LV man finds impostor M&M

Monday, April 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Gene Brown opened a package of peanut M&Ms Sunday night during a card game. He spotted a gray M&M and immediately thought he had won the $1 million prize offered by M&M Mars in its promotional sweepstakes.

"I jumped up and down in my living room for about an hour and a half," Brown told KTNV-TV Monday.

When Brown contacted M&M Mars, he was told he had a defective treat.

"I have an albino M&M and it was a mistake and shouldn't have been there," he said.

Pat D'Amalo, a spokeswoman for M&M Mars, told the station that the M&M must say the person is a winner.

Brown said he is considering legal action.

Two weeks ago, Jason Rollman, a 19-year-old college student at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, found a gray M&M with a slip that said, "You found me. Congratulations." Rollman won $1 million, which will be paid in annual checks of $50,000.

The odds were 274 million-to-one.

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