YouTubers who found a treasure trove of old munitions while using a magnet to “fish” near a Georgia military base were rewarded with a ticket from local authorities.
Bryce Nachtwey and Matt Jackson decided to visit a river near Fort Stewart in June, and in no time flat were scoring big on their expedition — rusted-over ammo belts with .50 caliber bullet rounds, armor plates, a tank tracer round and a flare.
Their grand prize wound up being a bag of 86 rockets stuffed inside of a Delta Airlines duffel bag.
The vloggers were celebrating their discoveries when they called the authorities to let them know what they found. That’s when they got some unwelcome news.
“Here’s what I’m going to tell you: you’re all getting tickets,” the game warden said on their video. “You can come to court and talk to the judge.”
The alternative to the $340 they owed in tickets was to spend time in jail for acquiring military property.
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The game warden told them that they weren’t allowed to fish from the bridge, and that the river was a part of Fort Stewart property.
Mr. Nachtwey turned the camera around to explain that the fishers checked with the Department of Natural Resources before casting their lines. One side of the bridge was a prohibited “red zone,” while the side they fished from, he said, was an accessible “green zone.”
That still wouldn’t cut it, according to the game warden.
“The reason magnet fishing is not allowed is because of exactly what ya’ll got right there — you’re pulling up tank rounds and all this different s—,” the warden said. “You don’t know what’s gonna blow up and what’s not gonna blow up.”
Even though the YouTubers said they were doing it to clean up the rivers, the warden told them that it’s the responsibility of Explosive Ordnance Disposal to handle those items. He also said that if they applied for a hunting and fishing license, they would’ve known that the river was off-limits.
“Because Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield is an active training installation, ammunition of various sizes is fired here on a regular basis. There is always (the possibility) a potential unexploded ordnance can end up in the environment, to include rivers,” a Fort Stewart spokesperson told McClatchy News. “The risk of unexploded ordnance being present throughout the training area, regardless of how it got there, is one reason why activities like magnet detecting is not allowed.”
The vloggers have a court date on Sept. 9.
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