“Toy Yoda” Redux

With apologies to Keith Rowley for the title, a variant of the fact pattern has struck again — a company makes a promise of an automobile as part of a promotional activity, only to reveal some trickery when the prize is delivered.  Times change, however, and this time it was a Hummer that was at issue.  The victim of an April Fool’s Day prank by Kern County (Calif.) radio station KBDS, Shannon Castillo believed she had won a real Hummer by correctly guessing the number of miles that two real Hummers drove around Bakersfield during a the weeklong contest.  When she was presented with a radio-controlled toy Hummer (after getting babysitting and arriving at the station at 6:00 a.m. to claim her prize), Ms. Castillo was not amused.  She is suing the radio station for $60,000 in real money – the approximate price of a new H2 Hummer vehicle.  The complaint is here.

[Wayne Barnes]