A Man Only Received Candy For Finding Haribo's $4.8 Million Check
Picture it: You're walking down the street and notice a fat envelope on the ground. Upon picking it up, you see that it's stuffed with a significant amount of cash. Written on the front are a name, address, and phone number, presumably the rightful recipient of this unexpected windfall. What do you do?
This was (almost) the experience of one man in Germany who discovered a check for $4.7 million dollars meant for candy giant Haribo, known for its gummy bears. As The Independent reports, Anouar G was standing on a train platform when he noticed what seemed to be a discarded check laying on the ground. To Anouar's surprise, the check was not only filled out but still perfectly usable. The sum of money written out for the check was $4.7 million dollars, or €4,631,538.80, which was meant to be paid to Haribo from a supermarket company.
While he probably couldn't have cashed the check for himself, Anouar did what many would say is the morally righteous thing and contacted Haribo. This surely saved both companies and the bank time and energy trying to track down the check. According to TODAY, as reported by the German newspaper, Bild, a lawyer from the candy company had Anouar destroy the check and in return, he would be rewarded with a sweet thank-you gift.
A sweet reward that left a sour taste
What is an appropriate reward in exchange for preventing such a giant company from potentially losing millions of dollars? Surely, you can come up with some ideas. A cash reward or a lifetime of Haribo products seems reasonable. For Anouar G, his reward was simple, a few bags of Haribo gummy bears.
According to The Independent, Anouar's reward consisted of "a box filled with six packs of Haribo products." To Anouar, the candy-filled package seemed a bit "cheap," considering that he had prevented the company from losing an enormous amount of money. Haribo, however, explained that the gift was its standard "thank-you package" that the company had prepared, not something that was quickly tossed together to save face.
FOX Business was told by a Haribo spokesperson "Whilst we recognised that this was a crossed cheque that could not be deposited by anyone but the company this was addressed to, we were grateful that Mr Anouar took the time to contact us and we were pleased to share a sweet gesture with him as a thank you."
Whether or not you think getting free candy in exchange for a few million dollars is up to you. Was it really a sweet deal after all?