“Without exaggeration, there were at least 60 photographers,” Jim Hutz said upon returning from his Bahamas adventure. “We spent half our time posing in front of cameras.”
He and his son, Dave Hutz of Herndon, Va., who won the buried grand prize of a Volvo XC90 V8, were among seven finalists searching for the vehicle on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas.
“It’s like a train wreck, running around like an idiot,” Jim Hutz said of the hunt for clues. The Bahamians, “they were all involved. Sometimes they knew the answer. So in this whole town, everyone got involved.”
On the island, finalists competed in events similar to those on the reality shows Survivor and The Amazing Race. The finalists were shuttled by helicopter, golf cart and boat on and around the sandy beach island of about 650 square miles and used maps and compasses to follow a trail of clues.
Other finalists were from Austria, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and one other from the United States.
Some of the events included a timed scavenger hunt and a game of concentration using conch shells to hide the matching symbols.
Finalists had participated in a month-long online multimedia game beginning in June. Volvo sponsored the contest to tie into the release of the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. About 52,000 people from the United States competed.
Both father and son made it past the first round of three eliminations, though Jim Hutz was eliminated in the second round. In the final event, Dave Hutz faced Akihiro Horibe of Yokohama, Japan. The two men had to piece together a treasure map torn into about 30 pieces on a boat, sail to shore and use the map to find the keys to the SUV, Dave Hutz said.
“I looked back a couple times but I didn’t see him,” Dave Hutz said. “I was going as fast as I could.”
Despite the publicity obligations and the pace, Jim Hutz said his experience was “outstanding.”
“You couldn’t have been treated any better,” Jim Hutz said. “You could have been the president and you couldn’t have been treated any better.”
Each finalist was given a Volvo.
Now the question is who will drive the cars. Dave Hutz has said he would give his car to his wife, Sheila, while Jim Hutz said he is not sure.
Melissa Navas, The Arizona Republic
