Friday the 13th was a lucky day for Debbie and Arthur Ethier when the FedEx driver rolled up to their neat trailer and delivered a check for $100,000.
“I didn’t believe it. I thought it was a scam,” said Debbie. “You see these scams going around all the time.”
The prize was a sweepstakes winner from Jackpot Rewards, a Newton, Mass. promotional company.
The company picks winners from the customers who pay $3 each week to belong to an online marketing company. This entitles them to earn discounts on merchandise they purchase on line.
Winners are also chosen from “partner;” companies that collect names of folks who sign up with retailers and for other promotions.
Debbie Ethier did not sign up for the $3 a week membership. Chris Keyes, a Jackpot spokesman, said they were not sure how her name was entered into the drawing. Debbie is not sure how they got her name either, but she admits she has signed up for sweepstakes contests in the past.
“She is a lucky lady,” Keyes said.
It was Oct. 22 when she got the first word that she was in the running for the prize. Puzzled, she called her 75-year-old father, and he warned her to be careful.
“He told me not to give out my checking account number or credit card number,” she said.
Then she started getting a series of e-mails telling her that she was in the finals and said the odds were getting better. Finally the Jackpot folks told her she was one of the final two.
“He asked me for my physical address and directions to the home and told me to be home Saturday afternoon. He told me to get my family there too,” said Debbie, a dietary aide at a Wiscasset assisted living facility.
“Well, I didn’t believe it, and I didn’t call my kids. On Saturday afternoon, I was asleep in my big blue overstuffed chair,” she said.
Her husband, a longtime electrician at Bath Iron Works, was not napping.
He was sitting on the rear of their home where he could watch the street. It was Halloween evening and time for the “trick or treaters” to start making their rounds.
This time, it was not trick or treat. It was just treat, and they brought more than a handful of Snickers Bars to her home.
“I saw this white pick-up pull up down the road and these guys got out. One had a huge cardboard check and other a video camera. I yelled to Debbie. They are here Deb,” said Arthur.
Still sort of napping in her chair, she replied, “No way.”
After getting a big cardboard illustration in the form of a check, she was given some paperwork to fill out and told the real check would be sent to her later. After she filled out the paperwork, she was told the real check would arrive in 30 to 45 days.
While the Ethiers were elated about their seemingly good fortune, they were skeptical about the whole deal. They huddled and decided to be careful, and called Damariscotta attorney David Levesque, and told him about the check.
Levesque told them to bring all the paperwork to his office. He wrote the Jackpot folks suggesting they should send the check to the Eithers – soon.
The next week, they got a big packet of paperwork from the promotional company. They took that to Levesque too.
It was just a matter of being careful, the couple said.
“I am a firm believer that what the big print gives, the little print taketh away,” said Arthur. “We just wanted to make sure.”
On Friday, the deliveryman brought the check to their home. The couple just sat and stared at it.
Then they put their plan into effect. Their tax accountant told them to put $38,000 in escrow for the taxes. They know the taxman will take a big bite out of their prize. It will affect their taxes this and next year too.
Next step is for them to take the check to the bank. When it clears, only then, will they decide what to do with their good fortune.
“We are pretty careful with our money and this could mean we are 99 percent out of debt,” said Arthur.
Last year, for their 20th anniversary, the couple drove to Niagara Falls, NY, for the first vacation in their married life.
“She is my wife and my best friend,” Arthur said, but it was the first time they had gotten away for a time by themselves. “We both work all the time,” he said.
The tough-looking electrician smiles at her and admits he does housework too, helping keep their home so neat it would pass a Marine Corps white glove inspection.
“I do windows, too,” he laughs.
This year, if the check clears, they think they may go to Florida, maybe to Disney World. Arthur says the money is hers and doesn’t blink when she mentions a diamond necklace, or swimming with dolphins.
A bit of help for their children might be nice too, the couple said.
First, however, the check has to clear.
Until then, the check is just a piece of paper sitting on the kitchen table.
After all, you can’t be too careful these days, Arthur said.
