Carmel Mountain Ranch Woman Wins on 'The Price Is Right'

SAN DIEGO, CA: Thanks to one of America’s longest running TV game shows, a Carmel Mountain Ranch woman can cross a few things off her bucket list.

Valley Center High School teacher Crystal Rienick won big Tuesday on “The Price Is Right,” taking home a car, two trips and other items.

“I've never been to the show before but it was at the top of my bucket list,” Rienick told Patch. “I'd watched it with Bob Barker since I was a little kid ... I told people I was going to run up and touch the wheel even if I didn't get picked!”

Rienick, an English teacher, said a fellow Valley Center High School teacher, Satya Fleck, heard the show would be taping a “Teachers' Special” episode. So Rienick, Fleck and six others from the school planned a field trip for the day — waiting in line for two hours at CBS Television City in Los Angeles.

“They were all so supportive and so much fun,” Rienick said of her colleagues. “They were my ‘go to’ when trying to figure out what to bid on things. My favorite part of the whole experience is when they all swarmed up on stage when I won the ‘Showcase Showdown.’ Love them!​​”

Patch asked Rienick — a 2014 San Diego County Teacher of the Year and 2014 California Teacher of the Year finalist — what her strategy was to get picked for hearing those famous three words, “Come on Down!”

“I didn't have an ‘official’ strategy to get picked,” she said. “I kinda went spaztastic just because I was there in the first place. Once they put that iconic name badge on me, it was all over. I think the producer called me ‘feisty.’ I don't remember much once they called me to ‘Come on Down!’ It was just a haze of jumping up and down and squealing. I was pretty embarrassed once I saw the actual episode — I pretty much lost my mind.”

Rienick competed in “One Bid,” “Switch?” and “Showcase Showdown,” taking home these prizes:

• Accommodations at The Oaks at Ojai, with limousine service to Ojai provided by BCD Travel Experiences;
• 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sport;
• Trip to Vara Blanca, Costa Rica, with roundtrip airfare provided by BCD Travel Experience and accommodations by Peace Lodge;
• 2016 Vespa Spring 50 Scooter;
• Burberry Women’s Designer Accessory Package; and
• $500 gift card to Teacher Heaven.

Rienick says she plans to sell the Vespa and the Miata to cover the 39 percent prize-winning tax that California is charging her. She also plans to donate the $500 gift card to Valley Center High School.

“Other than that, I'm planning to go to the spa in Ojai and the resort in Costa Rica with my husband, rocking my new Burberry bags, of course,” she said. “I'm most excited about Costa Rica.”

Her colleagues didn’t go home empty-handed: each teacher in the audience received a $100 gift card to Teacher Heaven.

“Drew Carey and the other cast and crew members were so positive and friendly,” Rienick said. “They really made the experience fun and memorable for all the teachers there.”

(“The Price is Right” photos courtesy of FREMANTLEMEDIA NORTH AMERICA.)