An amateur treasure hunter in a town just north of Boston found more than he bargained for last weekend when he dropped a big magnet into his local pond.
The Lynnfield, Ma., resident dragged up five firearms, including an Uzi, a .40 caliber Glock, a Colt Cobra, an unknown firearm with significant corrosion, and an unknown semi-auto with significant corrosion.
“In my more than 35 years on the force, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Lynnfield Police Capt. Karl Johnson told The Daily Item, which originally reported the story. “It’s a little strange.”
Despite the suspicious circumstances in which the firearms were found, Lynnfield Police Chief David Breen said it’s too early to draw any conclusions.
“I don’t assume anything,” he said. “We are waiting for the ballistician’s report so that we can proceed in an appropriate manner.”
The Lynnfield resident had recently watched a video depicting European fishermen uncovering World War II treasures with a rope and a magnet. The practice, creatively titled “magnet fishing,” is popular among treasure seekers and has spawned an entire genre of YouTube videos.
The man called police immediately after pulling up the Uzi, and officers were present during the recovery of the four additional handguns.
Police sent their own dive teams to look for more firearms and suspicious items, but they couldn’t find anything due to low visibility.
SEE ALSO: lberto Bravo’s Uzi: The Black Widow’s Prey
The weapons, all of which were found loaded, were turned into the Massachusetts State Police for further analysis.
Pillings Pond is located south of Lynnfield, which is itself about 15 miles north of Boston. The pond is relatively large, as neighborhood ponds go, and is one of several bodies of water in the area. The treasure hunter found the guns simply by throwing the magnet and rope from the pond’s dock.
Lynnfield’s crime rate is the 58th lowest in the state among the 273 Massachusetts communities on which the FBI had data in 2016. The town only saw nine violent crimes among its 12,946 residents, including one murder, four robberies, and four aggravated assaults.
Still, its location just north of Boston, the state’s largest metropolitan area and community with the highest crime rate, could help explain the presence of suspicious firearms in the town’s pond.
Or someone’s spouse had finally had enough of their partner’s gun collection.
Either way, state police will no doubt be interested to see whether the guns can be connected to any unsolved crimes.
SEE ALSO: British Father and Son Find Dozens of Guns Fishing with Magnets
This isn’t the first time a magnet has pulled up firearms from the bottom of a body of water.
In 2017, a father and son fished dozens of firearms out of the Greylake river basin in England.
In July 2018, a British man discovered a Mac 10 submachine gun in a London canal, and in January of this year, a couple in Florida found a World War II hand grenade while magnet fishing in the Ocklawaha River.
“…Upon discovering the firearms, the amateur treasure hunter, apparently being a properly indoctrinated subject of the crown, immediately informed the “appropriate authority” like the good little man child / tax slave he’s been conditioned to be.”
There. I fixed it.
As for the pictures embedded in the article.
The color picture does feature an UZI of some sort. (Not actually one of the guns from the story)
And in the set of four black and white pics, the upper right does appear to be an M-11 pattern pistol.
Possibly the.380 variant but it’s not a good picture so it’s hard to tell.
Back in the mid to late 80s, a boat came into Provincetown loaded with marijuana. When the local contact met the boat near Herring Cove beach, he was concerned as the Columbians on board were carrying Uzis. He talked to the captain of the boat, and the next thing all of the weapons were thrown overboard. So somewhere out there, covered in alot of sand, are some serious firepower. I worked on the Law enforcement side of this and this story came directly from the guy who shuttled the product from the fishing dragged to the shore.
Looks to be a mac 10 imo.
That’s a stock photo of random guns, dark set of 4 pictures are guns guns recovered, look upper right corner photo. I believe that’s an Uzi.
No, it’s like a Mac 11. Not an Uzi.
Read the caption under the picture.
That’s not an UZI if it is the one pictured with the other guns in the black and white photo. It’s an M11 and a semi-auto one at that. The full auto ones have a wire stock. The M11 pictured is cheap and it was probably stolen and/or used in a crime then tossed in the pond.
Just another example that the media and even the police don’t know shit about firearms!