SUNSET BEACH : Beach-Goers Discover Cash Awash in Surf

Like many tourists, Chad Solis, 14, of Saugus, came to find vacation fun on the strand here. He didn’t expect to find money washing ashore as well.

“I heard these people talking about finding money, and I thought they were crazy,” Solis said on Monday. “Then I saw this $5 bill float by, and I grabbed it, and I started believing it.”

Solis found a total of $60 washed up on the beach. He was one of about 30 beachcombers who grabbed waterlogged but apparently genuine $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills that drifted ashore near 6th Street and Pacific Coast Highway here. More than $200--perhaps much more--was found by the beachcombers here between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday night that they had no idea where the money came from.

But beach locals here said they think it is just an accumulation of money lost by surfers and boaters.

“Money has washed up here before,” Robin Hoyland, 45, said. “It gathers with stuff on the ocean floor, and when the tide is right, it washes ashore. I think people just lost the money, and it washed ashore.”

Hoyland found a total of $122, starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday. She apparently was the first to spot the cash. Soon a small crowd also began searching and finding money, she said.

No big deal, said Hoyland. “At high tide, lots of stuff comes in here.”