Guns, Grenades, and $100,000

Summary

Criminal Podcast Summary: "Guns, Grenades, and $100,000"

Episode Information:

• Title: Guns, Grenades, and $100,000
• Release Date: January 24, 2025
• Host: Phoebe Judge
• Podcast: Criminal by Vox Media Podcast Network

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1. Introduction to Barbi Agostini and James Cain

The episode revolves around Barbi Agostini and James Cain, a couple from New York who rekindled their relationship after years apart. Their story begins with a shared interest in magnet fishing, a hobby that combines treasure hunting with environmental cleanup.

Key Quote:

• Barbi Agostini (02:15): "Our moms were best friends. They actually met each other on the train going to work and you know, we all got together for family events and everything."

2. Discovering Magnet Fishing

During the COVID-19 lockdown, bored and seeking a new pastime, James introduced Barbi and his stepson to magnet fishing after watching related videos on YouTube. Initially finding mundane items like toenail clippers and bottle caps, their interest grew as they began uncovering more substantial objects.

Key Quote:

• James Cain (03:22): "Magnet fishing is where you take a really strong magnet, you tie it on the end of a rope, and you throw it in the water. Most metals are going to be attracted to that, and you take it out of the water."

3. Escalation of Finds

As they upgraded their equipment, Barbi and James started retrieving larger and more intriguing items, including a full-sized Kawasaki motorcycle, drones, and even unexploded World War II grenades. These significant finds intensified their magnet fishing pursuits, leading them to explore various parks and lakes around New York City.

Key Quote:

• James Cain (05:07): "We used a grappling hook to drag the motorcycle out of the water. It took six people to get it out. Covered in mud and slime."

4. The Discovery of the Safe and $100,000

The turning point came in May 2024 during a magnet fishing trip at Corona Park, one of New York's largest public parks. While fishing near a bridge, James felt a distinct click and pulled up a black box attached to their magnet. Upon opening it, they discovered two stacks of hundred-dollar bills soaked in mud, estimating the total value at least $100,000.

Key Quote:

• James Cain (17:16): "I'm estimating like $100,000 at least in the safe. The first second we saw all that money, and I... I lost it."

5. Interaction with Authorities

Faced with the enormous and mysteriously discarded sum, Barbi and James contacted the NYPD. The authorities conducted a preliminary investigation but ultimately deemed the damaged money as non-recoverable due to its deteriorated condition. Surprisingly, the NYPD informed them that the money was theirs to keep, as it couldn't be authenticated or linked to any unsolved cases.

Key Quote:

• Barbi Agostini (19:09): "I personally think it was more than likely a home robbery and they got it out of the place... maybe they chucked it out because they thought they got everything."

6. Dealing with Damaged Currency

Understanding that the money was severely damaged and unusable, Barbi and James sought guidance from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C., which handles the redemption of mutilated currency. After an arduous process involving travel and security protocols, they were informed that only $50,000 to $80,000 could be officially estimated and potentially redeemed after a lengthy waiting period of two and a half to three years.

Key Quote:

• James Cain (32:01): "We will... we don't have a single penny of it. So."

7. Emotional and Practical Implications

The couple grappled with the surreal nature of their find and the bureaucratic hurdles in claiming the money. While James remained skeptical about the legitimacy of receiving the funds, Barbi began envisioning dreams such as owning a home in a tranquil, rural setting. Despite the uncertainty, their discovery has profoundly impacted their lives, blending the excitement of a treasure find with the complexities of legal and financial realities.

Key Quote:

• Barbi Agostini (33:22): "I want to move somewhere down south... have property of my own with a lot of outside land and somewhere that I can have chickens and little mini goats and dogs and stuff running around."

8. Future Prospects

As Barbi and James await the final determination and potential redemption of the funds, they reflect on the unpredictable journey that magnet fishing has led them on. Their story highlights the thin line between fortune and risk, and the unforeseen consequences of uncovering hidden treasures.

