Jury awards bottle owner million dollar prize

Thursday, July 20, 2000 | 9:19 a.m.

Finders aren't keepers, a jury decided Wednesday in settling a three-year-old dispute over a prize-winning bottle of Pepsi.

The woman who bought a $1 million bottle of Pepsi Cola gets to keep the cash because she didn't get to drink from the bottle.

Her co-worker's argument that she was entitled to the company's grand prize after finding the bottle while cleaning up fizzled with the eight-person jury.

Judy Richardson, a devoted Pepsi drinker, says she bought the 20-oz. lucky bottle on March 17, 1998, and never drank from it during her shift at Wild Oats Community Market, a health food store. She said she left it in her usual spot on a counter at the store when she left for the day.

Fellow employee Sindy Allen says she discovered what proved to be the winning bottle later while cleaning up. She asked fellow employees if the Pepsi belonged to them. Thinking it refuse, she said she poured the contents down a sink.

But before throwing the empty bottle into the trash, Allen said she noticed the bottle's winning "Globe Bucks" cap. The chances of winning the big prize was 545 million to 1.

Allen's attorney, Benson Lee said Tuesday that the soda's level was a key issue in the trial.

If any quantity of the soda was missing when his client picked it up, "it couldn't have been Judy's," Lee said.

Richardson's attorneys, Lane Kay and Robert Goldstein, say the bottle was never opened.

"If it's full, it's not trash," Goldstein said, adding that, according to law, an attempt must be made to find the rightful owner of lost items before claiming to own them.

PepsiCo Inc. washed its hands of the lawsuit, promising to pay the winner in yearly $50,000 payments as soon as the District Court trial settled the issue.

Richardson, who drinks a bottle of Pepsi each day, said she confronted Allen after co-worker broke the news to her that Allen had the $1 million bottle.

"Finders keepers," she said Allen responded.

The jury didn't see it that way.