Seaside-home essay contest 'too good to be true'

SEASIDE, Ore. – The chance to win a coastal-area cottage, by simply sending in an essay and 99 bucks, seemed like a dream for thousands of eager contest participants.

Henry Barber of Vancouver was one of those who "dreamed big." He said he was skeptical when he first saw the contest advertised, so he checked into it and says it looked real.

Police now say the "win99dollarbeachhouse.com" contest is a scam, run by this man: 55-year-old Theodore "Ted" Zennie. Detectives said he billed the contest as his way of selling his Seaside-area beach cottage in a bad economy. With a goal of 4,000 entries, for a total of nearly $400,000 raised, Zennie reportedly lured thousands of people from as far away as the Philippines and Israel to enter.

We do not know for sure how much he ended up earning before investigators moved in.

Zennie was arrested Thursday, after drug raid by Clatsop County Interagency Narcotic Team agents on the Seaside home. The Narcotic Team was assisted by Seaside police and Clatsop County Sheriff deputies for the early-morning raid - with a search warrant - at the 560 S. Columbia St. home in Seaside.

Inside they reportedly found two ounces of heroin, scales, packaging material and US currency.

The investigation began when the Narcotic Team received an anonymous tip that Zennie was a "big heroin dealer," according to a press release from the Clatsop County Sheriff Office. At least one person in the Narcotic Team was able to purchase heroin from Zennie, which gave the agency the justification to obtain a search warrant.

Zennie already was a person of interest on the $99 beach-house essay contest. The Attorney General's Office had already warned Zennie to stop the contest. With no judges, no criteria and no deadline, the contest from the start was breaking the law.

Zennie reportedly told members of the Narcotic Team, after his arrest, that he had used the contest money "to pay bills and buy drugs," the press release reports. Zennie originally told reporters he was planning to sell his house, start a new life and donate some of the money to breast cancer research.

He was taken to Clatsop County jail, where he is charged with drug trafficking. Bail is set at $115,000.

Contest entrants such as Henry Barber, who sent in his essay and cash, wanted to win to turn this "great little beach house, and income producing studios" into a beach getaway for cancer patients like himself.

"I took it seriously; I mean, it was a dream," Barber said. "Unfortunately, when you get cancer, it sucks all the dreams right out of you - especially when they say terminal cancer. [So this house contest] was a dream that came back."

As of Tuesday, the contest Web site has been pulled down. (See the cached page.) The current landing page reads simply: "this contest has been cancelled" with a phone number for questions that, as of Tuesday, does not work.

"You hope on those dreams," Barber said, "but sometimes it just doesn't come together."

- KATU.com Producer Jennifer Meacham contributed to this report.