Key Quote:

• James Cain (34:02): "I couldn't do it without Barbie. Honestly, Barbie's... you know what I mean."

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Conclusion

"Guns, Grenades, and $100,000" delves into the extraordinary tale of Barbi Agostini and James Cain, whose magnet fishing endeavors unearthed not just metal objects but a life-altering discovery. The episode masterfully captures the excitement, fear, and hope that accompany such an unexpected find, offering listeners a compelling narrative about luck, legality, and the pursuit of dreams amidst uncertainty.

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Additional Resources:

• Magnet Fishing Videos: Let's Get Magnetic YouTube Channel
• Criminal Podcast Membership: Criminal Plus

Transcript

[Phoebe Judge]

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[Barbi Agostini]

We've been together for about eight years, I'd say.

[James Cain]

Yeah, 2016.

[Barbi Agostini]

Mm. And but funny story is we've actually known each other since we were about the age of three.

[James Cain]

Yeah, our parents knew each other.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

Barbi Agostini and James Cain grew up in New York. Barbie was born in Queens, James in Brooklyn.

[Barbi Agostini]

Our moms were best friends. They actually met each other on the train going to work and you know, we all got together family events and everything. So we grew up together, had some of the same classes and yeah, it.

[James Cain]

Just we separated our adulthood and came back together eventually.

[Phoebe Judge]

Yeah, they started dating and moved in Together, along with Barbie's daughter and son. When Covid hit, James lost his job operating cranes for a sanitation company. Barbie had recently had surgery and was recuperating at home, and the schools were closed. So all of you were home together. And you, I assume everyone. No one could go out. You weren't working, but you could watch TV.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[James Cain]

A lot of YouTube.

[Phoebe Judge]

They especially like to watch videos about treasure hunting. James says he's always been fascinated by it, ever since he was a kid.

[James Cain]

My stepson and I, during COVID lockdown, we saw something called magnafishing on YouTube. Watched a few videos.

[Phoebe Judge]

What is mag? Magnet fishing.

[James Cain]

So magnet fishing is where you take a really strong magnet, you tie it on the end of a rope, and you throw in the water. Most metals are going to be attracted to that, and you take it out of the water. It being garbage or treasure or other things. Basically you're taking metal out of the water.

[Phoebe Judge]

In the videos they were watching, people were finding all kinds of stuff, like old war relics. Some people found old cannonballs. While magnet fishing, one man in England found an old Viking sword that experts say is probably over a thousand years old.

[Barbi Agostini]

And James was like, oh, I would love to do this one day. And my son was like, yeah, that looks cool, but you're never actually going to do it. And James took it. He took that challenge. And we got the stuff, the very basics, and we started magnet fishing.

[James Cain]

Found a $20 magnet, about 6 inches wide and an inch in thickness. Weighs maybe a pound. Put on the rope. Went to our local pond in Jamaica, Queens. By the way, I wish it was Jamaica Island.

[Phoebe Judge]

They found a good spot by the pond, and they spent a couple of hours throwing the magnet in and trying different ways of moving it around.

[James Cain]

And we found some toenail clippers and bottle caps, and that was super exciting.

[Phoebe Judge]

Sometimes they'd find coins, but only international coins. American coins are made from metals that aren't magnetic. Eventually they got a bigger magnet.

[James Cain]

I would say within a month, we started getting the big stuff. A full size Kawasaki motorcycle, scooters.

[Barbi Agostini]

A drone.

[James Cain]

Drones, yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

They used a grappling hook to drag the motorcycle out of the water. It took six people to get it out. Covered in mud and slime.

[Barbi Agostini]

Definitely at first, like, it was the boys thing, you know, Like, I saw how interested they were in it, and I was intrigued, but it wasn't fully my thing. It's very dirty sometimes.

[James Cain]

It's terrible.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah, it is terrible. And so that wasn't really what I was into, but I saw how Excited they were getting. And eventually the day that you found, I think the motorcycle, it got real. Yeah, it got real and I was like, oh, okay, this is more interesting than I thought.

