The fisherman of sidewalks

Eliel Santos makes a living fishing on the streets of New York, said Gary Buiso in the New York Post. For the past eight years, the Bronx resident has used a line made of dental floss and mousetrap glue to reel in cash and other valuables trapped beneath sidewalk grates. “If you drop it, I’m going to pick it up,” says Santos, 38. He fishes in the city seven days a week, and has tales about almost every grate. “This one here, I helped a guy get back his wedding ring,” he says in Times Square. Santos pawns most of his catches—his biggest take was $1,800 for a gold and diamond bracelet. Santos got hooked on urban fishing by happenstance. “I saw a guy [drop] his keys down a grate. I said, ‘I will help you.’” He ran to a store to buy a glue mousetrap, scraped the glue onto a rock, tied a string around it, and lowered the contraption into the grate. Seconds later Santos pulled up the keys, and the man gave him a $50 reward. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is a good way to make money!’” It has been. On good days, he earns $150 pawning dropped jewelry and phones. “Sometimes I give the jewelry to my wife, and she always asks, ‘Did you buy this or find it?’”

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