If you find a weird Cheeto in your bag, it could be worth $50,000
Somewhere out there, tucked away in a bag of Cheetos, is a crunchy cheesy treat that kinda looks like Tom Cruise, or a tiger, or the Empire State Building, or a politician, or maybe another Harambe.
And it could be worth some big coin to someone.
Cheetos has launched a contest to find the most uniquely shaped of its orange snacks to display in the world’s first Cheetos Museum inside the Ripley’s Believe It or Not in Times Square.
The company was inspired by customers who post hundreds of photos online of Cheetos they find that resemble more than random bites of crunchy goodness and orange dust.
Remember the Cheeto shaped like Harambe? In February a “rare” Flamin’ Hot Cheeto shaped like the famous gorilla sold for nearly $100,000 on eBay.
Since the dawn of snacking, people have discovered Cheetos that look like other things. Some of them are displayed inside glass boxes at the Cheetos Museum, which is open through the end of summer.
I think of the museum collection as a family. And what family would be complete without a cheesy dad? $5K is all yours. #CheetosMuseum pic.twitter.com/R7c5OBGa04
— Chester Cheetah (@ChesterCheetah) June 30, 2017
No wonder she spends so much time in a pool. Gotta cool off all that Flamin’ Hotness. Submit shapes with #CheetosMuseum #Contest pic.twitter.com/MCBhDe4peE
— Chester Cheetah (@ChesterCheetah) June 21, 2017
People have taken to sending photos of their odd-shaped finds to Cheetos headquarters.
“The truth is, the whole program was inspired by the fact that people would send us pictures of shapes, or put them online, or even try to sell them,” Kimberly Scott, a director of communications for Cheetos, told Food & Wine.
“We started to think, ‘Hey, that’s really fun,’ so we created this program last year. And we just knew it was a huge hit. We had over 100,000 shapes submitted.”
This year, between now and Aug. 6, the company will award $5,000 to weekly winners and then two submissions – classic Cheesy vs. Flamin’ Hot – will vie for a $50,000 grand prize. Cheetos fans will choose the winner online.
Photos of entries can be submitted to the Cheetos Museum website.
The winning Cheeto will be displayed in Ripley’s permanent Odditorium collection and appear in a future Ripley’s Believe It or Not book, according to Food & Wine.
“Really, any Cheetos shape in any bag can be a masterpiece,” said Scott.
This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 9:47 AM with the headline "If you find a weird Cheeto in your bag, it could be worth $50,000."