[Phoebe Judge]

They started going to different parks and lakes around New York.

[Barbi Agostini]

In Central park we actually found a mason jar filled with purple liquid. And inside the purple liquid was a whole tarantula spider.

[Phoebe Judge]

Did you keep it?

[Barbi Agostini]

That one? No.

[James Cain]

I'm gonna say it but I guess obviously I don't know if you could put it on or not, but we found a. It was in Cheapside Bay. We found a bag of a sex bag. We're gonna call it handcuffs. Pleasure toys. Yeah. Thumb cuffs. I don't know if you're gonna put that on or not, but that's a strange one.

[Phoebe Judge]

Yeah, well, we'll put it on, but I don't know what a thumb cuff is.

[James Cain]

I didn't know either. They're police issued cuffs you wear along with handcuffs for very dangerous people. That just locks your thumbs together. And I tried it so it locked my thumbs together and it wasn't nice.

[Phoebe Judge]

They found computer hard drives, silverware, acupuncture needles, at least five empty safes, a key fob for an Audi which still seemed to work, cut up car parts and a lot of cell phones. But Barbie says for her it's not really about the stuff we've had, you.

[Barbi Agostini]

Know, daily stress in life and it's good to be around. For me, I love being by the water. I like being outside, you know, hearing the birds chirp and everything. And going out just with a simple magnet and a rope, it's amazing. You just go out with these basic things and have an adventure and you never know what is going to come up. Every day is different.

[Phoebe Judge]

But then one day they pulled their magnet out of the water and a gun was stuck to it. And then they pulled out another one.

[James Cain]

Three in one day and some magazines with bullets still in it in a park in Jamaica. And I was excited but also very nervous because I had no idea how it's going to go. You know, obviously the firearm was in the water because somebody did something really bad with that. So I was petrified. And then we go ahead and contact the authorities. The first confusing thing is do you call the police department or do you call 911?

[Phoebe Judge]

He decided on 911.

[James Cain]

I have to explain to them what magnet fishing is. So they hear a guy on a bridge with a gun and I'm like, no, no, no, no, I'm not standing on a bridge with a gun. I am on A bridge with a gun. But it's.

[Phoebe Judge]

The police arrived, questioned Barbie and James, and left with the guns. I guess if you want to get rid of something, you throw it in a bond.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yep. All those TV shows and movies that they show them, just tossing things away. Apparently it's actually a real thing.

[James Cain]

Yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

More recently, they found another gun that looked new, like it hadn't been in the water for more than maybe a week or two. It looked like it still worked, like.

[Barbi Agostini]

There was no mud on it, no nothing.

[James Cain]

And I was so nervous. I was like, I don't want to. When we handed it in the police department, I was like, I don't. I don't want a follow up. I don't want to know.

[Phoebe Judge]

Barbie says she always wants to know. And one time she called the police to ask. But the police didn't share any information. Magnet fishing has sometimes led to new evidence. In 2015, a couple in Georgia were reported missing. The couple, who were in their 60s, had gone to meet with someone who claimed to be selling a Mustang on Craigslist. They were found shot dead off a county road. Investigators arrested the man who'd claimed to have a Mustang for sale. He pleaded not guilty. The case was delayed for years. In the spring of 2024, a magnet fisher in Georgia found a rifle in a creek. A few days later, the fisherman returned to the same spot and this time found a bag with driver's licenses and credit cards, which turned out to belong to the couple. That led to investigators obtaining warrants and finding more evidence. About six months later, the Mustang seller changed his plea to guilty and is currently serving two life sentences. That same year, a magnet fisher in New Orleans found a human skull that had been padlocked to an exercise dumbbell. He also found a handgun and a gun barrel. The police sent in a dive team and two cadaver dogs to search the area and ask the public for tips in the case. Police told reporters they weren't aware of any unsolved cases where someone had been decapitated. The case is still unsolved. And a magnet fisher near Boston found an unexploded bazooka rocket from World War II. It turned out that the rocket still worked. Bomb squads sent an emergency alert to the public that they were going to hear an explosion that day, and then they detonated it. Barbie and James have found grenades.

