Oliver Barnes of Great Diamond walked away with a brand new multi-million dollar BMW following the first draw of Digicel’s much-publicised Bimmer Flex promotion on Saturday.
The draw which featured a mix of local and international artistes providing entertainment at the Linden/ George-town mini bus park in Linden on Saturday night saw hundreds of Lindeners turning out to witness the contest among twenty-six B-I-M-M-E-R card holders.
As the pace was set for the drawing, the twenty-six BMW hopefuls were let into a large cage with hand-size cases which were hidden among hundreds of inflated balls. One of the cases contained a note which read “zimm zimmer you got the key to the bimmer.” At the end of a countdown from 10 by the crowd and Digicel’s Marketing Director Donovan White, the BMW hopefuls made a mad dash into the cage grabbing as many cases as possible and securing them in their pockets, jerseys and armpits.
Once they were satisfied that they had as many as they could, they began popping the cases in the hope of finding the lucky note. This process went on for approximately fifteen minutes before screams went up when Barnes was seen raising his hands and spinning in circles, an indication that he had found the lucky note. From then on the air was filled with celebration.
Barnes, who said that he was an exclusive Digicel customer for years, described his fortune as “pure luck.” He said that he went into the cage very calmly but had lumps in his throat when someone in the crowd touched him and said, “you carrying home da bimmer – you look like a classy person and da car is yours tonight.” He said that those words stuck with him as he went through securing four of the cases.
The father of two girls, Sierra, 8, and Chelsea, 4, he received a wave of compliments from the crowd when he presented the TV set he had also won to the lone Lindener in the competition Mae Fraser. While all the others were able to cash in on prizes totalling in excess of $500,000, Fraser did not secure any of the cases. Barnes thought that the rush was too much for her and said that it would have been greedy of him not to share his gifts with her. Donovan White also presented the woman with a new cell phone among other gifts.
Barnes who previously owned a Honda CRV said that while the BMW is considered a luxury ride he would continue to live a simple life. He said that he would have to have a discussion with his daughters before deciding on a name for his new BMW.