A report states that a couple from Queens retrieved a safe containing $100,000 in cash from the depths of a lake in Corona Park while engaging in the activity of ‘magnet fishing’.
James Kane and Barbie Agostini, the two anglers, cast a line equipped with a powerful magnet into the water on a Friday afternoon. Upon sensing something substantial at the end of their line, they retrieved an aged safe.
They managed to force the safe open and discovered the contents, unfortunately damaged by water, encased in plastic.
“It was two stacks of freaking hundreds. Big stacks,” Kane told NY1.
Having experience as seasoned magnet fishermen, Kane and Agostini had previously encountered numerous safes—most of which turned out to be empty, containing only plastic bags once used to hold cash. Kane anticipated that this particular safe would follow the same pattern.
However, when he opened it, he was so surprised that he swore aloud. Agostini initially thought he was joking.
“He showed me and once I saw the actual dollars and the security ribbons I lost it,” she said.
Unfortunately, the bills were “soaking wet, pretty much destroyed,” Kane said.
The couple contacted the NYPD to prevent any legal complications. Several police officers arrived to investigate the unusual call that had been broadcast over the radio. They expressed their astonishment, stating that they had never encountered anything quite like it.
Since there was no way to identify the owner of the safe, which was probably stolen, Kane and Agostini were permitted to keep whatever they discovered.
“I guess the finders keepers rule worked for us,” Kane said.
Amid the pandemic, the couple discovered magnet fishing.
When boredom set in, during the COVID lockdown I developed an itch to become a treasure hunter. That’s when we stumbled upon something called magnet fishing,” Kane explained to NY1. He humorously referred to it as “the poor man’s treasure hunting.
During their magnet fishing adventures, they discovered various items, including a WWII-era grenade retrieved from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and six or seven guns—some dating back to the 19th century—in Flushing Meadows.
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