Someone is dropping envelopes full of cash across San Francisco — and causing an international frenzy on social media.
An anonymous man with the Twitter handle @HiddenCash has been hiding money throughout the city since Friday last week, leading scores on a scavenger hunt. His Twitter following exploded from a few hundred to more than 80,000 and counting by midday on Tuesday.
One of his clues on Tuesday told San Francisco followers to “find Mr Franklin along the ‘crookedest street,’ (towards the bottom).”
Translation: There was a US$100 bill at the bottom of Lombard Street, the popular touristy thoroughfare that is best known as the “Crookedest Street in The World.”
Hidden Cash’s anonymous creator said his giveaways are a “social experiment for good.”
PROPERTY GAINS
He claims to make his money off San Francisco’s hot and lucrative real-estate market and hopes that winners also “pay it forward.”
Two of his winners said on Tuesday that they did just that.
Sergio Loza, 28, of San Francisco, said he saw a clue on Twitter on Sunday morning with the message: “Early bird gets the worm.” He raced out and found an envelope with US$50 inside taped to a parking meter in the city’s Mission District.
Loza said he spent US$30 on clothes for his two-year-old niece’s birthday and gave her the remaining US$20 as well.
GOOD TO GIVE
“I didn’t spend it on myself,” said Loza, a security guard. “It feels good to give, especially in these times.”
Adam Wenger, 27, said he won US$200 by finding two envelopes about two hours apart on Friday last week in the city’s South of Market District. One envelope read: “With Love, from @)HiddenCash. Leave $20 somewhere and pay it forward.”
Wenger, a Web producer for KGO-Radio, bought pizza for his co-workers on Tuesday and plans to pay a US$100 parking ticket.
“It’s crazy,” he said.
@HiddenCash said on Twitter that he planned to leave envelopes in San Jose, California, yesterday, Los Angeles at the weekend and maybe in New York City next month.
Followers have requested similar gestures in Alabama, Washington and as far away as Pakistan.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese