 Cash Windfall” prize, I thought: “This will be simple. In such a small town, our winner will be easy to find. Surely he won’t commute hours to some big city and will be close to home. And if he’s not around, we will find a family member or friend who will help us find him – without delay.” Well, think again!
As we arrived at ‘Wildflowers & Stuff’ flower shop in Pawnee to pick up roses and have our PCH balloons inflated, we saw — right next door — a truck for ‘Spears Furniture, Carpet & Appliances.’ We thought “If Bruce isn’t at home a few miles away, we can surely return to that truck and find him.” Alas, our first trip to Bruce’s home was unsuccessful (no one home – except some grazing cows), and the Spears truck people were not close relatives. Finding our winner would not be “a piece of cake.”
In short, Bruce was at work 115 miles away. His wife JoBeth arrived home hours later and calmly, but very gratefully, accepted the Big Check on his behalf. I think there might have been more excitement after we left: Bruce was thrilled to find the roses, balloons and real check waiting when he got home. He said he was shocked to learn that the Prize Patrol had come to his house and was considering buying an RV with his winnings. And the town was abuzz with reported sightings of the Prize Patrol. People were saying “I saw the PCH crew and the van, just like you see on TV. Now I know it’s real.”
You can watch the winning moment covered by TV News 9 KWTV-DT HERE.
And of course, here’s our own video of the winning moment!
[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVPQlgGqDU[/tube]
So, as I said, we never know. Enter our sweepstakes today and every day – and “you never know.” We could arrive at your front door and announce “You are a winner in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes!”
Wishing you the best of luck.
Dave Sayer
PCH Prize Patrol Ambassador
