Schoolboy finally gets his £10 prize for finding a coloured sweet 17 years ago.
It’s never too late to live up to your promises, proved Nestle, after sending a competition winner his £10 prize money for a competition he won in 1996, reported Mail Online.
James Barnard found the green Polo mint in 1996, when he was just 11 years old. But Nestle failed to send him his promised prize money. At the time, the company was offering a £10 cash prize for finding coloured mints.
The competition was dubbed the ‘Golden Polo’ competition, and the aim was to find a coloured mint among the usual white ones.
Seventeen years later, aged 28, Barnard could not let go. He sent the confectionary giant a letter informing them he was still waiting for his prize money. And it paid off. He got his £10, a packet of mints and an apology.
Mail Online reported Barnard was "surprised to receive a reply at all, if I’m honest".
Mr Barnard wrote on Nestle’s Facebook page: "Can you imagine what £10 is like to an 11-year-old boy?
"This meant a new battery pack for my Gameboy. I didn’t eat it (although I did lick it to find out what a green Polo tastes like) but I read the instructions and duly posted it off to Nestle to claim my reward.
"Do you know what a tenner in 1996 is worth these days? £15.90 but that’s not the point.
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"Ten pounds of entertainment to an 11-year-old boy is utterly priceless.
"Instead you left me with a subconscious feeling of loss, a void in my life, like the void in the centre of your sweet…"
The power of social media is alive and well – it’s a just a shame Facebook wasn’t around 17 years ago, or Barnard would have got his money when he was young enough to feel like he'd won the lotto!