We love contests! Everyone wants to win the Big Prize. In this case the contest was to write the winning entry about Why You Want to Live in Manhattan Beach. The prize was an ocean view house in the sand section of Manahttan Beach.
Palos Verdes had just completed a successful charity lottery contest that sold tickets for a chance to win a million dollar home on The Hill or cash. The money raised had been large and the winner got the prize so what went wrong in Manhattan Beach?
Palos Verdes had just completed a successful charity lottery contest that sold tickets for a chance to win a million dollar home on The Hill or cash. The money raised had been large and the winner got the prize so what went wrong in Manhattan Beach?
From the onset there was something not quite right about the whole deal. You had to write an essay instead of buy a ticket and this wasn't for a charitable cause but a way for the owner to make more money then from a conventional sale of the property.
In April 2001 the contest ended and from that point everything went downhill... FAST! The first thing wrong was that the home was worth over $800,000 and they didn't receive enough entries to cover the home's value. The second item was that no one knew who was choosing the winning entry. And finally the person who won suddenly didn't want the home.
The whole thing smelled and complaints were filed with the District Attorney and a civil lawsuit was instituted against the property owner.
Six years later after the home was sold, a bankruptcy was filed by the owner and a civil court case was won; the contestants are getting their $195.00 fee back.
No one really knows the whole story about what happened.. whether it was a scam from the start or a bad idea that just got worse as time went on. What ever the true answer everyone lost on this one.
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