Adrain Kendrick, come on down!
Kendrick, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall safety manager, won a fully loaded 2017 Mercedes-Benz S550 worth $139,142 while competing on The Price is Right.
"I enjoyed winning obviously, but the most memorable experience of the whole thing is the people, the strangers that we met and by the time the show was done recording, you felt like you knew them for years, including the cast." he said in an interview with the Pentagram.
Kendrick and his wife were in California last November celebrating her birthday when he was selected to appear as a contestant on the show.
"I didn't know we were being screened as potential contestants until much later in the day," he said. "You get in line. They rate you by priority. We were like the last group there that could possibly get in."
Prior to the trip, Kendrick tasked himself with planning out the couple's vacation itinerary.
"We got Dr. Phil tickets, we got Let's Make a Deal tickets, we got Price is Right tickets and Two Broke Girls tickets," he said. "We kind of picked The Price is Right because it fit in [our schedule] for that day, and we kind of joked that our parents watched Price is Right when we were kids."
The show featuring Kendrick was recorded last Nov. 16 and aired Feb. 19.
"The whole process is secrecy," he said. "You are not allowed to tell anyone until it airs. Family members didn't know. No one knew except my wife and I."
At the time of his win, Kendrick was given the car's license plate, which he hid away so no one would see the evidence of his big win.
"The celebration that you see amongst the audience, that's not fake," said Kendrick. "People are like that from the time they get in line to the time the show is over, literally. They are really excited to be there and they want to be there. No matter whose name is called, everybody is celebrating that person."
Kendrick played one of The Price is Right's most well-known games, called "The Golden Road." The game begins with a grocery item that is priced under $1 whose price is shown to the contestant. The price of a three-digit prize is then revealed, with the hundreds digit missing. The contestant must choose one of the two digits in the price of the grocery item as the missing digit.
If the contestant is correct, the game continues with a four digit prize whose missing hundreds digit is one of the digits in the price of the three digit prize. If the contestant is successful, they move on to select the hundreds digit in the price of a five or sometimes six-digit prize.
Kendrick made it through all four rounds, picking up a Playstation 4 package, and a living room set in addition to the Mercedes, which he plans to sell.
"We have three kids who are getting married between now and June, so more than likely once we sell the car and get the proceeds, we'll probably use it to get wedding gifts and stuff," he said. "We'll bless everybody else."
Kendrick, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, has worked on the joint base since December 2013.
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