Woman wins $50,000 BMW after April Fool's Day 'double-bluff'
One New Zealand woman is living out the real-life version of the film Nebraska — but with a much happier ending.
A BMW dealership placed an advertisement in the New Zealand Herald promising a new car to the first customer to trade in their current car on April 1. Most people saw the date and assumed the ad was an April Fool's joke, but Tianna Marsh decided to take the bait.
Marsh showed up at the dealership at 5:30 a.m. to exchange her 15-year-old Nissan Avenir. The dealership gave her a new BMW that's worth almost $50,000. The best part? The license plate on the new ride reads "NoFooL."
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"The ad was intentionally vague and definitely appeared too good to be true, but in this case we wanted to turn the tables and reward the first person who was willing to take the chance," BMW spokesman Ed Finn told the New Zealand Herald. The paper called the advertisement a "double-bluff."
The dealership had hired security guards in case there were riots or crowds responding to the ad, but not many people believed it was real. The company is selling Marsh's old Nissan and donating the proceeds to GoBabyGo, a charity that provides disabled children with small ride-on cars.
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Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
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