New York City couple finds $100,000 safe while magnet fishing in Queens

James Kane and Barbie Agostini turned an ordinary magnet-fishing pass at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens into the kind of find most anglers only daydream about: a locked safe packed with stacks of water-damaged $100 bills. The couple said they pulled it from a stream or pond on Friday, May 31, 2024, after tossing a rope with a powerful magnet into the water and hauling up the muddy container.

Their first estimate put the cash at about $100,000, though one later report put it closer to $80,000. Either way, the discovery landed squarely in the fantasy lane magnet fishers love, but the real-world part of the story came fast. The NYPD told Kane and Agostini it could not connect the safe to a crime because the bills were badly deteriorated and there were no identifying clues inside, and police allowed them to keep the money.

The couple said their next stop was Washington, D.C., where they planned to bring the crumbling bills to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for possible reconstruction. That is the proper path for damaged currency. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says mutilated notes can be ruined by fire, water, chemicals or explosives, and the Federal Reserve says people who possess mutilated U.S. currency may contact the Bureau of Engraving and Printing if the notes are damaged beyond normal use or if their value is questionable. The bureau makes the final call on redemption.

For the magnet-fishing community, the find is a dream catch with a practical lesson attached. A locked container pulled from the water is not just a score, it is a question of ownership, law enforcement and paperwork. In this case, the couple had to clear the NYPD before they could even think about redemption, and the cash itself was so damaged that the Treasury process mattered as much as the haul.

Kane and Agostini said they got into magnet fishing during COVID-19 and bought their first kit in 2023. They have documented their outings on YouTube and said earlier pulls included guns, a grenade, a full-sized motorcycle and a drone. Agostini summed up the hobby’s appeal this way: "People enjoy watching you take the garbage out of the water, especially in the heart of New York City."

That is the lane magnet fishing has carved out for itself in New York City: cleanup, surprise and, once in a while, a safe full of cash that turns a park-side recovery into a federal currency question.