Roach brings woman a dubious distinction

A New Tampa woman's creepy find wins $1,000 and comes close to taking the contest title of largest in the nation.

By MATTIAS KAREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 10, 2000

Please don't think Jamie Tingen has a thing for roaches.

Finding the prize-winning roach that landed her first place in the Largest Roach in Tampa Bay Contest was purely a fluke, she insisted.

"I don't want people to think I live in this roach-infested house," Tingen said. "I hate these things."

Tingen received $1,000 this weekend for finding the 1.69-inch roach outside her New Tampa home. And she was only a hair's width away from winning the nationwide contest, and another $5,000. That honor went to Brenda Thomas, of Baton Rouge, La., whose roach measured 1.72 inches.

"They should've called it a tie, and given us both five grand," Tingen said with a laugh.

The Tampa Bay contest was sponsored by Anti-Pesto Bug Killers of Clearwater, which co-sponsored the national contest with 13 other pest control companies nationwide.

People also had a shot at $1-million, had they found a roach with a special bar code glued onto it that was released in the bay area. Twenty-five bar-coded roaches were set loose in each of the 14 participating cities. One in each city was the winning ticket for a 2000 Volkswagen Bug; the others gave $100 in return if found. The release of the "million-dollar bug" in the bay area was not revealed until Saturday.

It's still not too late to hunt for that one, though, joked Howard Bright, owner of Anti-Pesto. "I'll mark it down: $29.95."

Bright said eight of the bar-coded roaches were found nationwide, although none in Tampa Bay and none that were for a car.

Tingen, a real estate saleswoman, saw the 1.69-inch roach crawling up the outside of her back porch screen while she was on the phone with a friend, she said. She told the friend she remembered hearing about the contest.

"I thought "Well, I'll kill it, and then I'll see if (the contest) is still on,' " Tingen said. "It wasn't something I set out to accomplish, it just happened."

Bright said a similar contest will be held next year. But don't expect Tingen to win that one as well.

"If one just suddenly appears, maybe I'll kill it," she said. "But I don't think I'll be out turning over rocks looking for one."

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