Cadillac woman wins jeep in Internet contest

Sally Barber | Cadillac News Front, Susan and Geoff Kegerreis stand next to their new 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with DonÕs Auto ClinicÕs Tod Winkle in the background. Susan recently won the jeep and other prizes in an Internet drawing.

CADILLAC — Susan Kegerreis never really considered herself lucky.

Sure, she had won small things in drawings like posters, CDs and jewelry. But it was never the grand prize.

Back in October, the Cadillac woman went online and entered as many drawings and contests as she could. She told her husband that if she didn’t win anything big, she would stop.

Four months later, Kegerreis received a phone call saying she was the grand prize winner of a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in the “Rolling Stone’s” nationwide Exclusive Rides Sweepstakes. At first, she didn’t believe it.

“As soon as he said I was the grand prize winner, I said ‘yeah right,’” she recalled. “I thought it was a friend making a prank call.”

Soon, she received documents verifying that she won the jeep, along with a Tony Hawk skateboard, PlayStation video game and magazine subscription.

“As soon as I told my husband, he was so excited. When we were looking at vehicles, that was the exact one we wanted,” Kegerreis said. “Out of all the contests I have entered, it is ironic that this is the big one.”

The Kegerreis plan to get a lot of use out of the jeep this summer because they do a lot of camping and kayaking. They also have two dogs that they sometimes take with them.

“Since my husband (Geoff) is a self-employed forester, he’ll probably use it a lot because he spends so much time in the woods,” she said. “But he isn’t going to have it all the time.”

Kegerreis plans to continue entering contests and drawings online. But as for her secret of success, she isn’t sharing it. She did say there are a lot of contests and she enters as many as she can.

“There are a lot of bizarre contests out there,” she said. “The other day there was one called ‘Spice up your life.’ The grand prize was a laptop computer and Mrs. Dash seasonings and marinades. It was an odd combination.”

Kegerreis said that she believes her positive attitude and persistence helps increase her odds of winning.

“Every day I wake up and say ‘what am I going to win today,’” she said.

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