New York magnet Fisher catches a safe full of $100, he says

NNEW YORK – James Kane used a powerful magnet to fish all sorts of trash out of New York City canals, but he says the stacks of $100 bills he pulled out of a safe were something else entirely.

Kane’s girlfriend, Barbi Agostini, was filming last Friday when he pulled a slimy safe from a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, famous for being the site of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, and extracted bags of Benjamins from inside. soaked and covered in mud. this.

“Oh, that’s money,” Kane said in the discovery video. “Oh yes! Stacks of bills, man!

“Oh my God!” says Agostini.

The couple estimates the safe contained up to $100,000, although the bills were partially decomposed and stuck together.

The notes featured the 3D security tape that indicates a recent vintage, but the safe contained no clues as to the rightful owner.

Kane and Agostini said they called police to report the discovery and were told there was no evidence of foul play.

“They gave us, I guess you call it the discoverers thing,” Kane said.

The New York Police Department’s public information office said in a statement that “the value and authenticity of the alleged coin” could not be determined due to its “severely disintegrated condition.”

Kane is far from the only magnet angler to make his mark in recent years.

A magnetic fisherman found a human skull padlocked to an exercise dumbbell in New Orleans last month. Someone fishing in a Georgia stream in April pulled a rifle and some belongings from a couple who were killed nine years ago.

People who dedicate themselves to the hobby throw long ropes into the water, attached to powerful magnets, some capable of remaining attached to objects that weigh 907 kilograms. They drag lines through water and mud, pulling up objects that would likely not be found by a beachcomber with a metal detector.

As magnetic fishing videos rack up views on YouTube, skeptics complain on Reddit that some of the findings must be fake.

Kane might just get lucky. He transported bicycles, weapons, grenades and jewelry from the New York canals, promoting your exploits on YouTubeTikTok and Instagram.

“I’ve seen and worked with other magnet fishermen who can hit one spot for three months, and I go along and throw the same magnet and find something they’ve been trying to get all along,” he said. . “I personally can’t explain it.”

Several videos of Kane and Agostini end with them calling police to report that they have recovered weapons, with officers donning gloves to examine the finds and pull them out as possible evidence. In one, they documented a police bomb squad arriving to take possession of an antique grenade. In another, they call the police to hand over the contents of a safe full of credit cards.

Kane, 40, said he and Agostini, 39, plan to take their soggy cash to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington to retrieve it, although he acknowledges that some of the bills will likely be too damaged to recover.

The pair come up with ideas for spending whatever they can, including a new vehicle and upgrades to the equipment they use to produce content.