Show Me The Money: Meet The Man Giving Away Hundreds Of Dollars All Over Nantucket

If you’ve seen people scurrying around the island and frantically searching through items in businesses like Stubbys, BROdenim, Handlebar Café, and Pip & Anchor in recent weeks, you may be surprised to learn that they weren’t trying to get their hands on any food or merchandise. They were actually after a cash prize hidden by Bruno Luna, the founder of a new game called “Benji Drops” that is growing rapidly as more and more people become aware of what Luna says is a fun and creative way to give back to the island community through random cash prizes hidden across Nantucket.

"I ended up seeing a bunch of these people doing cash drop Instagrams, and I thought it was a cool idea, but I was like, 'You know what? I can make this into a game and make it like community-based'," said Luna, who works three jobs around the island. "That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to make it a community thing, and I’m trying to get small businesses involved to get some free promotion and play a game that everyone can participate in."

The cash drops range from $100 to $250 as of now, and the first person to find the cash gets to keep it. The process begins when Luna posts on the Benji Drops Instagram page that he is set to do another drop, and once it reaches a certain number of likes and/or shares, he will drop a clue to lead people to where the prize is located. He will make it more and more difficult for people to figure out where the money is located as the page grows and the share/like counts to earn clues are more attainable.

"I don't have the following large enough where I can meet those share and like counts, and that's the goal. I'm trying to get people into the game right now so that once I have enough people in the game, I'm not going to be as revealing,” Luna said. “I'm going to post like a picture or a short video of just showing the drop, and people are going to have to guess. For me to reveal a clue, people are going to have to meet a share and like count I set. That's what I'm trying to do. But right now, I just don't have the following to get those share and like counts. Right now, I’m just trying to draw people into the game.”

Luna grew up on the Cape and has been an island resident for seven years. He has three jobs on Nantucket: by day, he works at Marine Home Center, and by night, he works for Cape Cod Express – pulling their semi-trucks off the boat. He also has a part-time job as a distributor for Peet’s Coffee.

All of the cash prizes to this point have been funded by Luna and are coming out of his weekly paychecks. He said the long-term goal is for Benji Drops to fund itself and for Luna to be able to earn some money as a side hustle off the Benji Drops social media pages, not the donations made to the account. He has begun a GoFundMe Page, and Luna says 100 percent of the funds will be going back to people in the community.

As of Friday morning, however, the fundraiser has raised just $525 despite the Instagram account already garnering over 3,300 followers in three weeks. His most viewed drop so far was a Stubbys cash drop of $200 that was claimed by Nantucket High School senior David Cirillo. The post has garnered over 400,000 views, 8,000 likes, and 400 shares as of Friday morning.

Luna said that the more funding he can generate through the GoFundMe, the larger and more frequent the drops will be. He said he hopes that once the game becomes more widespread and established, the contributions will increase.

"100 percent of the fund is just (cash) drops," Luna said. "I don't touch any of the money, other than to just give it up. The funds are coming from me mostly right now, but the goal is to have the community give donations to give back to people.”

When asked what he would say to people who question whether they can trust their donated money will all go back to the community and not into his own pockets, Luna said, “If I am blowing my own money, I would say it shows I am very invested in this.” He reiterated that the money used in Benji Drops to this point has mostly come from his weekly paychecks as he works three jobs, not donations.

Luna said that as the page continues to grow, he could also see himself expanding the game to Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, but for now, his focus is on Nantucket. He said the winners have been people of all ages.

"I've noticed downtown, the young kids are on it," Luna said. "When I go out further, like I did one at Sankaty Lighthouse, there's an older crowd that was there.”

If you want to get in on the action or learn even more about the game, you can follow the Benji Drops account here - and don't forget to set your notifications! If you’d like to contribute to the fundraiser to help the game pick up steam, you can donate here.