Coupon Mad

Sharon Otten, 40, an apparel saleswoman in Anaheim, Calif, knows a good deal when she sees one. When she discovered an automobile dealer's coupon in the Orange County Yellow Pages offering $100 off the price of a new or used car, she was not content to let her fingers do the walking. Instead, Otten went from door to door, besieging relatives, friends and strangers to give her the coupons from their phone books. She even got one from her mother-in-law. When she had collected 91, she offered them to Dealer Scott Nowling after bargaining with him for a 1982 Oldsmobile Firenza, listed at $10,394.

When Nowling balked, Otten accused him of false advertising and filed a suit for the cost of the car. Nowling says no one ever told him he had to specify one coupon per customer. Refusing to settle out of court, he protested: "We have to stand up for what is right. She shouldn't get something for nothing." Otten, who contends that Nowling has received $10,000 in free publicity alone, is confident she will win the case. Meanwhile, she has not stopped collecting coupons. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.