Hidden Cash Returns to Santa Monica

SANTA MONICA, CA -- Hidden Cash is back.

The craze that sent hundreds of people scrambling to parks, beaches and other locations two years ago is being revived, apparently by a new benefactor who has announced plans for a $1,000 scavenger hunt at the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday.

According to Twitter posts by @HiddenmoneyLA, the amount of cash that will be hidden will increase based on the number of people who RSVP for the hunt on a Facebook event page. The hunt is expected to begin at noon Sunday.

In an effort to whet people's appetite, the @HiddenmoneyLA organizer slipped $100 in an envelope hidden under a chair at the Tender Greens restaurant in Santa Monica earlier Wednesday. According to a photo posted on Twitter by the person who found the cash, the brains behind the hunt is someone named Francis Hawke.

The Twitter page states, however, that the organizers are "a group of guys from SV tech companies and Hollywood studios, trying to make the world even more magical."

A similar cash hunt was held in San Diego last weekend.

The hunt is a reprise of a craze from two years ago created when a San Francisco real estate investor, later identified as Jason Buzi, scattered money in various places up and down the coast after completing a profitable deal.

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock