A New York City couple who were ‘magnet fishing’ in a lake caught more than they had bargained for when they pulled out a safe that had $100,000 cash inside.
James Kane and Barbie Agostini started their unique hobby during the pandemic as a means to escape home-boredom. The two anglers simply attached a neodymium magnet to a fishing rod before tossing it in water.
“We call it the poor man’s treasure hunting,” Kane told NY1, admitting that he always wanted to become a ‘treasure hunter’.
Initially, Kane thought it was a mundane discovery because “we have found plenty of safes before”, adding that “this is just what a magnet fisher does”.
Most of the boxes they found were usually empty, with the odd plastic bags that held cash inside.
However, after they opened the specific safe last Friday, they were stunned to find out its contents. “We pulled it out and there were two stacks of hundreds. Big stacks,” Kane exclaimed.
Agostini thought her partner was joking at first, but when she saw the actual bills inside the plastic bags, she said she ‘lost it.’ In total, the cash added up to an astonishing $100,000, well worth their $21.99 magnet purchase from Amazon.
Although the water had seeped its way inside the bags and as a result damaged the hundred dollar bill notes, there was still a possibility that the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) would redeem their money.
According to the BEP website, if more than 50 per cent of the currency is identifiable, then ‘a lawful holder of the notes may receive a redemption at full value’.
The couple made their own YouTube channel last June called ‘Let’s Get Magnetic’, posting their remarkable finds from the depths of the waters throughout New York City.
However, they said they had to be cautious about possessions such as weapons and safes filled with discarded cash as it could land them in trouble.
They always called the police and made sure the items they found were not tied to any criminal investigations.
Fortunately, with regards to this specific $100,000 find, the New York Police Department confirmed that there was no issue with keeping the safe.
During the discovery, many captains and officers were at the scene eager to see the contents of the safe. Kane added that some policemen with 18 years of experience said ‘they have never ever heard of anything like this’.
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