A New York City couple got their hands on about $100,000 in cash from a safe they pulled up from a lake while ‘magnet fishing’ in Corona Park.
To pull of this unique feat, James Kane and Barbie Agostini attached a neodymium magnet – which go for as little as $21.99 on Amazon – to a fishing rod and reeled the old safe out from the depths of the water.
And at first, it was a mundane discovery because as Kane told NY1: ‘We have found plenty of safes before, this is just what a magnet fisher does.’
The couple explained that the safes they find are usually empty, save for some plastic baggies that once held cash. But after they wrenched this one open, it became clear that they’d stumbled on quite the score.
‘We pulled it out and there were two stacks of freaking hundreds. Big stacks,’ Kane said.
Agostini thought Kane was joking at first, but when she saw the bills inside plastic baggies, she said she ‘lost it.’
Unfortunately for them, water did manage to work its way inside the baggies and damage the hundred dollar bills.
It’s unclear if they’ll be able to cash in the bills, but there is a chance that the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing will redeem their money.
If more than 50 percent of the currency is identifiable, a lawful holder of the notes ‘may receive a redemption at full value,’ according to the BEP website.
Kane told NY 1 that he’s always wanted to become ‘a treasure hunter,’ and when he and Agostini were bored during the pandemic, they decided to take up magnet fishing.
‘We call it the poor man’s treasure hunting,’ Kane said.
The couple created a YouTube channel last June called ‘Let’s Get Magnetic’ where they post their best hauls from various bodies of water throughout the New York City area.
In a recent video, they found multiple watches, jewelry pieces, old New York City subway tokens and even a small pistol.
The couple said they did research and came to the conclusion that that finding and keeping things such as weapons and safes full of discarded cash could potentially get them into legal hot water.
So when they find items that could be tied to criminal activity, they have made a habit of phoning the police to make sure they aren’t disturbing anything.
Kane said that the New York Police Department conducted an investigation regarding the safe and found there was no issue.
‘Obviously, it was a safe that was stolen but there was no crime with us,’ Agostini said. ‘There was no IDs, no way to find the original person in the safe so they were like “well, congratulations.”‘
The couple also said the top brass of the NYPD were at the scene, including captains, and that many officers were excited to see what they’d found.
Kane said that some cops with 18 years under their belt told them that ‘they have never ever heard of anything like this.’