Toppenish boy prefers cash to tickets to Britney Spears

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 23, 2002

Associated Press

YAKIMA — Bob Dole might have taken the tickets, but Andrew Benson decided he’d rather have $475 in cash than see teen pop queen Britney Spears in concert.

Andrew, 13, twisted off the cap from a bottle of Pepsi on Tuesday and discovered he had won four tickets to a Spears concert and $200 in spending money.

"I don’t really like Britney Spears," said Andrew, a seventh-grader at the Yakama Tribal School near Toppenish. His taste runs more to rap artists.

So he called the toll-free number on the cap and traded in the prizes for $475, which he plans to share with his nine brothers and sisters and four cousins.

His mother, Yvonne Benson, will pitch in another $25, so he can start with an even $500.

Andrew said he felt lucky after he spent $1 on a Pepsi at the school store.

"This might be a winner," he recalled telling his friends.

There are 4,800 bottle caps offering tickets to Spears’ Summer 2002 Tour concerts, and the odds of winning are 1-in-51,163, according to PepsiCo.

Both former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole and Spears have appeared in advertisements for Pepsi.

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