Raleigh Cash Crawl Scavenger Hunt Draws Hundreds Every Tuesday

The craziness started in December when Roger Kornegay tucked a $100 bill inside a paint can, hid it behind a bush outside an undisclosed Boston Market and posted the whole thing on Instagram, inviting his audience to come grab free cash. It took just four minutes for a white pickup to drive up and collect the Christmas loot, followed moments later by a car full of also-rans.

"Hey," said Kornegay, driving up from his hiding place. "Next week, bigger drop!"

Three months later, the Capital City Cash Crawl has ballooned into a Triangle-wide treasure hunt, sending hundreds scrambling every Tuesday for a hidden wad of bills. What began as a single spontaneous drop has logged at least 16 iterations, with crowds in the dozens giving way to crowds in the hundreds, all tracking clues posted to the @raleighfoodtrap Instagram and TikTok accounts run by Kornegay and his partner Briana.

The mechanics are simple but layered with misdirection. Kornegay hides cash at an undisclosed public location, posts hints on social media, then watches from a distance as seekers poke around in bushes, lift up rocks and dig through piles of pine straw. He has added wads of tape as decoys, and during one early drop the first lucky scavenger found only two of three greenbacks. In another instance, Kornegay filmed secretly from a block away as a woman left cash on a wall, narrating for his followers: "She's leaving money on the wall, y'all!"

As the videos collected an avalanche of views across Instagram and TikTok, the event outgrew its informal origins. The drops have attracted business sponsorships and grown beyond Kornegay's initial solo operation, with the @raleighfoodtrap account now billing the event as "Raleigh's OFFICIAL Scavenger Hunt." When crowds swelled large enough to require a wider lens, Kornegay started shooting his footage with a drone.

That growth has also prompted real caution. Kornegay stopped advertising exactly how much money he'd hidden, not wanting to draw an out-of-control crowd, and he has deliberately avoided weekend drops. "I'm really afraid to do a Saturday crawl," he said. The decision to keep the hunts on Tuesday, combined with limiting advance publicity, reflects how quickly a paint-can Christmas stunt can test the limits of informal crowd management.

The Capital City Cash Crawl runs every Tuesday, with clues posted to @raleighfoodtrap on Instagram and TikTok.