[James Cain]

I played enough video games to see. To see what those were. They were World War II grenades.

[Phoebe Judge]

Did you call the police about them?

[James Cain]

Oh, boy.

[Barbi Agostini]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They had the bomb squad come out and everything.

[James Cain]

Yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

Sounds like by this point you've gotten to know the NYPD pretty well.

[James Cain]

Oh, goodness. Yeah.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah.

[James Cain]

I tell people you can't imagine anything you can think of is going to be in the water. And I think you would be shocked of the things that are disposed of in the bodies of water around the world, you know, and specifically in New York City is, is unbelievable.

[Phoebe Judge]

And then one day In May of 2024, Barbie and James had just gotten back to Queens after a trip out of town.

[Barbi Agostini]

And originally we were supposed to go pick up our pets from my friend who was pet sitting them. But he changed the date, said, you know, come by tomorrow. So our day was then free. He said, we're out. What are we gonna do? And we had our stuff and we said, you know what, let's go to Corona and let's go magnet fishing.

[Phoebe Judge]

Corona park is one of New York's biggest public parks. It has two large lakes. Barbie and James picked a bridge that crosses one of the lakes. James threw the magnet far into the water. The first couple of times he pulled it back out, it was just covered in sludge.

[Barbi Agostini]

And 45 minutes in he gets that click and he's like, oh, I got something.

[Phoebe Judge]

James and Barbie refer to that day in Corona park as the day our lives changed forever. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. We'll be right back.

[James Cain]

Foreign.

[Phoebe Judge]

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[James Cain]

It's a hollow sound, and my experience with finding metal boxes, it's always a freaking safe.

[Barbi Agostini]

And he's like, I think I got a safe. And he pulls it up.

[Phoebe Judge]

The magnet had a black box stuck.

[James Cain]

To it, maybe a foot and a half wide. Weighed about like £30. It's a cheap Amazon safe that you can get for like 40 bucks or something like that.

[Barbi Agostini]

No keypad on the front. It was just a twist lock.

[James Cain]

Yep.

[Phoebe Judge]

This is not the first safe that you've caught before.

[Barbi Agostini]

No.

[James Cain]

This is like the sixth one that we got.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

Wearing thick rubber gloves, James removed some of the mud that was covering the safe. It was locked. He picked it up and black water and sludge came pouring out of it.

[Barbi Agostini]

All of a sudden, he turns it around. I see a hole in the back and I see something fall. And I'm like, there's something inside.

[Phoebe Judge]

The hole looked homemade, like someone had drilled into it.

[James Cain]

Stuck my hand in. I felt what I thought was Ziploc bags, and turns out it definitely was not Ziploc bags.

[Phoebe Judge]

What was it?

[James Cain]

It was a giant stack of bills. Hundred dollar bills completely soaked in slimiest mud you could ever. The blackest of black water. And. And I. And I peeled it back and I just lost it.

[Phoebe Judge]

Here's a clip from the video Barbie recorded. Oh. Oh.

[James Cain]

It is stacks of mills, dude. Hundreds.

[Phoebe Judge]

Oh, my God.

[James Cain]

Oh, my God. And then I started banging in on the floor and the door popped open. So it's. It wasn't too much. It wasn't really a safe safe, you know what I mean?

[Phoebe Judge]

They found two stacks of bills. It looked like a lot of money.

[James Cain]

I'm estimating like $100,000 at least in the safe. The first second we saw all that money, and I. It's hard to explain, but the first feeling I had was fear, because, you know, fear of. As in not everyone forgets their stacks of hundred dollar bills in the safe before they throw it in. I don't know who's doing that. So we contacted the NYPD and no one believed us.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did you say to them?

