Tweeter sparks chaos, copycat in hunt for cash

@HiddenCash began the hunt in San Francisco a little over a week ago. Photo / AP

The sun was out as usual in southern California this weekend but, even so, one particular stretch of Hermosa Beach in south Los Angeles was unusually busy.

Most of the beachgoers weren't surfers or sunbathers, however, but treasure-hunters on the trail of free money, left by the anonymous benefactor behind the Twitter feed @HiddenCash.

The mysterious tweeter, whose generosity has led to chaotic scenes up and down California, announced on Sunday that he had stuffed cash into 36 plastic models of red Angry Birds and buried them ankle-deep in the sand at Hermosa Beach.

One person who had dashed to the scene in search of a stash described the scene as "pandemonium", with several news helicopters hovering overhead to film the frenzied hunt.

A similar sight greeted visitors to the Empire shopping centre in Burbank on Saturday, after @HiddenCash secreted three envelopes filled with dollar bills in the area. One man found US$135 outside a restaurant, another got US$200 from a rubbish bin, and a 14-year-old girl walked away with US$210 pulled from a flower bed.

@HiddenCash began the hunt in San Francisco a little over a week ago, hiding envelopes across the Bay Area before he headed south to Los Angeles.

On Saturday he hinted that the latest location "sounds like where a robin or eagle might keep their money". A bird-bank? Yes, almost: Burbank. After the cash is found, he retweets photographs of the lucky recipients to his followers, of which he now has at least 410,000.

The furtive philanthropist says he's made millions of dollars and yet "many friends of mine, and people who work for me, cannot afford to buy a modest home. This is my way of giving back."

@HiddenCash has already spawned a copycat. In the UK, @HiddenCash_UK has left envelopes filled with 50 or more in Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Brighton and London.

- Independent