James Kane was not afraid of the grenade. Not even slightly bit. However he was feeling a rush of adrenaline.
In any case, discovering an vintage weapon in Sheepshead Bay was an enormous deal for somebody who desperately desires to be seen. A YouTube video of a grenade being pulled from the water alongside the Brooklyn shoreline might be viral gold. “Some magnet fishers go their whole lives without this happening,” Mr. Kane stated, pacing the boardwalk excitedly. “I’ve never won a lottery in my entire life — even a scratch-off. This is historic. It’s pure frickin’ insanity. One hundred percent.”
Mr. Kane is a magnet fisher, which is precisely what it seems like: He repeatedly tosses a magnet into the water to see what comes out. This turned an oddly common interest throughout the pandemic, although Mr. Kane claims to be the one one who does it in New York Metropolis. This may increasingly or is probably not true, however he positively has an insider’s perspective on town’s waterways.
He was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens, and he spent a yr staring on the shore when he had a job with NYC Ferry. He additionally pulled shifts as a crane operator for a sanitation firm, an training in simply how a lot stuff is on the backside of locations just like the East River. For the previous 5 months, he has been treating magnet fishing as a full-time job.
The grenade was not with out precedent. Two months earlier than, Mr. Kane managed to drag a gun out of a lake close to the place he lives. It might need been utilized in a homicide, he recommended, and he was informed there was an opportunity he is likely to be subpoenaed. He was wanting to keep away from that entanglement.
On that unseasonably heat November afternoon, Mr. Kane, who’s 39 and appears a bit just like the actor Seth Rogen enjoying a deckhand, simply yanked the factor proper off his magnet. It took fairly a little bit of effort, provided that the magnet (from Kratos Magnetics, for $140) was marketed as having a “pull force” of three,800 kilos. The gunpowder had been emptied out of the underside, so he figured the corroded explosive was one thing that might put him on the map, slightly than blow him off it. Nonetheless, he put it on the bottom and lined it with a plastic bucket — simply in case.
As he dialed 911, he paused to marvel: Would the operator bear in mind him? Was he one thing of a recognized amount by now? Simply the week earlier than, he’d discovered a top-loading Smith & Wesson in Prospect Park Lake. And he’d additionally discovered a totally totally different grenade a few month in the past, which he stated led the police to evacuate a restaurant close to the United Nations. However to his disappointment, that day’s dispatcher didn’t react.
“You’re gonna know Let’s Get Magnetic,” Mr. Kane informed the operator, referencing the identify of his YouTube channel. “I’m getting famous.”
His accomplice, Barbie Agostini, continued filming because the police arrived. Two beat cops who confirmed up took some footage of the grenade on their telephones. In the meantime, a lady pushed a child carriage inches away from it. Extra cops finally got here to cordon off the world, however the content material creation didn’t cease there. One other officer squatted on the bottom to take extra close-ups. Wanting a wider-angle view of the ruckus he’d wrought, Mr. Kane moved barely down the sidewalk and stored fishing.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than a well-put-together younger girl in a pinned-on hat stopped and stared as Mr. Kane pulled a hunk of junk out of the water together with his magnet.
“What are you guys fishing for?” she requested.
“Anything metal,” he informed her. “This is a bed frame from the 1900s.”
The lady regarded astounded at this doubtful little bit of historical past.
“God bless you,” she stated.
A number of weekends after the grenade, Mr. Kane was celebrating. Let’s Get Magnetic had simply hit 1,000 subscribers on YouTube. It’s a small viewers, however it meant he may lastly monetize his channel. He, Ms. Agostini, and her 15-year-old son, Jose, have been at a pizza joint within the Jamaica Hills neighborhood of Queens. They ordered a big pie and talked about how far they’d come, and what is likely to be subsequent.
Earlier than he’d turned to magnet fishing, Mr. Kane used to stream himself enjoying video video games. Not solely was he unsuccessful at making a dwelling that manner, however his makes an attempt have been detrimental to his well being. When he died in a recreation like “Doom,” his blood stress would spike. “Your body thinks it’s dying in real life,” he defined. “One hundred percent.”
“It took us long enough to get into a relationship,” Ms. Agostini stated whereas dousing her slice in oregano flakes. “I don’t need you dying on me.”
Mr. Kane and Ms. Agostini have recognized one another virtually since start. The best way they inform the story, their mothers met on the subway, turned ingesting buddies, and each determined to undertake youngsters across the identical time. After they have been younger, they have been inseparable, however then they misplaced contact, when Mr. Kane spent a while dwelling on the streets. A job program received him again on his toes, after which he reconnected with Barbie on Fb.
They turned greater than mates in 2016 and finally moved in collectively, Barbie bringing her son, Jose, and her daughter, Rebecca. Issues have been going nicely — nice, really — till Covid hit. The faculties closed, after which Ms. Agostini wanted again surgical procedure. Mr. Kane was compelled to resign from the crane working job he’d grown to love, as a result of somebody wanted to maintain the youngsters. “The pandemic absolutely destroyed us,” he stated.