[James Cain]

The initial call is. And we're magnet fishing. I said, we just found a safe with. With a ton of money in it.

[Phoebe Judge]

The person at the other end of the line seemed confused. But after a while, officers from the NYPD started arriving.

[James Cain]

There was a small investigation. They wanted to see how we got it. And questions were asked. Yeah, took like an hour.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah, they had to. The officer that came actually had to call his supervisor, and I believe he was a captain, and he had to call his higher up because he didn't know the protocol for this.

[Phoebe Judge]

And then more officers came.

[Barbi Agostini]

Some of them that weren't assigned to the call came. They heard it over the radio and they said, I just have to see it for myself. Because a call over the radio of a safe found in the water with a ton of money in it. Don't know the procedure for that, but they just.

[Phoebe Judge]

Yeah.

[James Cain]

In the middle of New York City, you know?

[Barbi Agostini]

Exactly.

[Phoebe Judge]

The money wasn't in great shape. Barbie and James say it smelled horrible.

[Barbi Agostini]

Oh, horrendous.

[James Cain]

Terrifying. Terrifying.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did it smell like?

[Barbi Agostini]

I think it almost smelled like feces and just something that was left to rot and hasn't been touched in a long time.

[Phoebe Judge]

How long do you think it'd been in the water?

[James Cain]

The bill's date, I think the only date I could read was 2013. 13?

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah. So it had to be 2013 or later.

[Phoebe Judge]

What's your theory about how the safe ended up in the river?

[Barbi Agostini]

I personally think it was more than likely a home robbery and they got it out of the place. And maybe it was a. I assume a group of people, and they were trying to get in the safe. They were trying to move as quickly as they can. They maybe shook it upside down getting out whatever they could, and they drove into either Corona park or there's an expressway above that. Maybe they just chucked it out because they thought they got everything, and they left money in there. They didn't realize it.

[Phoebe Judge]

Do you think they maybe tried to drill the holes in the back of it and it was just taking too much time, or they couldn't get stuff out 100%.

[James Cain]

They probably were in a rush. Imagine how much money you need to take out already to just leave two giant stacks in there and say, let's go, we have no time.

[Phoebe Judge]

The police couldn't find any kind of evidence suggesting where the safe had come from. And James said the bills were so damaged that as they dried, they started falling apart.

[Barbi Agostini]

And so they. They couldn't tell exactly the amount, so they didn't want to count it as money. They counted it as paper, like found paper.

[Phoebe Judge]

There's a law in New York City that says that found Property valued at $10 or more has to be reported to police. But in this case, the NYPD told a reporter that the money was so severely disintegrated, it didn't count.

[Barbi Agostini]

So they said, you know, they called the higher ups and they said that if we can do anything with it, it's ours.

[Phoebe Judge]

So right there on this. On the side of right in Corona.

[James Cain]

Park, on the Meridian Bridge, they said.

[Phoebe Judge]

Sorry, yeah, it's good luck.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah, basically, yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did you think?

[James Cain]

I was immediately, babe, we're gonna get some pizza.

[Barbi Agostini]

But even then, even after they said, you can have it, we still didn't believe it. Yeah, we thought, like, they're eventually gonna call us and be like, actually bring it in. We did not believe that it was gonna be ours at any point.

[James Cain]

I never. I always told officers, I said, I'm not gonna deny someone if they prove that it's their money. I wouldn't be like, no, you can't have it. No, dude, if it's yours, just let me get, like, $1,000.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah. But there's no way to prove it. There was no id, no serial numbers on the safe, no way of identifying it.

[Phoebe Judge]

So the police leave. You're there with this muddy mess of $100,000. How do you even get this home?

[James Cain]

We always bring Ziplocs. So we put it in a Ziploc bag and sealed it and put it.

[Phoebe Judge]

In our backpack, and then they walked out of the park. And when you got home, did you take it out of the bag? Do you try to. Did you try to dry it out?

[Barbi Agostini]

We did open the bag. We showed our kids.

