You might think "getting lost in the middle of the ocean and subsisting on tomato paste for several weeks" would mark a low point in your life.
In most cases you'd probably be right.
But in this guy's case, he'd arguably be quite wrong:
The sailor who spent weeks lost at sea in January, surviving largely off of ketchup, could have a new, state-of-the-art boat coming to him.
And the handsome gift would be thanks to Ketchup giant Heinz, which is trying to locate Elvis Francois.
Hold on just a second: They're "trying to locate him"?
The company posted a callout to social media on February 14th, hoping to track down the elusive Dominica sailor. According to Heinz's social media, they've already reached out to the government of Dominica, the island nation where Francois is from, as well as the Colombian navy, which rescued him northwest of Colombia's Puerto Bolívar.
But so far, none of the attempts to find Francois have panned out, says Heinz.
Yeah...if a major multinational corporation was trying to find me to give me a free boat, I'd have one immediate response:
But the ketchup concern is very determined to find this guy:
So the ketchup retailer is now "asking the general public to try and help with the hunt," according to a statement shared with CNN over email.
"We're also asking for any credible leads to contact Elvis so we can help cover a new boat equipped with full navigational technology to avoid another disaster in the future," added the company.
This is a good publicity stunt for the company — they can of course easily afford a boat, it makes them look magnanimous, and it's funny too. It's also a nice thing to do for a fellow who survived a terrible ordeal.
