By Cameron French

Each year between February to March, Canadians celebrate a grand tradition of hope and frustration – and no, we’re not talking about the weather, it’s RRRoll up the Rim. Most regular Tim Hortons customers have won something at some point, even if it’s just a donut. But it’s not all free caffeine and calories. The temptation of those soggy red paper lottery tickets sometimes brings out the worst in us.

Here are the top six RRRoll scandals and the lessons we can take from them:

2006: A 10-year-old Montreal girl finds an intact cup in the garbage and enlists the help of an older friend to roll up a winning tab for a Toyota Rav 4. Parents get involved, and then lawyers, as the original buyer (who chucked the unrolled cup in the garbage) steps forward with the offer of a DNA test. Eventually, the company gives the SUV to the 10-year-old.

Lesson: The classic lottery ethical dilemma. It’s all teamwork until an actual prize is involved. And as usual, it’s the adults that turn it into a big deal. Tim’s now offers a pre-nup style “pre-cup agreement” for those that want to enter a contract beforehand to ensure they don’t get into a fight later on. It’s kind of meant as a joke, but it does feel like there should be some legislation on this.

Tim Hortons small size coffee cup with the Roll up the Rim contest label. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Mario Beauregard

2008: Newfoundland Tim’s customer Bernard Delaney complains that staff rolled up the rim of his cup to check for a winner before selling him the coffee, after he finds apparent teeth marks (not his) on his cup. The complaint follows that of a Halifax man who also claimed his cup had been pre-rolled. Tim’s blames a cup manufacturing error.

Lesson: This incident exposes the seamy underside of the contest. With the prize hidden under a paper cup rim that you put in your mouth, it gets pretty invasive when you think that somebody may have been already digging around in there. A pre-scratched lottery ticket just doesn’t have the same ick factor.

2009: Vancouver Island house painter Matthew de Jong thinks he’s won the jackpot after he rolls an apparent winning cup for a Toyota Venza. The company doesn’t honour the prize and claims the winning tab is a fake, threatening to turn the case over to authorities. Ultimately, a 12-year-old girl at the house he was painting comes forward and admits she made the bogus cup as part of an April Fools prank.

Lesson: A winning tab is basically currency, so it’s important to examine it closely it before handing it in to make sure it’s not counterfeit. And also make sure the prize is legibly printed by the manufacturer, and not written in princess lipstick.





2011: Tim Hortons CEO Don Schroeder is pushed out after the company misses sales estimates due in part to generous roll-up-the-rim prize redemptions.

Lesson: A reminder that even the executive suite may not be safe from Roll up the Rim controversy. And it’s a shame, because this guy was basically Robin Hood. The odds for winning that year were 1-in-6, up from the normal 1-in-9. Shareholders may have been grumpy, but it was a good year for rollers.

2012: As Tim’s expands its footprint of self-serve gas station kiosks where customers are trusted to behave like adults, some stations are forced to hide their Roll up the Rim cups behind the counter to stop people double or triple-cupping their coffees, or even running off with full sleeves of them. One Ottawa Esso manager likens the customers to “Lord of the Rings” character Gollum yearning for his “precious”.

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