The 2017 Treasure Hunt, which is continuing with snowflake prizes, ended in record time as far as the main prize, “Frosty’s Nose” being found just five days after the hunt started on December 1.

Matthew Braswell and Krystal Bell, both of Albany, discovered Frosty’s Nose, which was bolted onto a stop sign at the corner of Columbia Street and US. 127 in south Albany near the car wash on Tuesday, December 5 around 5:30 p.m., according to Christmas at Home and Treasure Hunt event coordinator Pam Allred.

The “nose” was a red button bolted onto the sign with a ribbon attached and this is the first time in 12 contests the main prize has been found as quickly.

Braswell is a somewhat “experienced hunter”, being his fourth year of trying to track down the prize while it was the first time Bell had given it a shot.

The treasure seekers said they had combed the entire area, when not working, the entire five days and had already searched most of the north Albany area.

One clue that led them to the south end was a clue that had the word “quarters” in it, so they began thinking about places, such as vending machines, car washes, laundry mats, etc. that generally take a lot of quarters.

Since it was after dark, Bell was using a flashlight and when she shined it on the sign she first thought the “button” representing Frosty’s nose was a piece of bubble gum, until they dislodged it from the sign and found it was the real thing.

Bell and Braswell will split an estimated total prize of around $1,000 in both cash and various prizes for their efforts and congratulations to this year’s 2017 Treasure Hunt winners.

Although the main prize has been found, there are still several snowflake prizes out there to be found and smaller prizes can still be won, as well as a consolation prize–a tiny snowflake–that is worth $100.00

Be listening to WANY 100.9 FM around 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday each day to find out the location of each day’s new clues.