Thank you. But, I still wish to thank everyone here for at least helping me get the $20 gift card. ^_~
Everyone here helped me out, even if only looking in your own cities, you helped inspire me up to take the time to almost win a Droid X. If not for the great people on these forums I would have never looked, since Verizon is running this contest so backwards.
I can tell everyone to not be as trusting as I was with DroidDecoder though. They're very helpful but either unwilling or just too unaware of the final location to be of that much help.
And for those still wondering....Yes, you do get the phone instantly, and there's a Verizon employee on scene to activate the phone with you. You get a special letter with a code on it that allows you to activate the Droid X early. And, I overheard Ted joke about not signing the disclaimer, and the girl in the black Rule the Air shirt told him they'd raffle the phone if he refused. lol I couldn't imagine anyone refusing.
PS: F that stupid 17yr old kid for ruining the contest there. If he would have kept his jerk hands to himself, someone else would have found it and won fair & square. It's bad enough Verizon ran this contest poorly. I'd be really pissed if a 17yr old jerk ruined it in Orlando. Way to think you're too good to follow the rules...jerk.
Hey guys, Ted here (#6 Orlando Gum Ball Guy) - I too have been following the threads and latest on the Droid X here since the product announcement. I found this thread last night, but given how the hints changed, I'm not sure if any of us had any idea that the Beefy King would be the final spot. Like many others, I had a home GPS navigator (my wife) that facilitated me being on I-4 heading towards downtown when the final coordinates were released. Not being stuck in gridlock helped. I'm located a little over an hour out from the final location and staged myself at Downtown Disney. Should have known better, but I figured the Verizon App for Disney wait times might have won them access. So, the downtown Orlando clue came in and I started booking towards Church Street. It's close to South street per DroidDecoder's south of downtown message. However, the coordinates came in while I was still on I-4 headed for downtown, but just in time for me to hit the exits to get to the BK.
Once there, it was crazy 15 hunters looking everywhere, but like Louis said, the Verizon people were not making themselves blend in too well and they were all pointing their cameras at the door (with the gum ball machine next too it). I was trying to figure out where it was when another hunter started to look under the gum ball machine stand (two machines mounted on a single stand). Then I saw the card attached to the machine. Bingo! I did take this fellow hunter to lunch afterwards since he did have the assist. The VZW folks indicated that a number of people were right on top of it, but never saw it.
The Verizon guy onsite was from the local VZW store, the rest of the people were from marketing and had only arrived the day before the hunt. The store this guy was based out of was huge and very well staffed. Maybe some form of flagship store? I imagine that he actually picked the site since he was a local and it matched the trend of public but not something that will get VZW into name use issues if they use it for marketing purposes.
Activated the phone this afternoon (still have to do that at the store) and it works like a champ. The stores already have the accessories, so I was able to get the car dock, hard case, and screen protector (which was a real challenge to get placed properly, even for the VZW team).
I did my best to give a shout-out to Phandroid in my video interview, no idea if it will make it online or not.
Thanks to all the hunters out there (local and remote) who have made this a fun experience and a real thrill. I do wish they would have raffled off a second phone at each of the sites, but at least they did freely give out the gift cards.
Best of luck to the hunters in the remaining cities!
Ted
