Publishers Clearing House Makes A Surprise Delivery In Noyac

It’s not every day that a couple of well-coiffed and tanned men wearing matching navy blue blazers, white shirts, orange knit ties and tan trousers show up on a side street in Noyac. Especially not when one of them is carrying a bouquet of flowers, a bunch of balloons, and a bottle of Champagne — and the other guy is holding an oversized check.

It turns out the Publishers Clearing House’s Prize Patrol team was in town on Thursday, June 16, staking out a one-story red house on Ridge Road, where they wanted to surprise its resident, Lynn Bromberg, with a $10,000 check.

There was no car in the driveway, and the house looked pretty quiet. Howie Guja, a resident of Westhampton Beach whose job it is to travel the country year-round to deliver checks each week ranging from $1,000 to $10 million, said it’s a rare occasion when he doesn’t have to book a flight to make his delivery, so he was looking forward to this visit.

But could this be the rare bust when the prize-winner is not home, spoiling the surprise that PCH, as it now calls itself, tries to pull off with every award?

The arrival of the Prize Patrol on the quiet block brought out a curious neighbor, Lauren Tedesco, who was home on her lunch break when the activity brought her outside to watch.

With cameraman George Mantzoutsos filming their every move, Guja and Todd Sloane, senior vice president on the creative side, who lives in East Hampton, made their way to the door.

Sloane is the guy who, more than 30 years ago, came up with the idea of bringing prize money directly to winners’ front doors. He said reactions of winners, when they are caught at home, are more realistic than when the company used to fly some people to New York, where they were put in a studio and asked to tell the camera that, yes! they had actually won a prize in the never-ending sweepstakes. “People just thought they were bad actors,” he said.

After Sloane rapped a few times on the door, there was a hesitant answer. A young man, Bromberg’s grandson, Jayden, peered out warily. He told them that his grandmother was home but was confined to a wheelchair, and it would take a minute for her to get to the door.

A woman’s voice could be heard calling out, “I didn’t do it!” from inside the house. But moments later, Bromberg, 78, wheeled herself to the door, and Guja and Sloane announced that she had won that week’s prize.

“You just made my day, my week, my life,” she told them. She said she had house repairs that needed to be attended to, and she needed to buy a new car to replace one that was totaled in an accident months ago.

Guja and Sloane went through the paperwork that accompanies such events, including having her sign a release so her image could be used and a federal tax form.

They posed for a few suitably cheesy photographs and asked Bromberg what advice she would give other contestants. “You just play,” she said. “Play often.”