The Simpsons House Still Waiting New Owner
September 24, 1997 © Las Vegas Sun, Inc. By Scott Dickensheets

No. 9786065, phone your home!
It’s been four days since the number, listed above, was made public; no winner has stepped forward.

“There are 60 million game pieces out there,” says Anna-Marie Hintgen, a Kaufman and Broad communications specialist. It’s unlikely that everyone with a game piece — clipped from specially marked Pepsi products — was watching the show.

“We think the odds are that (a winner will be declared) down the road, and not necessarily this week.”

But what if the unthinkable has happened — the winning number has been snatched and destroyed by agents of a rival cartoon show, say USA Network’s “Duckman”? Or, even more improbably, that it’s been thrown away and is squished in a landfill somewhere?

Time then for Plan B. The contest numbers were accompanied by mail-in raffle forms for chances at such must-have items as Bart’s skateboard. Should no one prove to have the winning number within three weeks, Hintgen says, a winner will be drawn from the pool of raffle applicants.

So hurry to your nearest landfill, grimy Dumpster or smelly rubbish heap in search of two-liter Pepsi bottles. Should you happen upon No. 9786065, call Kaufman and Broad’s special “Simpsons” house hotline — (800) 821-8989 — for further instructions. And watch out for those guys from “Duckman.”