As the only breadwinner for his new household, Mr. Kane scrambled to give you a solution to work at home. So he tried his hand at streaming till the blood-pressure points arose. To not point out all of the sitting. His new avocation is rather more versatile and extra energetic, which isn’t to say it’s with out threat.
“I would get cut with bike spokes through my gloves,” Mr. Kane remembers. “I’ve been poked by acupuncture needles that someone dumped in Corona Park. There’s green slime. I just fought on and got my tetanus shot, and I haven’t gotten sick yet.”
Whereas Mr. Kane nonetheless desires of discovering a treasure chest stuffed with cash, he principally finds junk. One-off items of silverware are nonetheless thought-about a good rating — they’re apparently wonderful to make use of after they’ve been boiled for an hour. However typically the household will luck out.
He as soon as discovered a bag with $200 price of waterlogged payments in it. One other time he discovered an iPhone 13. The proprietor let him maintain it. It’s now what Ms. Agostini, who used to work with developmentally disabled adults earlier than her again surgical procedure, makes use of to movie her household’s exploits on the water. She loves her new profession as a videographer and web researcher. “It’s the poor man’s archaeology,” she defined.
Mr. Kane maintains that this iPhone will launch him into YouTube stardom. He speaks reverently about different magnet fishers with tons of of 1000’s of subscribers, most of them primarily based in Europe. For his line of labor, he acknowledges that being in New York is a handicap — nothing right here is that previous, and American cash usually are not magnetic.
He’s additionally unsure he’s keen to submerge himself within the hyperpolluted East River to find the really good stuff. However his greatest problem is that every little thing within the metropolis is so regulated — he’s been threatened with arrest a number of occasions, regardless that he insists that what he does is totally authorized. Nonetheless, he’s storing a cache of weapons at his residence — or at the least elements of weapons.
After lunch, Mr. Kane, Ms. Agostini and Jose returned to their duplex. Mr. Kane pulled out a Styrofoam chest stuffed with his favourite finds. They included the magazines from 4 weapons, the barrel of a sniper rifle and two tiny cannonballs that may predate town itself, which he plans on giving to the American Museum of Pure Historical past.
Proof of a collector’s way of life exists all through the residence — unopened retro video video games and painted by hand Japanese anime collectible figurines lined almost each spare inch of wall area. Mr. Kane pulled out some tiny items of metallic from the cooler, one within the form of a bow and arrow, and one other that regarded like a ball-peen hammer.
“This is black magic,” he stated. “One hundred percent.” Then got here a key fob for an Audi that also lit up when he pressed a button. “This unlocks a car,” he stated. “We just don’t know where the car is.” Then got here his assortment of iPhones, which he proudly displayed on his purple sofa. All of them labored. Nicely, all however one. “It smokes if you turn it on,” he stated. “But that’s the only problem.”
Mr. Kane has forged his magnet at dozens of websites to date and has a lead on a spot close to Kennedy Airport. And he has a litany of concepts on tips on how to money in. He desires his household to develop into well-known. And a preferred channel might be a solution to launch their very own line of non-public protecting gear that’s particular to magnet fishing — or to promote a slingshot-like gadget that might enable somebody to fling a magnet tremendous far.
However Mr. Kane may simply as fortunately work for town, serving to to scrub out ponds and playgrounds. Or he may get employed to show youngsters about magnet fishing, and due to this fact the historical past of New York. Though he claimed that magnet fishing in public made him really feel anxious, it was clear he had the character for such a gig.
You would inform by the best way he labored the boardwalk in Sheepshead Bay.
A crowd was additionally starting to type from a close-by park and the dialysis middle throughout the road, together with some metallic detectorists and individuals who’d collected cash of their youth. Even when he’d but to develop into well-known, Mr. Kane was clearly having fun with placing on a present. He was yukking it up as he pulled a buying cart from Marshall’s out of the water. Individuals gasped and jumped up onto park benches as he pulled up an enormous pipe, its occupant slithering out and skittering in all places. A dwell eel in Brooklyn!
As he was ready for somebody to take care of the grenade, Mr. Kane additionally managed to drag three bicycles, a classic municipal trash can and a kitchen sink onto Emmons Avenue. He hauled in a automotive boot, which supposedly can’t be faraway from an illegally parked automotive with out destroying the wheel it’s clamped to. It was unclear the way it ended up in Sheepshead Bay.
Lastly, the bomb squad arrived. A person in a white zip-up sweater stepped over the yellow tape and peered on the grenade. As he picked it up and took it again towards the van he’d arrived in, Mr. Kane yelled from down the block, as if he was attempting to flag down an A-list celeb for a selfie. He principally needed to know if he may maintain his discover as a memento, although the officer needed to inform him that the cost on this World Struggle II-era coaching grenade was nonetheless energetic. So the reply was a particular no.
Mr. Kane was upset, however he thought-about that he’d had any dialogue with somebody from the bomb squad an enormous win for his profession as a magnet fisher. In any case, who may overlook the man who discovered an actual, dwell grenade in Brooklyn?
“I almost killed everyone in the area,” he stated. “But that definitely would have been on the news.”
