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Sweepstakes-savvy man is heading off to Italy

By MARY JANE PARK
Published July 13, 2006

PINELLAS PARK - Pepperoni turned out to be a ticket to Italy for John and Judy Ossman. On Thursday, they will pick up John's winnings from a Tyson Foods sweepstakes at the Albertsons on Park Boulevard.

Representatives from the supermarket chain and from Tyson, which produces Wilson Viva Pepperoni, will present John Ossman with the grand prize: round-trip air fare for two to Italy, five nights in a first-class hotel in Florence and a choice of tours.

And get this: The trip is not even the grandest prize he has won.

A retired St. Petersburg police detective, he began seriously chasing such promotions about three years ago. A friend told him about SweepSheet, a subscription newsletter that publishes every two weeks.

He won some little stuff, then a GE Profile washing machine. Then his biggest take: a trip to New York from Saks and Mercedes-Benz, which paid for first-class airline tickets, a stay at the Ritz-Carlton, limousine service and $5,000 to spend at the luxury retailer.

New York was a little rich for his blood, Ossman said. "That $2,000 sports jacket is just not me."

Instead, the couple spent the bulk of their prize money at Off 5th, Saks' discounted merchandiser, in Ellenton's Prime Outlets.

The Ossmans have never traveled outside the United States, he said, although they obtained passports last year after he had his eye on another sweepstakes trip.

They hope to get to Florence in the fall.

"We asked for around the first of October," he said. "It's not a busy season over there at that time. Europeans have stopped taking their two-month vacations by then."

Ossman entered the contest using information from the newsletter and the Pinellas Park Albertsons. The couple shop other places, but Albertsons has "decent prices and good values," he said.

Judy Ossman, a retired registered nurse who worked at Bayfront Medical Center, likes to use pepperoni in salads and other dishes, including pizza, her husband said.

"She is strictly a pepperoni pizza person. For her, there's no other kind of pizza."

John Ossman spends between 20 minutes and an hour completing applications in each SweepSheet issue.

"You do a shotgun thing," he said. "I think, 'I'd like to go to these different places, so I'll enter.' "

He doesn't waste time and effort in drawings whose prizes are not compelling to him. "It just depends on how many are interesting to us."

Sweepstakes sponsors report winnings above $600 to the Internal Revenue Service, so the Florence trip will count as income for the couple.

Surprisingly, John Ossman said, he has noticed no uptick in telephone solicitations or advertising circulars. Apparently, promotional firms do not sell winners' personal information.

"If they did, I'd probably start thinking about backing off of it," he said.

He has a tip for novice sweepstakes chasers. Follow the contest rules to the letter.

"If you don't follow all of the rules of the sweepstakes, you're disqualified.

"If they say they want your first, middle and last names and you write just your first and last names, you're disqualified." If a 3- by 5-inch postcard is required, don't mail your entry on personal stationery.

The Tyson promotion required entry on a 4- by 6-inch paper. That's not a standard paper measure, and Ossman figures he increased his odds of winning by sticking with the guidelines.

[Last modified July 13, 2006, 00:14:23]