Spotting the cash at the intersection of Broadway and Main Street, Dan Sporn, owner of the Goody Goody’s toy store in Saranac Lake, bent down to pick it up. Being the good citizen that he is, he said he wanted to return it to its rightful owner. What Sporn didn’t know is that the dollar was attached to a fishing line, and he was about to star in a viral prank video with more than 1.6 million views on Tik Tok, a popular social media platform.

“I thought I should bend over and give it to Blue Line (Sports) because someone obviously dropped it,” Sporn said. “I bent over, and it just disappeared.”

The video shows Sporn, looking confused, stepping into Blue Line Sports to search for the dollar before looking up, and seeing he’d been pranked.

“Well, come on in, sir, how can I help you?” Ryan Baker, a fishing guide with Adirondack TrOutfitters who works at Blue Line Sports, told Sporn.

Goody Goody’s toy store owner Dan Sporn reaches for a dollar on the sidewalk, only to have it yanked away with a fishing rod handled by employees of Blue Line Sports in Saranac Lake. (Screenshot)

In the video, the camera pans over to show Baker by the store’s cash register, holding a fishing pole with the dollar attached. Sporn laughs hard and looks around the store.

“I was just like, ‘Oh, those little boys,'” Sporn told the Enterprise on Friday. “It was all in good fun.”

The dollar-on-a-string prank was set up by Baker and his roommate Reid Mason, who is also a fishing guide with Adirondack TrOutfitters. Baker and Mason pranked over a dozen people on Wednesday.

Mason, who had filmed the pranks, compiled a few of the reactions in a video — including Sporn’s, plus the reaction of John Dimon, who owns the Human Power Planet Earth bike shop a few doors down — and set it to a remix of a song from the Nickelodeon show “SpongeBob SquarePants,” a popular choice for comedy videos on Tik Tok.

Mason posted it on his Tik Tok account under the name “@up2somthinfishy.” The Tik Tok algorithm brought the video onto the “for you” page — which is like the Timeline on Facebook or the Explore page on Instagram, but features short videos that Tik Tok believes a user would like. Making it on the “for you” page often leads to a person’s Tik Tok getting massive exposure. As of Friday, Mason and Baker’s Tik Tok had garnered over 1.6 million views and had been liked more than a quarter of a million times.

Goody Goody’s owner Dan Sporn laughs after realizing he’d been pranked by employees of Blue Line Sports. (Screenshot)

Speaking with an Enterprise reporter while fishing from Saranac Lake’s River Walk on Friday, Baker said he and his roommate were just messing around and trying to drum up some business for the shop.

“We just figured, let’s keep fishing,” he said. “We’re always fishing. So I put a dollar bill on the line and put it out on the sidewalk.”

As he spoke to the reporter, Baker reeled in a smallmouth bass from the Saranac River. He quickly took the fish into his hand, freed it and threw it back into the water.

“Everybody was really good about it. Nobody got mad or anything,” he added. “It was just some innocent fun we were having. And we actually got some business from it. I brought some people in.”

Mason’s Tik Tok account had something like 50 followers before this video went viral, according to Baker. Overnight, he gained more than 1,900 followers. His cellphone was flooded with notifications — eventually, he had to shut off notifications, according to Baker.

A dollar attached to a fishing pole — who will bite? Several Saranac Lakers — and more than 1.6 million Tik Tok watchers. (Screenshot)

“It was constantly,” Baker said. “He showed me. He was like, ‘Dude, every time I refresh my feed it’s another hundred, another hundred, another hundred.’ Every second he would hit refresh.”

Luckily, Baker’s boss wasn’t angry after seeing the video. Baker said he was “cool with it.”

In the comments of the video, multiple people thanked Mason for posting the video and lauded the prank as a “great marketing strategy.”

“Where the heck is this shop?” One user, under the name ahsatanreklov, wrote. “Everyone is so amazing and kind! I want to go to there!”

“Bro deserves a raise,” wrote another user under the name jet_black_pontiac.

The owner of Saranac Lake’s Human Power bike shop, Jon Dimon, is seek here laughing in a viral Tik Tok after being pranked by employees of Blue Line Sports. (Screenshot)

“Honestly I’d buy something,” wrote a person under the name tiala84.

At the request of commenters, Baker and Mason are planning to make more videos. On Friday, there was again a dollar bill on the sidewalk outside of Blue Line Sports. Baker said they’d already pranked a few people that day — including an officer with the Saranac Lake Police Department.

“Come visit Blue Line,” Baker said, smiling. “Come try to catch the dollar.

“And buy something,” he added.

Ryan Baker fishes in the Saranac River in Saranac Lake Friday. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)