(WFLA) — A German man said he found a nearly $4.8 million dollar check made out to gummy bear maker Haribo, only to get some candy for letting them know.
German newspaper BILD reported on Nov. 10 that a man named Anouar G. was returning from visiting his mother when he found a piece of paper on the ground at the Bürostadt Niederrad light rail station stop.
Upon reading it, Anouar discovered that it wasn’t any old piece of litter, but a crossed check for Haribo.
“There was such a large sum on it that I couldn’t even pronounce it,” the man told Bild.
The check was from Rewe, a German supermarket chain, to Haribo for 4,631,538.50 euros. That would amount to $4,791,558.16 in the United States.
Anouar contacted Haribo about his discovery, and a lawyer asked him if he could destroy the check and send photographic proof of it. He did as he was told, and a few days later, he got a box with six packs of Haribo treats.
Despite the sweet offering, Anouar did not seem too impressed with it, saying that he potentially saved the company a million-dollar loss.
“I thought that was a bit cheap,” he told BILD.
Haribo confirmed the interaction to the newspaper but said since it was a crossed check, only Haribo could have cashed it, making it worthless to anyone else.
According to TODAY, social media reactions were split between thinking that he got a pretty good prize versus thinking Haribo should have given Anoaur more for his trouble.
Others said they wouldn’t have been as honest as Anoaur, with one Twitter user saying he would have just walked into the bank and said “I am mr haribo.”
