Sais Ruiz arrived at Kansas State’s campus at 3 p.m. on Sept. 13, armed with his phone, tape and $200 worth of $20 bills. Starting by the Union, he began to walk around campus, scouting out the best location. Once he chose the spot and saw the coast was clear, he opened his envelope of cash, secured the money on the tape and stuck it under his designated spot.
“Typically, I like to come during the weekends, just so I don’t see that many students around so I have a better chance of hiding stuff and not getting caught,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz is the designated hider for K-State’s campus, driving from Shawnee County to Manhattan once a month to create content for @findthemoneykstate’s Instagram and TikTok. Hired by a mystery man from Texas, he travels to both the K-State and the University of Kansas campus to hide money for the social media account.
With over 2.7k followers on Instagram and nearly 6k on TikTok, this account was created to support students while still allowing them to have fun.
“We have students that will hide the money for us, especially if they have editing skills, like video editing, because some of the most fun videos are when they’re recording the hunt portion of it,” the mystery man said. “It’s just fun to see how excited someone gets when they’re the first one there. Sometimes it’s funny just the things people do when it’s not there.”
The hunt goes beyond Kansas colleges; the mystery man, who is located just outside of Dallas, also hosts money hunts at other colleges like Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.
The mystery man said the idea for the hunt originated from similar social media videos that had taken place in U.S. cities.
“As soon as I found that this was like, a way where I could generate a lot of views and do it in a hundred percent positive way, I was like, ‘Man, this is super cool,’” he said. “The problem with the city [is] it’s just less fun because it’s like, all different people. It’s kind of random. In the college town, it’s cool because everybody’s united in a college town. Like, everybody’s a huge K-State fan, and it’s basically a college page.”
Affording this kind of project isn’t an issue for the mystery man, and he compensates those who help him run his social media.
“I kind of pulled in people I’ve worked with in the past with different social media stuff,” he said. “I showed them what I was doing. I was like, ‘Hey, I have the money to fund this if you can help me upload the videos and stuff.’ I’m basically managing the people that are managing. It’s all people I’ve met just throughout being an entrepreneur — now with these pages, it’s crazy.”
Ruiz said he was contacted by his mother, who said the mystery man was an old co-worker of one of her friends. The mystery man knew he was in the Kansas City area and wanted to see if Ruiz would help run his social media for K-State and KU.
“He’s kind of trying to do it, like give back to college students because most of the time they’re broke,” Ruiz said. “I do Kansas and then I also do KU. But just for the memes, because I’m here right now, I prefer coming out here.”
This week, there is one $20 bill located close to The Collegian newsroom. Between McCain and Kedzie Hall, there is a bright seat that just might have money taped to the back.
Happy hunting!