Imagine having your son buy Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) on your credit card, and then finding one of the cars from that game turn up on your doorstep. That is exactly what happened when a woman found a Bravado Banshee at her door.
This probably wasn’t what the 56-year-old mum expected to find one day in 2013. The Bravado Banshee is GTA V’s version of the Dodge Viper sports car, and it’s clear to see that the two look very similar to each other. North Carolina mom Cheri Parker had no idea her family would soon own one.
The story began in the early 2010s, when GTA V was first released. We all know how popular GTA V was, and it is still one of the most popular video games ever made, even with the impending release of GTA VI on the horizon.
When GTA V was still new, Parker told her son that he could buy the new game with her credit card. That part of the story sounds very normal. However, what neither she nor her son knew was that, at the time he bought the game, a special competition was being held.
What Was the Competition Being Held in Conjunction With GTA V?
In 2013, West Coast Customs heavily modified a 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10 to create a real-life Bravado Banshee sports car. West Coast Customs, along with Rockstar Games and GameStop, held a sweepstakes that saw them give away their replica Banshee to one lucky individual who bought a copy of GTA V at the time. For GTA fans, this was a chance to own a real slice of history.
The Banshee has been a GTA icon ever since it debuted as the getaway car in the opening moments of Grand Theft Auto III. So the chance to own a real version of that very car was something fans were ridiculously excited about. Unbeknownst to Parker and her son, buying a copy of the game had entered Parker into a sweepstakes to win the car. And as her son had used her credit card, she would be the legal owner of the car if they won the competition.
Well, that is exactly what happened. To the shock of Parker and her son, the 56-year-old mother was the winner of the car in the sweepstakes. You can imagine the shock she felt upon realizing what had happened, with neither she nor her son realizing they were even in the competition.
Given how many people entered the competition, it would have been an even bigger shock to actually win.
What Happened to the Car After the Competition?
Shocked at winning the car, Parker had no idea what to do with it. So instead of keeping it, she decided to sell it to try to fund her son’s college tuition. However, that didn’t go according to plan. The original auction listing showed that she had tried to sell the car for $170,000, grossly overestimating the value of the Dodge conversion. It’s not surprising that she sold it for around $45,000.
The car did crop up for auction again in 2021, this time at GWS Auctions. The listing confirmed it was the very same Banshee, and it went for auction in March 2021. This time, it sold for $95,000, nearly double its original price.
But it was still some way short of the $170,000 its original owner thought it was worth.