Grandpa, Grandson Fishing Trip Brings Wrong Catch

Miami FL

02 February, 2022

6:08 PM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report, the Miami Times Feb 1, 2022 When mom says "Make sure you bring home a good catch," she usually means something that can be put on the table for dinner. Family fishing trips are great bonding times, especially for those who enjoy spending time out on the water. Duane Smith decided last weekend that taking his 11-year-old grandson fishing would be a good way to distract the boy from his electronics. It did the trick, but they reeled in much more than they bargained for and it wasn't the eating kind. After Smith watched a You Tube video about magnet fishing, he decided to give it a try, so he and his grandson dropped a 5-pound magnet in the C-102 canal in southern end of the county and ended up catching two pounds of scrap metal and 40 pounds of gun. Smith's grandson, Allen Cadwalader, told WFOR said the find is part of his mission to do good. "Capturing guns and saving the world, which means picking up garbage," explained Cadwalader to a television crew. The guns were not loaded and they didn't find any ammunition. Smith was concerned because the serial numbers on the lower receivers of the weapons and the bolt of one of the rifles were filed off. "Whoever did this is not your run-of-the-mill criminal," said Smith, a former Army infantry officer. He called Miami-Dade police and two officers came out to pick up the guns. Detective Christopher Thomas told the Miami Herald it will likely take the department a while to determine if the weapons were used in a crime. "Judging by the photo, those have been there for a while. That said, it will take some time for the weapons to end up at our forensics lab. Once there, they will be processed," he said. Smith said he isn't convinced the guns were in the water very long. He says they were wrapped in plastic and we wiped away most of the corrosion in 30 minutes. "It looked like it was something that someone would want to come back for," he said. Meanwhile, Smith is looking forward to more fishing days with his grandson. "It's been really special to do something outside that he likes, so something we both like, that we can do together is the icing on the cake." The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.