PAPER TRAILS: Little Rock man wins lifetime supply of bacon

Joe Craig of Little Rock just brought home the bacon. Literally.

It began when Craig, who is retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, entered a Smithfield Foods Inc. sweepstakes.

Explaining the various ways to enter, he says, "You could send in a postcard."

Only he didn't just send in just a postcard. He estimates, "I sent in probably 30 postcards" between last summer and the Dec. 31 closing date.

After all, entering contests is "kind of a hobby of mine," he says. "I enter just about any sweepstakes I see that has a prize that interests me."

And the Smithfield sweepstakes did, Craig says: "I wasn't expecting the grand prize. They had 500 or 600 prizes, and I was hoping to win either a bicycle or coupons for free products."

So when he received an email at the end of January indicating he was a winner, he says, "I thought, 'Good! I hope I won the bicycle!' It was, like, the third prize. It was a pretty neat-looking bicycle. I could ride around the neighborhood."

But he didn't win that.

Better.

Craig learned he was, in fact, the grand prize winner of the entire contest: The Smithfield Bacon For Life Sweepstakes!

Exactly how much is "Bacon For Life?" Craig explains it's 1 pound of bacon per week for 50 years -- or $20,770 worth. He was shipped a briefcase containing 260 coupons good for a pound of bacon (expiration year: 2025) and a check for $18,700.

Craig -- a NASCAR fan -- and his wife Debbie were flown to Florida earlier this month where they received the VIP treatment at the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway. While in town, he was filmed in a video (tinyurl.com/craigbacon) with NASCAR driver Aric Almirola who, on behalf of his sponsor Smithfield, presented Craig balloons and a bouquet of bacon roses.

"The average person does not believe that real people win sweepstakes -- that it's just all an advertising thing. Well, they do win. I'm proof of it," says Craig, who previously has won everything from a trip to the Indianapolis 500 to $100,000 in a Chips Ahoy! cookies sweepstakes.

As for what he'll do with all that bacon, Craig says he'll certainly eat some: "I love bacon. Anyway you can fix it or on anything. I love bacon. ... Fried bacon -- I like it crispy. I put it in omelets. I like to dip it in chocolate. On salads, it's good. On burgers."

And, Craig says, "I'm going to donate a lot of the bacon to a local organization that feeds the homeless. I have friends and family I'm distributing coupons to ... but I'm going to give the bulk of it to a local charity."

After all, helping others via deductible donations will help him, too. He's responsible for paying taxes on the full prize package, and that's a lot of, well, bacon.

Email: [email protected]

SundayMonday on 02/24/2019