'The Great US Treasure Hunt:' 4 $10K prizes ready for the taking

MILWAUKEE - What would you do if we told you that $40,000 is sitting out in a park right now, waiting for you to collect it? If you're smart, you'd start looking. FOX6 News spoke with the man behind "The Great U.S. Treasure Hunt" about how this "too good to be true" story isn't.

For Jeff Kessler, a good adventure is something he and his friends have always wanted to be a part of.

"He loves puzzles, and I love location, location, location," said Kessler.

When they grew up, and found themselves with some free time, doing something like this just made sense.

Jeff Kessler

"So let's put this together, and we came up with 'The Great U.S. Treasure Hunt,'" said Kessler. "So we have four $10,000 prizes out there."

But with every treasure hunt, there is an order to things.

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"It's not $10,000 buried," said Kessler. "There are little trinkets, maybe a coin, maybe a fob key, something! Two of them are separated by 500 miles, and the other two are separated by 2,000 miles."

This isn't the treasure hunt from when you were a kid. There isn't going to be a bunch of red dots for you to follow, leading you to the treasure. There is not going to be a big red X telling you where to start digging. In order to find the treasure, you have to read a book. Hidden in the pages and stories are clues, riddles and ciphers leading you to exactly where this treasure is located.

"You basically decode each chapter, and after you decode that chapter, it will exactly spell out exactly where it is," said Kessler.

So grab your treasure hunting crew, and get to searching. Just remember, it's every pirate, or person, for themselves.