New Hampshire man loses life savings on carnival game
Henry Gribbohm claims he was conned, stuck with giant stuffed banana
After learning that a New Hampshire man lost his life savings at a carnival in hopes of winning an Xbox, a satire website offered to buy the large stuffed banana the man received as a consolation gift for the same amount of money the man lost, WBZ reports.
Henry Gribbohm, 30, of New Hampshire, told WBZ-TV that he ended up losing $2,600 playing Tubs of Fun at a Fiesta Shows' carnival. The next day, he said he complained to a person running the game and was given $600 and a large stuffed banana with dreadlocks.
Gribbohm later filed a report with the Manchester Police Department claiming that the game was rigged. The department told the station that it is investigating the matter.
Tubs of Fun is notoriously challenging. Gribbohm told the station that he practiced and thought he had a knack for it. But once the game began, the balls started popping out of the water. His only explanation: "It's not possible that it wasn't rigged."
CollegeHumor.com caught wind of the story, and announced it would buy the dreadlocked banana for the $2,600.
“For every Facebook 'Like' this post gets, we'll put 10 cents toward the cost of Henry's stuffed banana, and if we get to 26,000 Likes, we'll offer to buy Henry's banana for $2,600. If this post gets over 30,000 Likes, we'll offer to buy Henry's banana AND pay for the Xbox Kinect that he was originally trying to win,” the post said.
Like a down-on-his-luck Blackjack player, Gribbohm began making riskier bets to win back some money and told WBZ-TV that at one point he dropped $300 in a few minutes. He went home and got another $2,300, he told the station.
The game is operated by an outside party and Fiesta told the station that it will also investigate Gribbohm’s allegations.
"For once in my life, I happened to become that sucker," he said.
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