A NEW Hampshire man says he lost his life savings, $US2600 ($2500), on a carnival game and only has a stuffed banana with dreadlocks to show for it.
Henry Gribbohm, 30, says he wanted to win an Xbox Kinect at a game called Tubs of Fun where contestants toss balls into a tub.
He says the game was easy during practice but then when he started playing with money the balls would keep popping out.
"It's not possible that it wasn't rigged," he told CBS.
Mr Gribbohm says he lost $US300 within minutes and went home to get $US2300 more but had soon lost that money too.
Fiesta Shows which ran the carnival where Mr Gribbohm lost his money says the game is run by an independent contractor and they were investigating the matter. Tubs of Fun is being rested in the meantime and will not be set up at Fiesta's next carnival.
“(The contractors) have been with us quite a while,” said Fiesta Vice President John Flynn. “First I ever heard of anything like that.”
“I know it’s a difficult game. I’ve tried it myself - I’ve done it once, missed probably 20 times,” he said.
Mr Gribbohm said he went back to complain and the man running Tubs of Fun gave him back $US600. Mr Gribbohm filed a police report anyway.
“For once in my life I happened to become that sucker,” he said. “I was foolish for putting up my life savings.”