How a ‘dude with an iPhone’ started a weekly money hunt in Wichita
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Free Fifty Friday drives citywide hunts via short iPhone videos and cash.
- Seeker of the Keeper runs multi-day clue hunts culminating in a $1,000 prize.
- Knackstedt funds and partners with local businesses to build community engagement.
On nearly any given Friday, a four-word phrase has the power to turn an ordinary weekday into a citywide search for cash.
“It’s Free Fifty Friday.”
For many it’s a signal to grab their car keys and hit Wichita’s streets, pulling into unfamiliar parks and peering behind signposts and light poles in hopes of beating someone else to a $50 bill.
The weekly scavenger hunt, better known as “Free Fifty Friday,” starts on social media where Wichita Famous creator Ron Knackstedt posts short videos to Facebook and TikTok that send followers searching across the city and surrounding communities.
“Free Fifty Friday” is one of two viral concepts Knackstedt runs through Wichita Famous. The other is “Seeker of the Keeper,” a multi-day, citywide scavenger hunt that culminates in a $1,000 prize.
Free Fifty Friday
Each Friday, Knackstedt records himself attaching two separate $50 bills using a residue-free sticker to a pole or object at two random locations in or around Wichita. He hides the money at all hours — from early morning to late evening — so anyone can join the Friday hunt.
He keeps the concept simple: no sign-ups, no digging and no requirements beyond being first to find the cash. Within minutes of the video posting on social media, eager hunters begin to arrive.
Tim Brunson said he just happened to recognize the teased location of one of the Free Fifty Friday bills on Jan. 3. Brunson and his teenage daughters, Briella and Alisa, were thrilled to find it in a parking lot near Andover Road and U.S. 400. Brunson said as soon as they saw the Applebee’s on the horizon, he knew the $50 “could be ours.”
“We’re jumping and screaming,” Brunson said after finding the $50 with his daughters. “I don’t know who is more excited, my kids or me. But it could have been a dollar and we would have been excited.”
It took the Brunsons 10 minutes to find the first hidden $50 of 2026. Free Fifty Friday prizes don’t stay hidden for long; Knackstedt said the longest it’s taken someone to find the hidden sum of money was 11 minutes. More often, the money hunters snatch the cash within the first minute of the video going live — so fast that Knackstedt makes a point of sticking around to record the excitement and meet the day’s winners.
“I’m just a dude with an iPhone,” Knackstedt said with a laugh. “ … After I record them, I try to stop and get out and talk to them, say ‘Hey, thank you so much for following the page.’ I try to talk to everybody.”
Those short, less-than-15-second iPhone videos have struck a chord with Sedgwick County scavenger hunters, garnering over 41,000 followers across Facebook and Tiktok. Since he started “Free Fifty Friday” in August, Knackstedt’s posts have racked up more than two million views across the two platforms.
“I love watching these and the fun people are having finding these!!” One Facebook user posted. “I don’t know Wichita well enough to ever win but ty (thank you) for doing this for people.”
Knackstedt has mostly been paying for Free Fifty Friday out of his own pocket. Over time, as the cash-hunt trend gained momentum, he also has partnered with content creators, small businesses and US Logo — a business-to-business apparel company he works for — to sponsor the giveaways and help attract viewership to their social media accounts.
Knackstedt said he does it with the goal of supporting those small businesses, the city and its people by encouraging locals to get out and enjoy their community.
“Everybody always has a smile on their face …” Knackstedt said. “People are excited about getting out and about doing something fun in Wichita, and that’s my favorite part — that’s the reason I know I want to continue this.”
The Brunson family agreed — the feel-good trend is having its desired effect.
“Thank you for this super fun event,” Tim Brunson later commented on Facebook. “So glad we could find this prize and even better to make this core memory with my daughters! Big props to you for sharing this fun hunt around our town.”
Seeker of the Keeper
“Free Fifty Friday” offers quick, casual thrills, but Knackstedt’s larger scavenger hunts — called Seeker of the Keeper — are built for strategy, teamwork, and patience.
The search centers on a small metal replica of Wichita’s iconic Keeper of the Plains with clues posted once a day. Each search follows the same rules: The object is always on public property, in plain sight, and never requires climbing, digging or trespassing. Since 2019, Knackstedt has coordinated about 12 different Keeper searches, each with its own unique series of clues.
Knackstedt paid out of pocket for the first several Seeker of the Keeper prizes, which consisted of Wichita-themed apparel and gift cards from local businesses. As interest grew, Wichita companies began sponsoring prize money and posting clues on their social media pages — a strategy that Knackstedt said helped build their engagement. During a recent hunt sponsored by WaterWalk Extended Stay By Wyndham Wichita, the organization gained nearly 6,000 followers in nine days and logged close to a million views, Knackstedt said.
Each scavenger hunt takes weeks of planning by Knackstedt and a small team of former Seeker of the Keeper winners. They divide the county into quadrants, scouting parks and public spaces and crafting clever clues, some of which are designed to mislead.
“We want it to last longer,” he said. “We want to build more momentum, more excitement, so we send people in the wrong direction.”
That challenge is exactly what drew a group of four — Caleb Adcock, Sara Adcock, Alicia Moss and Andrew Moss — to participate in their first Seeker of the Keeper hunt in December.
The group of spouses and longtime childhood friends approached the search strategically; They studied previous hunts, identified patterns and even created a multi-page spreadsheet of Wichita parks. They spent an evening researching city history and days exploring locations across the city.
“We wanted to do something for fun and for free,” Sara Adcock said. “And so it was kind of the ultimate, ‘All right, let’s look at all these clues, let’s figure it out and let’s go search for it.’”
The couples pursued every lead, trusting each other’s judgment and going all in at every location. Their strategy paid off: The group found the Keeper hidden inside a tree at the K-96 Fishing Lake Park the first time all four searched together.
The teammates encouraged Wichitans and other would-be-seekers to do their research, put in the legwork and to not be afraid to go where a lot — or very few — people are searching. The group also encourages other hunters to take trash bags to collect litter while out hunting.
“If everyone who was looking brought a trash bag,” Alicia Moss said, “we could clean up the whole park.”
Beyond bonding as family and friends, the team also made new, unexpected discoveries in and around Wichita while out scouting and searching.
“We’re like, man, we didn’t know that this was here in Wichita,” Alicia Moss said. “We learned things and we got to see things we’ve never even seen and we’ve lived here for 30, 40 years.”
A ‘Knack’ for helping others discover Wichita
Knackstedt said comments like that are why he continues the hunts and giveaways.
“(People tag me on Facebook and say) ‘I never knew this about Wichita’ or ‘I’m looking at this mural, I didn’t know it was here,’” Knackstedt said. “So I love that, too, when people are like, ‘I got to explore the city so well and got to learn new things.’”
As interest grows, Knackstedt plans to continue Free Fifty Friday and the Seeker of the Keeper scavenger hunts, prioritizing the safety of searchers, taking breaks when needed and collaborating with more businesses.
And as long as people keep showing up, Knackstedt the hunts will continue.
“It’s not about me,” Knackstedt said. “It’s about people having fun.”
Contributing: Jaime Green of The Eagle
