Hunter Jobbins has had far more than 15 minutes of fame this week, thanks to a KitKat candy bar he never got to eat.

Jobbins, a 19-year-old freshman at Kansas State University in Manhattan, was thrust into the social media whirlwind Sunday evening after someone stole his KitKat bar out of the cup holder in his car, which was parked on campus in front of the Haymaker Hall dormitory, where he lives.

Jobbins said he left his car unlocked while he ran his backpack and laundry up to his room in Haymaker Hall.

Then, after about 15 minutes, he remembered he’d better move his car.

When he got to his car, he saw the KitKat bar was no longer in his cup holder. Jobbins admitted he was a bit disgusted.

Then Jobbins found a handwritten note, scribbled on a napkin left behind by the KitKat kleptomaniac.

Left my car for maybe 15 minutes in front of the dorms and I come back to this. College man pic.twitter.com/KlDx5BtXLX

— Hunter Jobbins (@jabbins) October 30, 2016

The note read: "Saw KitKat in your cup holder. I love KitKats so I checked your door and it was unlocked. Did not take anything other than the KitKat. I am sorry and hungry."

Jobbins, who is studying athletic training at Kansas State, looked at the note for a moment, then laughed.

"I was a little angry at first that someone took my KitKat," Jobbins said. "Then I read the note and figured it was too funny to be mad about.

"I went back upstairs and told my roommates, ‘Hey, you’re not going to believe what happened,’ " Jobbins said. "We all had a good laugh about it. I thought some of my friends on Twitter might think it was funny, too."

So Jobbins took a photo of the scribbled note on the napkin, then sent it out on a tweet, which read, "Left my car for maybe 15 minutes in front of the dorms and I come back to this."

Jobbins pushed the send button and away went the tweet. He probably thought that was it.

Except it wasn’t.

"I did it not expect anything," Jobbins said. "After about an hour, I had 1,000 likes and 1,000 retweets. I said ‘This is crazy.’ I didn’t realize this was going to happen."

But things were just getting started.

"After about an hour and a half, it really blew up," said Jobbins, who grew up in the southern Kansas community of Andale. "I was getting 500 likes a minute. My phone — I thought it was going to explode. It was just a crazy ordeal."

His parents, Jason and Sam Jobbins, quickly got wind of the KitKat caper on Sunday night. His mother sent him a text message as Twitter was blowing up.

"She said, ‘You know, this is funny, but you should have locked your car,’ " Jobbins related. " ‘I know this is funny, but lock your car next time.’

"Now, she loves it just as much as I do. She thinks it’s funny. Same with my dad, too."

It didn’t take long for the folks from KitKat to take note of the free publicity they were getting from Jobbins’ misfortune. They were in touch with him by Monday.

"They sent me a message on Twitter saying, ‘This is crazy — who steals a KitKat?’" Jobbins said. "Then they asked me to get in contact with them."

Soon, Hershey — the company that makes KitKats — was sending a box of the candy bars to Jobbins’ dorm room, "so I could have a few replacements," he said.

Earlier this week, media outlets in Kansas and the Kansas City area picked up the story. Then came national and even international media outlets, all wanting to get a word with the "KitKat Guy."

Jobbins’ original Tweet has long since gone viral — "I think I’m up to 180,000 retweets and 480-some thousand likes," Jobbins said.

On Thursday afternoon, Hershey delivered 6,500 KitKats to Jobbins in Manhattan. The candy bars were stuffed about 4:30 p.m. into his Camry.

This time, he didn’t mind a bit if someone reached into his car to take a KitKat. Or a handful of them, for that matter.

"Any students who want KitKats can come by and take some," he said early Thursday afternoon. "We want to share the wealth, if you know what I mean."

Contact reporter Phil Anderson at (785) 295-1195 or @Philreports on Twitter. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/philreports.tcj/