Man Behind Hidden Cash Craze Announces New Charity Effort Aimed At Fighting Hunger
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It was a summertime surprise we'll never forget where crowds converged looking for some cold hard hidden cash throughout the country, including in Sacramento.
Months after he put an end to it, the man behind the Hidden Cash craze opens up to CBS13 about why he stopped and what his next move will be.
It was part scavenger hunt, part Christmas morning. At parks, beaches and cities far and near cold hard cash was hidden, waiting to warm the hearts of thousands.
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The man playing the role of Santa Claus stayed behind the scenes at first.
"But I thought what great timing because this thing is really taking off," said Jason Buzi.
The Bay Area real-estate investor dropped envelopes filled with cash ranging from $10 bills to $100 bills. After dropping the first few clues on Twitter, people dug deep and did the Hidden Cash crawl from Southern California to Sacramento to Berlin to Bakersfield.
The money flowed with $1,000 to $2,000 dropped at a time.
But after about three months, hidden cash dropped from the headlines.
Buzi's answer was simple: "It was like usurping my whole life," he said.
The free cash craze got too big too fast and became too time-consuming for just one person.
"I know that I had to step back and we had to take a break because it was just consuming all of my time and energy and I'm not even talking about money although it was consuming quite a bit of that, too," he said.
How much? A total of $60,000.
Buzi's extended family started to worry.
"'What are you doing?' 'You're giving away too much money' or they don't like the publicity or things like that," he said.
He grew to like the publicity and loved the Hidden Cash campaign from the very first dollar.
"The excitement of it -- you felt like a kid again," he said.
It was a game of hide-and-seek filled with close calls as he was dropping the money.
"I saw a girl looking and she said, 'Are you looking for the hidden cash too?' and I said, 'oh yeah,'" he said.
There was another reason the cash drawer closed that had Buzi re-evaluating his plans.
"There was some damage to a park, for those who don't know, and we paid the cost of that, but things did get rowdy. I was a little bit concerned after that," he said. "It's kind of a wildcard, when you have hundreds of people gathering in one place looking for money, and we're very fortunate that nothing really bad happened."
The Hidden Cash craze inspired far more good than bad. Take a scene in Sacramento where people used the money to buy food for the homeless.
Now, three months after stopping Hidden Cash, the man behind it all tells CBS13 he has something new to announce.
The Hidden Cash craze is about to become a very visible way you can donate to charity. In doing so, you can feel good at helping and be eligible for prizes.
"In the spirit of the holidays, and Thanksgiving is coming up this week, we wanted to get together with a group called Feeding America that operates soup kitchens all over the country," he said.
You can donate to Feeding America through the Hidden Cash Twitter account.
But we had to ask if we had seen the last of Hidden Cash.
"I don't want to close the door, but if we can figure out a way to keep giving back in like a fun way that's totally safe and totally sustainable, I definitely want to use it as a force for good," he said.
