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Man loses life savings, wins giant stuffed banana

Posted at 10:43 AM, Apr 30, 2013
and last updated 2013-04-30 11:22:54-04

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A New Hampshire man says he spent his entire life savings trying to win a carnival game, but he walked away with nothing but a giant stuffed banana with dreadlocks.

Henry Gribbohm says he spent $2,600 on a game called “Tubs of Fun,” in which players try to toss balls into a tub, in an attempt to win an Xbox Kinect at the Manchester Carnival.

Gribbohm said the game was easy when he was practicing, but he thinks something changed when he actually started playing and the balls continued to pop out of the tub.

“It’s not possible that it wasn’t rigged,” Gribbohm said.

Gribbohm says he kept trying to win his money back by going double or nothing and lost $300 in just a few minutes.  Afterward, he went back home to retrieve $2,300 more and lost that money as well.

When he went back the next day to complain, Gribbohm said the man who was running the game gave him $600 back.

Gribbohm also filed a report with the Manchester Police Department.  Police say they’re investigating to determine if there was any fraud.

The carnival is run by Fiesta Shows.  The company says the game is run by an independent contractor who’s worked for them for years.  The contractor is also being interviewed by the company.

In the meantime, the Tubs of Fun game has been removed from the traveling carnival.