A man took his grandson magnet fishing. Police are now investigating what they reeled in
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A
Florida man and his grandson couldn't believe their
eyes when they reeled in more than just some scrap metal and
bottle caps during a magnet fishing weekend trip.
Duane
Smith and his 11-year-old grandson, Allen Cadwalader, were out on a magnet
fishing trip on January 30 in Homestead, a suburb of Miami, Florida, when
within five minutes of their arrival, Cadwalader reeled in two sniper rifle
receivers and bolt carrier groups wrapped in shrink wrap, Smith told CNN.
This
was their first time magnet fishing, Smith said, and he chose a bridge with a
canal near where he normally goes hiking.
Magnet
fishing uses a strong magnet attached to a thick rope in an attempt to fish out
metal objects that have sunk to the bottom of canals, lakes, ponds and rivers.
It's
a hobby Smith recently became interested in after watching several YouTube
videos about the ins and outs. He figured this would be a more engaging
activity for his grandson, who has autism, than traditional fishing.
"With
magnet fishing every time I cast out or every other time I'm coming up with
something," Smith said. "There's a bottle cap or you know, $7,000
sniper rifle."
Smith calls it beginners luck but said thanks to the
YouTube videos he watched, he was prepared to find all sorts of things.
"It's
kind of like a gambling addiction where you don't know what the next pull of
the slot machine is gonna be," Smith said. "A lot cheaper than
playing slots."
Smith,
who is retired infantry soldier and trained in deploying sniper weapons, said
he knew the weapons were military grade. He estimates each piece weighed 20
pounds and after doing some research, Smith estimates they're worth $20,000 and
could have been there for up to a year because of the condition they were in.
The
guns were not loaded, according to Smith, and no ammunition was found.
The
weapons were covered in debris, so once they got home, Smith and Cadwalader
cleaned them off for 30 minutes to an hour to find that the serial numbers had
been ground off.
The
weapons were turned over to Miami-Dade Police and will be sent to the forensics
lab to be processed, if possible, depending on the actual condition of the
weapons, Detective Alvaro Zabaleta with Miami-Dade Police told CNN. Processing
has to be completed in order to determine if the weapons were used in a crime.
In
the meantime, Miami Dade Police said they could not confirm the information on
the weapon type, condition or status until they are processed by their
forensics lab.


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