SECOND CHANCE PRIZES — CLICK THIS LINK
For the first time in the Shop St. Joseph Holiday Program the winning prize number drawn wasn’t claimed right away, but that’s ok with John and Mae Osborn of Savannah, Mo. They were the lucky owners of grand prize ticket number two, with the new winning number 0363520.
The couple got the winning ticket at Sears, where they shop frequently.
“In 2010 we had to have our home rebuilt and we spent months at the Ramada Inn, and I would just look out the window and stare at Sears and all of the lawn tractors outside,” Mr. Osborn, who works at Midwest Mobile Radio, said. “I love that store and if I wasn’t loyal to it before, I sure am now.”
Mrs. Osborn, who works at the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department, said that they hadn’t bought one big item, but lots of small ones for their grandchildren. She verified her husband’s love of the store.
“He wants his ashes scattered there,” she joked.
The couple doesn’t have plans yet on how to spend their winnings, although some surely will be spent at Sears.
“I went to the floor,” Mrs. Osborn said about when she realized they had the winning ticket number.
Mr. Osborn said that he usually doesn’t follow things like this closely, but noticed the first ticket number wasn’t claimed on the news and hit rewind to see what the new numbers were.
“I had a feeling,” he said. “I know this sounds stupid, but I had a feeling we could win and it was the very last ticket in our strand.”
There were 110 merchants that participated in the Shop St. Joseph program this year and more than 1.2 million tickets were distributed.
“What are the odds we would win,” he said.
The 2016 program was history making.
“This is the first time in the history of our program that a winning ticket wasn’t brought forward on the first day,” said Natalie Redmond, Vice President of Membership for the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce. “This is why it’s so important to keep and check your tickets. You never know when someone else might miss their opportunity to win $10,000 because they didn’t keep their tickets.”
With all of those tickets in circulation, it makes sense that not every shopper will check their tickets and a delay in giving out the prize would happen.
“We have been fortunate in years past to always have been able to award the grand prize right away.”