I Feel Safer Already?

A fisherman watches his lines in Florida in 2007. Instead of what he thought was a very large fish, a Florida fisherman netted a live and very unstable air-to-air guided missile that was floating in the Gulf of Mexico, police said Tuesday. Photo:Karen Bleier/AFP

Sometimes I wonder how some people manage to live the long, healthy lives that they do. There are people out there who seem to have more than their share of luck on their side and the following story is evidence of someone I would have thought had pushed the envelope too far.

Commercial fisherman Soloman Rondey knew he had a big one the moment he hooked it. He was out on his boat “Bold Venture” in the Gulf of Mexico doing some long-line fishing. Rondey reeled it in and discovered he had caught a very unstable air-to-air guided missile.

Being the safety-minded person that he is, (Soloman says he had no idea it was live), he strapped the unstable missile to the roof of his boat and continued with his fishing. When he reached shore 10 days later, the bomb squad from a nearby military base dismantled it saying the eight-foot-long missile was so unstable it could have exploded at any moment.

"I had it strapped to the roof of my boat as we rode through lightning storms," Soloman said, according to local Tampa Bay's 10 Connects News.

"I wasn't scared," said 37-year-old Soloman. "Why should I be scared?"

Apparently, Rondey, from Saint Petersburg, FL, was 50 mi (80 km) out in the gulf from Panama City when he caught the missile say Pinellas County sheriff’s office.

Experts said the missile was corroded by its apparent extended stay in saltwater making it extremely unstable.

As a reminder of the episode, Soloman asked the bomb squad if he could keep the disarmed missile as a souvenir; but, the request was denied.

Soloman maintains this wasn’t the first missile he and his three-man crew have picked up. Days after this find, he caught another one.

Since that one was beeping, he decided to let it go.