[James Cain]

They all ran away because of the smell.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah, they ran out of the room because the smell was just that bad. We did try to, like, touch it a little bit, but once it started to once we would touch it, it started to flake and almost come off in pieces. We were like, okay, we're sealing the bag, we're not touching it again.

[Phoebe Judge]

Something about the mud underwater seemed to have preserved the money, and now that it was out of the lake, it was coming apart quickly. They thought the Ziploc bag would keep the money from drying out, but over the next couple of days, the, the bill started getting really stiff, the bag.

[James Cain]

Started getting hard and swollen. You know, the, the bill started turning to rock. So that's the point where I was like, we gotta go.

[Phoebe Judge]

We'll be right back.

[James Cain]

Foreign.

[Phoebe Judge]

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[James Cain]

I would say the year before, we were magnet fishing in Central park near the Bethesda Fountain. There's like a drop off of the water right there. And we found cell phones galore. I would say in one day we found maybe 12 cell phones. And in the back of one of the phones was money behind the case. I guess people store money on their in their cell phones and turned out it was $200.

[Phoebe Judge]

But the bills were damaged by the water and James says they weren't usable.

[James Cain]

So I went to the, to our local bank and they said you could exchange it in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington. And they do all free money exchanges.

[Phoebe Judge]

Every bill in circulation is printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, either in their Washington, D.C. or Fort Worth, Texas facility. The office in Washington also redeems what they call mutilated currency. Dollar bills that are so damaged they can't be used in a store or in a bank. The money that's brought to the bureau has usually been damaged in a fire by water, chemicals, or animals, or after being buried. A damaged bill can be redeemed if at least part of it is identifiable as U.S. currency. Every year, the bureau receives more than 22,000 requests from people who are hoping to redeem damaged dollar bills. The total value of those requests is about $35 million. They also shred a lot of bills. And people can request large amounts of shredded money for things like art projects or buy a small bag as a souvenir at one of the Bureau's visitor centers. So in the spring of 2024, when Barbie and James were trying to figure out what to do, they knew who to contact. But they couldn't just mail a backpack of a hundred thousand dollars to D.C. james said he tried calling the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but says there was no response. He emailed them asking if they could bring in the backpack in person. In his email, he wrote that the experience was, quote, driving us a little crazy and we're a little afraid.

[Barbi Agostini]

We waited to hear back from them and for them to tell us what to do.

[Phoebe Judge]

The bureau emailed them back. It looked like an automated response, but it had an address. They didn't have an appointment, but Barbie and James decided they were just going to show up at the address in D.C. and hope someone could help them.

[James Cain]

And we found out Megabus from 12th Avenue and 34th street will take you right there in about four and a half hours.

[Phoebe Judge]

They got on the bus at 6:45am on a Friday morning. They wanted to make sure they got there before the Bureau closed for the weekend. So what happened when you got to.

[James Cain]

D.C. we jumped in a car and actually, we couldn't find the engraving and printing building. It was a little weird to find at first. Got to the building eventually and went inside a very secure location, believe it or not, where they make the money for the country. Pretty secure.

[Phoebe Judge]

They went through security and the backpack had to go through the metal detector. James told the guard why they were there and warned them about the terrible smell. The guard said something into his radio, and two people came down the stairs to talk to them.

[James Cain]

We're greeted by people in lab coats.

[Barbi Agostini]

We were thinking that, oh, this. This money is probably going to be super hard for them to deal with. And they're like, nah, this is nothing. We've had worse.

[Phoebe Judge]

They told James and Barbie that they'd seen money that someone's grandparents had buried in the backyard, which had practically turned into dirt.

[Barbi Agostini]

So they said, this. This is no problem.

[James Cain]

And the other wild thing is they literally said, where is the safe? So there was more money that we didn't take that was just these tiny little, like, flakes and sand, and it was just. It was water. And they said, you should have collected everything. The sand, the water, the mud in the safe and brought us everything, because they will issue a bill. I don't know how they do it, but they can find the bill even if there's a tiny bit of money.

