Fishing in Wangaratta, Robbie caught something he’d never caught before. Pity he had to hand it in to the police
Fisherman Robbie thought he’d reel in a few for dinner. Instead, on the outskirts of Wangaratta, he made a discovery that shocked him to his core.
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There’s something real fishy about this catch.
Barefoot and on the muddy banks of a local fishing haunt, popular Wangaratta fisherman Robbie Alexander thought he was reeling in a big one after a “nice bite” arched his rod.
“I’ve got a fish, but it’s hooked up on something,” he could be heard saying, as he filmed the catch for his 88,000 fans on his YouTube fishing channel.
With the line snagged, he scrambled into the water, declaring he would “risk life and limb” before putting his hand in to fish out what’s been hooked.
“What have I got here? What on Earth is that?” the larger than life larrikin remarked.
“Wow! Wow, wow, wow! I have just caught a pistol.”
It was a warm mid-November day and Mr Alexander had decided to throw a line in, using his faithful Jan Juc worms as bait, at the King River in Oxley, on the outskirts of Wangaratta in the state’s northeast.
He was looking to catch a yellow belly to fry up for dinner, but instead landed what was believed to be a replica of a Vintage BKA 98 Colt 45 wrapped in a black sock.
“I’ve been fishing here all my life and never caught anything like this before,” Mr Alexander said.
“It was made of steel. I couldn’t believe how heavy it was.”
Locals have run wild with speculation as to the crimes the gun must have been involved in before being tossed in the river in hope of never being found.
“Catch of a lifetime. You might have just found the missing link to a cold case” one wrote on Mr Alexander’s fishing adventures Facebook page after watching his video.
Another remarked: “People don’t wrap a gun and throw it in the water unless they are hiding it after committing a crime.”
“I wonder if there’s a dead body/old remains nearby somewhere?” another speculated.
“Someone will be nervous,” read another comment.
Others remarked “if only that gun could talk” and “to wrap it up in a sock screams something dodgy happened”.
Mr Alexander, 49, called Wangaratta Police Station on his way home to give them a heads up he would be dropping in – with a firearm.
“I didn’t want to just walk into the police station carrying a gun,” he said.
Officers at the station swarmed around on his arrival, putting on gloves to unravel the handgun from the sock.
“They were quite curious about it,” Mr Alexander said.
“One of them was a gun enthusiast and believed it was a working replica.
“It was in pretty good condition so they didn’t think it had been in the water for too long.
“I was told it would get sent to Melbourne to get examined by the ballistics team.”
Mr Alexander joked with the officers if he would be able to keep the gun if it wasn’t claimed within 90 days.
“They just said ‘no’, real firm,” he said, while laughing.
Almost four months on, and the Herald Sun this month contacted police, who confirmed the firearm was fake.
“It is not believed to be connected to any criminal investigations and has since been destroyed,” a police spokeswoman said.
It was not the update Mr Alexander had expected and has further deepened the mystery surrounding how the gun ended up in the river.
“That’s got me baffled,” he said. “I thought they would have stored it in an evidence bag with a little tag for future investigations.
“Even if it didn’t work, you wouldn’t be able to convince the guy at the bank it was a replica when it was held in their face.”
He has his own theory as to how the gun got there – and it is not as sinister as what some of his followers suggested.
“There’s illegal guns in the community, but they’re not all being held by criminals,” he said.
“There are just gun enthusiasts. I reckon someone has died and the kids have found it in their father’s sock drawer and decided to just get rid of it.
“I suspect it probably wasn’t involved in a crime.”
DO YOU KNOW MORE? Contact rebekah.cavanagh@news.com.au
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Originally published as Fishing in Wangaratta, Robbie caught something he’d never caught before. Pity he had to hand it in to the police
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