Remember When a Maine Man in the 80’s Thought He Won a Corvette?

I remember the weirdest things from my childhood.

Honestly, I never would've ever thought about this situation again, if not for the wonders of Reddit. On the other hand, I knew exactly what the deal was. First off, it involves legendary department store from our childhoods, Zayre. And it also involved a contest they were having, where the Grand Prize was a brand new Corvette.

I remember entering a contest to win a new Huffy BMX from the local shoe store when I was a kid. I pretty much worked my entire future around winning this badass bike. I had it all planned out. My victory ride into school, all the after-market pads and stuff I was gonna put on it. But naturally, I lost. And I was devastated.

Imagine winning the grand prize of a Corvette, only to be duped.

It's one thing to get your hopes up and then not win a prize. But what if you were promised an absolutely life changing prize, only to find out it's a cruel joke. That's what happened to Rod Richie back in the 80's. He entered a drawing at the Lewiston Zayre's, and he won the big prize... A brand new Corvette.

When Rod went to claim his prize, they handed him a Corvette Matchbox car. As you can imagine, he thought the whole thing was a joke, until he learned they were entirely serious. Now this was probably before the age of "fine print" or the official rules being buried on a website somewhere. Rod was beyond bummed. So what happened?

He sued Zayre, of course.

In the video, you never find out the outcome of the story, but one can guess that likely Zayre paid out a sum of money to the guy, and likely settled out of court. Not to mention, somebody probably lost their job over this. I mean, when you start making promises you can't keep, no matter how "implied" they are, you're asking for trouble.

I seriously doubt this lawsuit is what put Zayre's out of business, haha. But in the end, Corvettes are still alive and kicking, Zayre's department store... Not so much. Check out the news story from back then right here... Also, enjoy the height of 80's fashion... Oh, and althought Zayre's is gone, you can actually buy a t-shirt, just sayin'...

I shudder to think what gas was in the early 80's...