The Miami-Dade County Police Department is investigating the unexpected catch in South Florida
It’s a fishing cliché: A grandfather takes his grandson angling for the first time and within five minutes, they land a catch beyond their wildest dreams. Well, this tale of beginner’s luck has an unbelievable twist: While magnet fishing, an 11-year-old and his grandpa pulled up a pair of high-end sniper rifles carefully wrapped in plastic with their serial numbers filed off. Their find has launched a police investigation.
Duane Smith, a 61-year-old retired infantry officer who lives in South Florida, decided to try magnet fishing after watching YouTube videos about the sport, which involves tying a heavy magnet to a line and dropping it into the water to see what you find. According to the Miami Herald, Smith and his grandson, Allen Cadwalader, were using a pretty basic rig—a rope with a 5-pound magnet capable of pulling 2,600 pounds. They lowered it from a bridge into the C-102 canal in Princeton, Florida, on January 30.
Within minutes they had something heavy on the line. It turned out to be a .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifle wrapped in shrink wrap. Incredibly, a second cast turned up another rifle that was identical to the first one. “The Barretts had so much mass,” Smith told the Miami Herald. “The magnet went straight to them.”
