One thousand dollars won't pay the rent on a median apartment in L.A. And it will barely get you the latest iPhone. It's not what it used to be. But come on, you know you want it.

The clever folks at a map-based app called Metaverse are using cash scavenger hunts to promote the just-released iOS technology, which allows you do design your own scavenger hunts, tours, and other map-centric activities.

The firm recently organized a Hidden Cash San Diego hunt in its hometown. But that event only featured a $500 prize. In Hidden Cash Santa Monica is going big. The activity is scheduled to happen from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday*, organizers said. 

They're very hush-hush about the initial meeting place: You'll have to download the app to find out. “We want to inspire people to get outside and socialize with fellow human beings,” a spokesman for the app's maker, GoMeta, Inc., said.

If the possibility of grabbing $1,000 isn't enough of an incentive to get you to roam around Santa Monica with your phone in your face, organizers hint they'll be lower-level prizes for participants as well.

They say the app allows you to create your own scavenger hunt for your friends, too. Or you could use it to create a thematic tour of Los Angeles — like all the places in town where you could easily drop $1,000 without blinking an eye.

“It allows people to create maps of places and stories to experience places,” the spokesman said. “It helps us annotate the physical world, to spice it up.”

Cash is hot, indeed.

*Correction: We originally stated this thing is happening on Saturday. Our bad. Sunday is the day.

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