Colorado Man Wins Candy Factory After Finding Buried Treasure

A Colorado man won a candy factory after he dug up the golden ticket buried in the ground at Highland Park in Indianapolis.

According to the Kokomo Tribune, 39-year-old father Andrew Maas walked into the park on August 29 and dug up the hidden golden ticket beneath the Vermont Covered Bridge.

The year-long contest was inspired by a Willy Wonka-type treasure hunt and had 35,000 people nationwide solving riddles and searching for golden tickets hidden in every state.

The final ticket, hidden underground in Highland Park, was the key to a 4,000-square-foot candy factory in Florida.

The scavenger hunt was orchestrated by David "Candyman" Klein who is known for developing the Jelly Belly brand in 1976. He also founded Candyman Kitchens.

According to the Tribune, he and his partner Stephanie Thiryacre went around the country hiding golden tickets in every state and then created four-line riddles to lead participants to the prize.

One thousand people were able to register for each state hunt and the winner was awarded a $5,000 prize.

But it was Maas who put the clues together to find the final ticket. He bought an early flight from Denver to Indianapolis and drove straight to Kokomo to dig up the golden ticket.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it,’” he said. “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.”

Because Maas wasn't able to move his family to Florida to run the plant which makes the edible sand-art treat called Sandy Candy, he and Klein worked on an agreement in which Klein gives him the factory and then buys it back from him.

“Whatever it is, we’ll be happy with it,” said Maas. “It’s money we didn’t have. But the excitement and adventure was the real reward. The money is the gravy on top.”