Family reels in a handgun while magnet fishing off a pier

Reporter: Gina Tomlinson
Published: Updated:
Lucy Molloy. (Credit: WINK News)
Lucy Molloy. (Credit: WINK News)

A Father’s Day the Molloy family will never forget.

After learning about a trendy way to treasure hunt, Don Molloy said his daughters wanted to try “magnet fishing” off a pier in Centennial Park.

”Pulled up a bunch of fishing knives, bottle caps,” Don said.

But it is what Don’s daughter, Lucy, 10 years old, reeled in next.

”I saw the end of the handle,” Lucy said, “and the handle, I’m like ‘mom its a gun!”

That made the Molloy’s call the police.

‘He said that the gun was cocked and loaded and it had been underwater for a while,” Don said. “You know, it had barnacles all over it.”

Don said, finding the weapon underneath the bridge was something that only happens in television and movies.

While the Molloy’s waited for Fort Myers police to get to figure out how this happened, they are hoping that the unexpected discovery could maybe be a missing clue.

”We might have helped solve a cold case, a murder mystery,” Lucy said. “It might even be the murder from John F Kennedy!”

Either way, it will be a day the Molloy family will treasure for time to come. They will be taking many more magnet fishing trips to see what else they can uncover.

”It’s like a once in a lifetime chance that you’re going to find one of those things,” Lucy said.

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