If You Leave in the Mustang, You Drive Off a Winner

My two tickets for the off by the are still in my wallet- it's hard to give up the dream, even though I saw Robert Gutierrez drive off in the beauty on Monday.

The winner, Gutierrez, 33, said he's excited and overwhelmed, and you can see it in his face as he gets his first real good look at the car. It takes a moment for that "this is really mine" feeling to kick in.

"I never win anything... this is about the best thing that's happened to me!" he said.

He has worked at Sherman-Williams, the store that provided a stunning red and black paint job with a new water-based paint, for 13 years. His boss came down to , the shop that did the body work and really coordinated the refurbishment, to celebrate the win with Guttierez and helped get the paperwork in order just down the street at EZ Auto Registration.

Guttierez was the lucky 1-in-2,000 draw- seriously lucky, seeing as how he bought the ticket on a whim when his boss asked around the shop if anyone was interested in the raffle.

He said he regrets not going to the Santee Car Show, where the winning ticket for the car was finally chosen, but that he'll be there next year, likely displaying the Mustang!

He realized he's really going to have to take care of the car, cleaning it regularly, paying attention to where it's parked, using valet more- all things that hit him when he was taking in the win.

, and , three of the principal people who got the Mustang raffle together for the Chamber saw off the winner as he took the shining trophy home. The trio floated the idea that the Chamber would like to do a raffle like this each year for the Santee Car Show- but no details yet.

Rumor has it that you can see the Mustang a final time at .