When it comes to sleuthing out sunken treasure, there’s only one person you need to call.
Bondi, James Bondi—No wait, sorry.
The person’s name is Leigh Webber, or as he’s better known: the Bondi Treasure Hunter.
In a video from three years ago—which has been viewed over 2.9 million times, the popular YouTube host takes his magnet—a powerful Magnetar Beast—back to the canals of Amsterdam.
What does he find this time? In a city over eight hundred years old, the possibilities are endless.
“We’re gonna break out the Beast. It really is the Beast. It’s probably one of the strongest magnets you can buy. If it’s down there, we’ll find it…”
“So we’re looking for things like iPhones, as well. Sunglasses. We’ll find coins, wallets, handbags, bikes. You could even find a gun.”
The first item forgotten underwater is an old crest, possibly off of a house or a boat.
“This is really promising,” Webber’s friend says.
“Oh, yeah…” Webber agrees. “This is exactly what we’re looking for.”
“We are in, like, the Mecca of magnet fishing.”
“Look at the size of that thing,” Webber says, admiring his powerful magnet before hurling it into the water.
“Man it just Hoovered up everything. That is a square nail. Check that out. That’s a really old nail. And a big one, too.”
A slick of oil can be seen forming on the surface of the canal water as age old antiquities are stirred from their resting places, possibly for the first time in centuries.
Every year more than 15,000 bikes are tossed into the Amsterdam canal by passerby who are either intoxicated, hiding evidence, or simply think it is hilarious.
“First bike of the day,” Webber says, dredging a bike up from the canal. A crowd of passerby of gathered on the bridge above, forming quickly into a mob of onlookers.
“That’s my bike!” a woman hollers from a nearby pedestrian viewing area.
“If you’ve got the key for it, it’s yours,” Webber wages. “Otherwise five euros and it’s yours.”
Surprisingly, the woman comes down with a bike lock key.
“Cinderella with a bike key, let’s have a go,” Webber jests.
In a hilarious twist that nobody could have predicted, the key works, and the bike is reunited with its long lost owner.
“We’ll clean it up for you,” Webber offers.
“Really?” the girl asks, clearly ecstatic. “Do you want you want five euros or something?”
“Absolutely not,” Webber replies. “Maybe a beer later. A bit of a clean up, bit of loving, she’ll be all good.”
It is hard not to find Webber’s positive energy contagious. Many of his videos—including one taking place at the world’s largest magnet fishing event in Manchester, England, where he dredged up several bicycles and even a grenade—demonstrate the good magnet fisherman do for public service, cleaning up aquifers and waterways and recycling old metal.
After the bicycle—assumed to be lost forever along with hundreds of thousands of others—is reunited with its owner, we watch as Webber recovers an old door handle, and a Dutch pre-euro ten cent coin— meaning it was minted before 2002.
Things then take an exciting turn when our host dredges an old Vespa scooter—after quite a battle.
“My arm is so sore. So the Beast magnet, it is a beast. It pulled this whole—I don’t know how much it weighs, maybe 200 kilos to 500. I pulled the whole thing out with this magnet… the police showed up. Probably a stolen scooter… I don’t know how I’m going to get the magnet off.”
Aspiring magnet fishermen should be warned that The Beast will attract all magnetic objects from afar even if they are round, rusty or submerged. In fact it is so powerful that it is recommended you use extra caution when storing, transporting and using.
The police arrive with a crane and lift the stolen scooter onto the back of their vehicle, removing it safely.
In another video, a couple invite the Bondi Treasure Hunter out to a field to metal detect for Roman coins. You won’t believe how many he finds—or how bizarre Roman coins look when compared to modern money.
In a video from October 13, 2022, Webber finds several bladed weapons, including a meat cleaver, and a
bundle of waterlogged luggage. The police are notified when handbags full of credit cards are discovered.
