A Colorado man found the winning golden ticket in a Syracuse native’s Willy Wonka-inspired contest, but turned down the grand prize: A candy factory to call his own.
The Washington Post reports Andrew Maas, a 39-year-old father of two from Colorado Springs, entered David Klein’s “The Gold Ticket” contest, which featured riddles with clues to find “golden tickets” — gold necklaces with a tag that includes a code to verify its authenticity — in secret locations in all 50 states. Treasure hunters win $5,000 with each gold necklace, plus a chance to find the “ultimate” prize, which is the key to a candy factory in Florida.
Maas told the Post that he searched in Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas, plus helped his parents in South Dakota. He came seconds within finding the necklace in Kansas, but still hoped to win the grand prize, located in one of six states using a riddle:
“Don’t have [an] instant idea, for a treasure diehard
We see witches nearby, two stand guard
Go Solve and Search, as low as our toe
Why find a nut and walks are no foe”
Maas figured out that “treasure diehard” meant Indiana Jones, so it must be in Indiana. Internet research led him to Kokomo, Ind., where Highland Park features two gazebos resembling witches’ hats. He bought a plane ticket and began searching the area, eventually finding a footbridge with nuts and bolts, then started digging -- and found the final gold necklace.
According to the Washington Post, he registered the necklace’s code online and received a phone call from Klein within 30 minutes informing him that he won. But ultimately, Maas decided not to take on the candy factory, which produces sweet edible sand called Sandy Candy, because he didn’t want to uproot his family and move to Florida.
So they worked out a deal where Klein gave Maas money and essentially bought the factory back from him.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it,’” Maas told the Associated Press. “After all this time, I had it. It was so surreal. I had been thinking about this for a year. It was a crazy mix of adrenaline and excitement.”
Klein told the AP that he had always wanted to give away a candy factory, like in Roald Dahl’s famous book, “Charlie and the Charlie Factory,” which was adapted into a 1971 movie starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and a 2005 remake starring Johnny Depp. The story centers on a poor boy named Charlie Bucket who finds a golden ticket in a chocolate bar and wins a trip to Wonka’s factory, and eventually gets to own the factory himself.
Klein, who was born in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1946 and moved to California with his family at age 3, first rose to fame as the original Mr. Jelly Belly who came up with the popular jelly bean candy’s name. He now calls himself the “Candyman.”
He describes himself as the creator of Jelly Belly and previously served as its spokesperson. He came up with the idea of infusing jelly beans with flavor on the inside and creating fun new flavors, like cotton candy, and contacted the Herman Goelitz Candy Company about developing the product to be sold at his California ice cream shop. In 1976, he invited a reporter from the Associated Press to the store and had fake customers line up out the door; the stunt made national news and put Jelly Belly on the map.
The Jelly Belly Candy Company has publicly distanced itself from Klein, who sold the Jelly Belly name to the Herman Goelitz Candy Company in 1980. The family-owned and operated company, which first started making candy in 1869 under Gustav Goelitz, changed its name to the Jelly Belly Candy Company in 2001.
“Jelly Belly Candy Company has not had a relationship with Mr. Klein since 1980 when it acquired the trademark,” the company said last year.
Earlier this year, Klein launched another “Gold Ticket” contest, hiding a treasure worth $100,000 somewhere within the lower 48 U.S. states. The clues to find it are in a new book called “The Candyman’s Treasure Hunt: The Orb Traveler.”
Klein told the AP he’s given away more than $250,000 in prize money to date, as well as brought joy to treasure hunters and puzzle fans amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We honestly felt like we did some good for the world, and that gave us the greatest pleasure,” Klein said. “It was something to think about and dream about. And sometimes dreams are better than reality.”