Man Finds $4.8 Million Check Made Out To Haribo, Gets Rewarded In Gummy Bears

A funny story that appeared in the German newspaper BILD reveals that being a good Samaritan doesn’t always pay off. While heading to visit his mother, a man named Anouar G. happened upon an unbelievable find. 

At the Bürostadt Niederrad light rail station, a stop along his route, he spotted a tiny piece of paper waving in the wind atop the platform. While discarded paper isn’t unordinary, something told him to pick it up. Closer inspection of the paper revealed some jaw-dropping results, as Anouar determined it to be a check made out to iconic gummy bear brand Haribo.

The incredible part is not that he stumbled across the check, but that amount written on the check was an astounding €4,631,538.80. That’s $4.81 million, a large amount in any currency.

“There was such a large sum on it that I couldn’t even pronounce it,” he told BILD.

After Anouar wiped the money signs from his eyes he noticed the check was issued by German supermarket chain Rewe. Clearly, people who shop at Rewe are huge Haribo fans. 

With check in hand and a good moral compass, Anouar decided to report the missing check to Haribo. Following that, one of their lawyers soon contacted him, asking for photographic proof and the check to be destroyed.

Hilariously enough, days later he would receive only six bags of gummies in the mail as a thank you. No doubt feeling proud he did the responsible thing, Anouar was taken aback, expecting something more in return.

“I thought it was a bit cheap,” he admitted to BILD.

Haribo confirmed the story to be true to BILD. But there was a catch, with the candy company revealing, “Since it was a crossed check, nobody but our company could have redeemed it. It was our standard package that we send as a thank you.” 

Even if that’s true, Anouar wasn’t aware of that, believing he was saving the company millions. Would you say that deserves a better thank you than six bags of gummies?