Fast grab pays well

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 6

Fast grab pays well

Giggling all the way to the bank, Heather Dodge, aged 14, could not believe her good fortune. She had just snatched $2516 and the police , were not even remotely interested. In fact she travelled to the bank with her booty in an armoured truck. Heather was chosen out of thousands of Christchurch people to be the one to snatch as much money as she could hold in her arms and keep it. Yesterday at lunchtime, Heather entered a plastic tent set up in the Square, and had one minute to gather as much money as she could. It was the culmination of a publicity stunt held by Radio 3ZB .

I FOr the last four weeks I the radio station has been announcing a name every 20 minutes. People who telephoned the station when they heard their name had their names put into a hat; On Wednesday, by coincidence Heather’s birthday, her mother was in her kitchen preparing vegetables. She heard on the radio that Heather’s name had been picked out of the hat. Heather had just come home from Aranui High School where she is a fourth-former, and immediately set about practising for yesterday’s event. Her four older brothers and sisters helped her rip up newspapers and magazines and strew them round the lounge floor. Heather then spent the next day practising scooping as many

pieces of paper as she could. Her family and friends all watched Heather yesterday, as did a large crowd of shoppers.

About $7OOO in notes was spread .over the floor of the tent. Most bills were $1 notes, but $lOOO worth was in $2O, $lO, $5, and $2 notes. When Heather . emerged from, the tent she said that she would use some of the money for a holiday in Melbourne in July with her mother. She will also buy a new bicycle and a pair of jeans, and bank the rest.

The money remaining in the tent will be given to the new public library to buy new books.

No prizes will be awarded for guessing who will be the most popular girl at the tuck-shop on Monday.