When it comes to Florida’s waterways, there are no shortage of dangers lurking just below the surface, and we’re usually talking about alligators when these warnings are put forth.
But this week, a young man in the Sunshine State went magnet fishing with his grandfather and hauled in a pair of items with a much bigger bite than the ubiquitous Florida reptile: Two $10,000+ sniper riles.
An 11-year-old Florida boy decided to try out magnet fishing with his grandpa in a canal and discovered two .50-caliber M82A1 Barrett sniper rifles submerged beneath an overpass.
Allen Cadwalader had a five-pound magnet on the end of a rope and tossed it off a bridge off the C-102 Canal on Sunday. Within minutes, he’d struck the first rifle, his grandfather, Duane Smith, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
They didn’t expect such a large score for their first trip out.
They had expected to fish up some scrap metal or other odds and ends and wanted to clean up the waterway, said Smith, a retired Army infantry officer with 18 years active duty and 11 in the reserves. They chose the canal just because it was near a family home in Homestead.
“We ended up with two pounds of scrap metal and 40 pounds of gun,” he said.
The weapons were bundled up in shrink wrap, he said. And at first he didn’t know what they’d pulled out until he brought them home and cleaned them up.
“The rifles consisted of the lower receiver and bolt carrier group,” he said. “I did not recognize them when they were pulled out because they were wrapped like a mummy.”
Suspiciously, the guns were both missing their barrels and had their serial numbers filed off.
