Californian businessman who's been hiding cash in cities around the world in elaborate treasure hunt will now hide three boxes of £1,000 'outside of London' next week

A US entrepreneur is finalising plans to bury three wooden boxes filled with £1,000 in cash and bury them in the British countryside as he expands his elaborate worldwide treasure hunt.

Californian businessman Jason Buzi, who is behind the @hiddencash Twitter craze said his treasure boxes will be buried somewhere outside London -but not in the Home Counties.

The 43-year-old property developer told his 666,000 followers that the money has not yet been hidden and it will probably take a few weeks to find.

US property mogul Jason Buzi has said three wooden boxes containing £1,000 in cash will be buried in secret countryside locations outside London and the Home Counties

Jason Buzi put England on alert with his announcement that he was planning to bury three treasure boxes

somewhere in the countryside

Earlier this month 20 envelopes stuffed with £50 in cash were hidden around Kensington Gardens in London. Most were recovered within a couple of hours.

However, the clues for the £1,000 boxes will be far more cryptic in a bid to baffle would-be treasure hunters. 

The clues will be tweeted to followers of the @hiddencash handle.

The successful treasure hunters are asked to Tweet a photograph of them with their winnings to inspire rivals. 

Mr Buzi told The Telegraph that he was following a formula used by British artist Kit Williams who in 1979 buried a valuable golden hare encrusted with jewels in Bedfordshire.

Mr Buzi said he would add clues every two or three day to narrow down the locations of the buried treasure, admitting it could take several weeks

Mr Buzi said the boxes will be buried in fields, somewhere in the English countryside outside of London and the South East such as this idyllic location in Dorset

Jason Buzi launched his treasure hunt scheme in the Spring in San Fransisco before unleashing it on the world using this the image of his squirrel

WHO IS BEHIND @HIDDENCASH?

Jason Buzi, 43, is a San Fransisco property developer who made his millions buying and selling houses in the Bay area
Before moving into property a decade ago, Buzi was involved in internet marketing, selling cars and trading diamonds.
He said he 'discovered real estate' aged 34.
He told his followers: 'I have made more money in a short time than all those other businesses combined. There is nothing like it, unless you are exceptionally brilliant and lucky and have a knack for technology.'
He created his @hiddencash alter-ego in Spring, leaving small amounts of cash hidden around San Fransisco and the surrounding area
He has since attracted almost 700,000 followers as leaves cash in locations around the world.
Last week he left £1,000 divided among 20 envelopes hidden in Kensington Gardens in London.

He said: 'I was so inspired by the idea that this writer could cause such fascination, that so many people could join together in search for something.

'Because the money has gone up we will make the clues much harder, much more cryptic. People found them too quickly when we hid them in Kensington Park; we want to really intellectually challenge hunters with this one.'

Mr Buzi said he had no agenda other than to use social media to bring people together in the outdoors.

‘That’s the key thing here – that and brightening up people’s day,’ he said.

During the Kensington Park experiment, the first envelope was recovered by Sam Wilson of east London who discovered the envelope containing £50 in cash and a hand written note wedged into a tree stump.

She  said: ‘The whole point of this is a game for everyone to get involved. The atmosphere in the park was great.’

Even luckier than her were Adam Mills and Jane Fletcher from north London, who were working together, who found one each – then an extra one.

Mr Mills said he was giving the third £50 to charity.

In America the sums of money involved are generally $100 a time.

After the first hunt in San Francisco the next were in Los Angeles, Chicago and Mexico City.
In Chicago the key clue was ‘What do Life of Pi, Lord of the Flies and Robinson Crusoe all have in common?’

The answer was that they were all castaways – and the cash in Chicago was hidden close to the city’s Castaways Bar and Grill.

In California, a 14-year-old girl who found some £120 in her envelope wept as she told a reporter that she was going to send it to her grandmother in Mexico to help her buy medicine.

Critics and cynics suggest the hunts are either an attention-seeking exercise by Mr Buzi, or a promotional campaign for Twitter, and that the money would be better spent going straight to charity.

The lucky few who found the cash, however, have no complaints.

Kurt Dee from Queens, New York, found one of the @hiddencash envelopes during a treasure hunt in New York's Central Park

DM