David Choe, the graffiti artist who struck it big back in 2007 when he agreed to do a mural in the original Facebook offices in exchange for company stock (his shares of which were valued at approximately $200 million in 2012 on the eve of Facebook’s IPO), is giving us plebeians the chance to score a piece of the pie.
It’s called the Critter’s Cross Country Cash Contest (#CCCCC), and it’s a nationwide scavenger hunt in which participants must pay attention to clues shared on the artist’s various social media accounts in order to collect red dots placed around the country. Upon identifying a dot, you must take a picture of yourself in the location, holding a current local newspaper. For each one of these you are able to produce, you get a certain number of points. The person who racks up the most points by October 31 will be flown to Los Angeles and awarded $100,000, making this possibly the sweetest Halloween treat ever. It’s certainly more enticing than Michael Sailstorfer’s buried treasure stunt in Folkestone (see “Artist’s Buried Treasure Attracts Gold-Mad Hordes“).
There are some caveats. Participants who cheat or use social media to beg or complain will be disqualified. “I have never done this before and I will never do it again if you fuck with me and make this a pain in the ass for me,” Choe writes on the #CCCCC website. “If you ask dumb questions or complain, beg or whine about anything at all, you will be disqualified.” He also implies that the red dots are being monitored, and that if they are tampered with, the guilty parties will be disqualified.
What inspired this strange and very generous act? According to Complex, Choe explains the origins thusly: “I haven’t gambled in 2 years , but i haven’t cleaned my room in 7 years… And in the same way some of you might find delight in finding 20 dollars in some old hidden jeans, I found an old shoebox with $100,000 from my old gambling days under a pile of comics and cum rags.”
What else is a young multimillionaire to do with a rediscovered $100,000 stash?