A family reeled in an unexpected haul while magnet fishing in Salford - a bag full of guns and ammunition. The footage of the shocking moment needs to be seen to be believed:
Douglas Simcock, 39, and his wife Sarah, 29 were magnet fishing with their children on the afternoon of 26 August when they made the surprising discovery near the river Irwell.
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A two-sided magnet capable of lifting 300kg was used to fish out the suspicious arsenal which was wrapped in a yellow hi-vis jacket with bricks in it.
The young family found a pump action shotgun, two handguns, and ammunition wrapped up within the strange package.
Naturally, they handed the items into the police straight away.
Sarah described her family's love for magnet fishing and explained that the discovery was just as startling for them as you'd imagine.
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"My husband Douglas and my two children ... tend to go every weekend and have been doing it roughly now for about two months," she said.
"It was my first time on that weekend and we came across the guns - crazy really.
"We did find another gun first in the Alexandra Park lake but that was like a plastic kids gun but it had a metal barrel on it - that's how the magnet picked it up.
"On the second look is when we found the bag with the other guns."
She continued: "One of the guns was an all black pump action shotgun and that still had a shell casing inside it.
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"Another one which we are not sure on the make but was an all metal and black handgun type.
"The final one was another handgun but it had a long - it could've been a revolver."
According to Sarah, the mystery of the guns isn't one the family is eager to know more about.
"We handed the guns into the police straight away and left them with them," she said.
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"We've not heard anything else about them because if they have been used or not - we don't really want to know."
Thankfully, the experience hasn't dampened the family's love for magnet fishing which Douglas got into 'after some seeing some footballer doing it on YouTube'.
And it's no surprise as to why - the rivers of Britain are apparently full of untold treasures and random thingamabobs waiting to be dragged out.
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Sarah explained: "They get quite a few pedal bikes, shopping trolleys [and] watering cans that are on the back of boats."
And let's not forget - mystery stockpiles of dubiously buried weapons. But hopefully they won't stumble upon any more of those any time soon.
Words: Amy Roberts
Topics: UK News