[Phoebe Judge]

Only how much money did they say that they thought was in there?

[James Cain]

The Official estimation is 50 to 80,000. Only. Only one of the people in the office said it could be even more because the water does something to the money, where it compacts it, the water.

[Barbi Agostini]

Compresses it and shrinks it or something. So it actually could be potentially more, depending on the weight of the water and everything else and the mud that was in it.

[Phoebe Judge]

How did you react when you heard that amount?

[Barbi Agostini]

I think my mind just went blank at that moment. I just could not conceptualize any type of that. This is actually real.

[Phoebe Judge]

They were handed a case number and were told that they needed to wait for an update on the exact amount and for a check. Did you celebrate?

[Barbi Agostini]

Oh, yeah.

[James Cain]

Shake Shack, I think.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah.

[Phoebe Judge]

And then they went sightseeing.

[James Cain]

In Washington, Believe it or not, it was my first time going there. So we visited all the. The main areas like the monument and some of the main buildings that are in there. I saw the White House for the first time and I saw spots to magnet fish. I don't know. There's some places right by the monument. I don't know if we try. The Secret Service might tackle but I want to try it one day.

[Phoebe Judge]

This was in the spring of 2024. They got an email with an update about their case, including the estimated wait time.

[James Cain]

Two and a half to three years. What before we're going to see a single penny. That is the waiting line.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah. And what it is is that once they take it in, they will get one person to assign it to the case. That one singular person is the only person who will work on finding out how much it is and putting it all together. And then they'll write their report and then another person will have to come and do the same process over again and it's cleared. Then after that, that's when we would get the money.

[Phoebe Judge]

So in two and a half years, if all works out, you'll get a check.

[James Cain]

We will, yeah.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yep.

[Phoebe Judge]

With no taxes taken out of that does not.

[James Cain]

No. They explain that there is no taxes taken out of that because it's just an exchange from damage to working.

[Phoebe Judge]

Have you already started spending the money in your head or is it kind of. Do you not even want to believe it?

[James Cain]

I don't believe it. Barbie spent it.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah, pretty much.

[James Cain]

It still doesn't feel real. Still doesn't. We don't have a single penny of it. So.

[Barbi Agostini]

Yeah, I mean he doesn't think. He's like, I'm just putting it out of my brain. Just picture it as if we never got it until I think, until he sees the end point. Will it be real to him?

[Phoebe Judge]

Barbie, what have you spent the money on already?

[Barbi Agostini]

Well, I've always said I wanted to have a house on my own, so I've. I want to move somewhere down south. I've always said I want to have less concrete, more grass. So I'd like to have property of my own with a lot of outside land and somewhere that I can have chickens and little mini goats and dogs and stuff running around, just like a little piece of happiness that I can call my own.

[Phoebe Judge]

But it's gonna have to be around some water. So James, definitely we can keep going. Keep it up. Yeah.

[James Cain]

I couldn't do it without Barbie. Honestly, Barbie's.

[Barbi Agostini]

Aww.

[James Cain]

You know what I mean.

[Phoebe Judge]

Criminal is created by Lauren Spore and me. Nidia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Roberson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison and Megan Kinane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. This episode was mixed by Emma Munger. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see [e-mail] and you can sign up for our [e-mail] newsletter. You can watch all of Barbie Augustini and James Cain's magnet fishing videos on their YouTube channel. It's called let's Get Magnetic. We hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program Criminal. Plus you can listen to Criminal, this is Love and Phoebe reads a mystery without any ads. Plus you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spohr telling stories from the last 10 years of working working together. And at the end of each episode we share things that we've been enjoying. To learn more, go to thisiscriminal.com plus we're on Facebook and Twitter @criminalshow and Instagram @criminal underscore podcast. We're also on YouTube at YouTube.com criminalpodcast. Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great [e-mail] I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.