Man Finds Company's Lost $4.7 Million Check, Shocked in a Bad Way When He Gets Reward
The candy giant company Haribo, known best for their gummi bears, found themselves missing a $4.7 million check, according to a November report.
The check, written for Haribo by the supermarket Rewe, was recovered on a train platform by a good Samaritan, who then contacted the company to help out.
The helpful citizen, Anouar G., destroyed the check for them, as he was asked. Unfortunately, Haribo wasn’t overly interested in rewarding him afterward.
According to the Independent, Anouar was stunned when he found the check addressed to Haribo.
“There was such a large sum on it that I couldn’t even pronounce it,” he told the German tabloid Bild, the Independent reported.
That sum was €4,631,538.80, or about $4.7 million, according to The New York Post.
Man finds £4million cheque issued to sweet giants Haribo… but blasts ‘cheap’ firm’s reward https://t.co/Qbzdi6ABz9
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 14, 2022
Anouar then reportedly reached out to the company to tell them what happened, and they asked him to both destroy the check and send proof of that destruction.
He did so. The reward for his pains? Six packages of Haribo products.
“I thought that was a bit cheap,” Anouar said, the Independent reported.
That’s putting it mildly.
Haribo has since defended the decision.
“Since it was a named check, nobody but our company could have redeemed it,” Haribo said in a statement. “It was our standard package that we send as a thank you.”
It does feel like Haribo is missing the point: Is saving the company the heart-pounding anxiety of looking for a $4.7 million asset worth only a few dollars’ worth of gummi products?
Additionally, what company is informed that a good Samaritan has done something enormously to their advantage out of the goodness of their heart, only to tell that good Samaritan to do more things for them at no cost?
This man had absolutely no need to take time to document his shredding a check — a check the company itself said was inert because it was solely addressed to Haribo.
It feels petty. Sure, Anouar probably didn’t deserve a new BMW, but there’s a world of thanks between that and six packages of gummies that could have been expressed.
Even if the company doesn’t agree with that idea, think of this: The next time Haribo needs help from the community, is there any possible way this incident makes people more inclined to chip in?
Of course not. Hopefully, Haribo won’t need to count on the kindness of strangers any time soon.
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