- James Kane and Barbie Agostini have been magnet fishing since the pandemic
- The couple has found everything from jewelry, coins and even weapons
a New York City The couple received about $100,000 in cash from a safe they recovered from a lake while “magnet fishing” in Corona Park.
To accomplish this unique feat, James Kane and Barbie Agostini attached a neodymium magnet (which retails on Amazon for just $21.99) to a fishing rod and retrieved the old safe from the depths of the water.
And at first it was an everyday discovery, as Kane said NY1: ‘We have already found enough safes, this is exactly what a magnet fisherman does.’
The couple explained that the safes they find are usually empty, save for a few plastic bags that once held cash. But once they tore it open, it became clear that they had come across quite a score.
“We took it out and there were two piles of hundreds. Big stacks,” Kane said.
James Kane, an avid magnet fisherman, pulls an old mud-covered safe from a lake in Corona Park in Queens
Kane holds a soaking wet stack of hundred dollar bills from the safe
Agostini at first thought Kane was joking, but when she saw the notes in plastic bags, she said she “lost it.”
Unfortunately for them, the water managed to penetrate the bags and damage the hundred dollar bills.
It is unclear whether they will be able to cash the notes, but there is a chance that the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing will exchange their money.
If more than 50 percent of the coin is identifiable, a rightful holder of the notes “can receive a redemption at full value,” according to the BEP website.
Kane told NY 1 that he always wanted to be 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 hunt,” Kane said.
The couple created a YouTube channel last June called ‘Let’s get magnetic‘ where they post their best catches from various bodies of water in the New York City area.
Kane and his girlfriend, Barbie Agostini, have been magnet fishing since the pandemic to escape the boredom of lockdowns
Kane is depicted holding a small gun that he has fished from a New York City park with a magnet. The couple later called police, who took the gun into custody
In a recent videothey found several watches, jewelry, old New York City subway coins and even a small handgun.
The couple said they did some research and concluded that finding and keeping things like guns and safes full of wasted money could potentially land them in legal hot water.
So when they find items that could be related to criminal activity, they have made it a habit to call the police to make sure they don’t disturb anything.
Kane said the New York Police Department conducted an investigation into the safe and determined there was no problem.
“It was clearly a safe that was stolen, but we didn’t think there was any crime,” Agostini said. “There were no IDs and no way to find the original person in the safe, so they said ‘well, congratulations.’
The couple also said top brass from the NYPD were on the scene, including captains, and many officers were excited to see what they had found.
Kane said some officers with 18 years of experience told them “they’ve never heard of anything like this.”
