NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� James Kane has used a powerful magnet to fish all manner of junk from New York City waterways, but he says the stacks of $100 bills he pulled from a safe were something else entirely.
Kane鈥檚 girlfriend, Barbi Agostini, was recording last Friday as he pulled a slimy safe out of a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, famous as the location of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, and extracted bags of waterlogged, gunk-covered Benjamins from inside it.
鈥淥h, that鈥檚 money,鈥� Kane said in the video of the discovery. 鈥淥h, it is! Stacks of bills, dude!鈥�
鈥淥h, my God!鈥� Agostini says.
The couple estimates that the safe contained as much as $100,000, though the bills were partly decomposed and stuck together.
The bills featured the 3D security ribbon that indicates recent vintage, but the safe bore no clues to a rightful owner.
Kane and Agostini said they called the police to report their discovery and were told there was no evidence of a crime.
鈥淭hey gave it to us, as, I guess you call it a finders keepers thing,鈥� Kane said.
The New York Police Department鈥檚 public information office said in a statement that 鈥渢he value and authenticity of the alleged currency鈥� could not be determined due to its 鈥渟everely disintegrated condition.鈥�
Kane is far from the only magnet fisher who has made a mark in recent years.
A magnet fisher in New Orleans last month. Someone fishing in a creek in Georgia in April who were killed nine years ago.
People who dabble in the hobby heave long ropes into the water attached to powerful magnets, some capable of staying latched to objects weighing 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms). They drag the lines through water and muck, hauling up objects that would likely go unfound by a beachcomber with a metal detector.
As magnet fishing videos rack up views on YouTube, skeptics grumble on Reddit that some of the finds must be fake.
Kane may just be lucky. He鈥檚 hauled up bicycles, guns, grenades, and jewelry from New York City waterways, , TikTok and Instagram.
鈥淚 have seen and worked with other magnet fishers that can hit a spot for three months, and I鈥檒l come along and throw the same magnet and get and find something that they鈥檝e been trying to get the entire time,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 personally can鈥檛 explain that.鈥�
Several of Kane and Agostini鈥檚 videos end with them calling the police to report that they have recovered weapons, with the officers donning gloves to examine the finds and take them away as potential evidence. In one, they documented a police bomb squad arriving to take possession of an old grenade. In another, they call police to turn over the contents of a safe filled with credit cards.
Kane, 40, said he and Agostini, 39, plan to take their soggy money to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington to redeem it, though he acknowledged some portion of the bills will likely be too damaged to recover.
The pair have ideas for spending whatever they end up with, including a new vehicle and upgrades to the equipment they use to produce content.
Joseph B. Frederick And Karen Matthews, The Associated Press
