US News

Loser’s banana $plat

Henry Gribbohm lost his life savings on a carnival game — and all he has to show for it is this dreadlocked stuffed banana.

The 30-year-old father from Epsom, NH, took his kids to a carnival at Manchester, NH, on Saturday. He was attracted to a game called “Tubs of Fun,” which offered a neat prize, an Xbox Kinect, to anyone who could toss balls into a tub.

It was easy to do when he practiced throwing balls. “It just sinks right in, there’s no issue at all,” he said.

But when he put down money to play, something seemed to change, he said: The balls bounced out of the target.

Gribbohm tried to recoup the old fashioned way — by playing double or nothing.

Within minutes he was out $300.

So he went home and cleared out his nest egg — $2,300 — and tried again.

You can guess what happened.

“You just get caught up in the whole ‘I’ve got to win my money back,’ ” he told WBZ-TV.

But he began to suspect that he just couldn’t be that bad at the ball-tossing game. “It’s not possible that it wasn’t rigged,” he said.

When he went back to the carnival on Sunday to complain, the game’s operator gave him $600 — and the banana. He then filed a report with the Manchester Police Department, which is looking into possible fraud.

Fiesta Shows, which ran the carnival, said the game is run by an independent contractor. “First I ever heard of anything like that,” said “They’ve been with us quite a while,” Fiesta Vice President John Flynn. “For once in my life I became the sucker,” he said. “It was foolish putting up my life savings.”

Flynn said it’s “pretty next to impossible” to lose as much as Gribbohm said.

But, he said, “I know it’s a difficult game. I’ve tried it myself —- I’ve done it once, missed probably 20 times.”

Fiesta said “Tubs of Fun” will have to be cleared of wrongdoing before it can set up shop when the traveling carnival opens at Derry, N.H.

That was little consolation for Gribbohm.

“You’re expecting the kids to win a few things, let the kids have a good time,” he said of going to the carnival.

“It just didn’t turn out that way,” he added.

Now he’s thinking about filing a lawsuit.