Underwater Investigation (Doing It Legally)

yeah way up there but you're we're gonna get out he's gonna run it real quick and then we'll hand it back to you [Music] [Music] what's up guys this round again from Lake kicker scuba marina and if you are new to our channel do me a huge favor make sure you hit this little subscribe button over here and ding that little bell as well that way you guys will be notified every time will you upload new content now I know it's been a while since we uploaded a video and I'm gonna be honest with you guys we have been slammed since this virus is kind of going way we've been slammed with classes we've been did slammed we'll salvage work and underwater recoveries which is actually what we're going out to do today and we're actually going out to look for a firearm a local fisherman was here in the area and he had dropped one of his handguns in the water while he was trying to anchor his boat up so we're gonna go out and help him but what I want you to focus on this video is not only the search techniques that we use but the procedures that we go through to actually return that firearm to its rightful owner it's not as simple as just locating the firearm coming up in handing it we actually have to go through the rock routes meaning we've got a contact law enforcement they've got to be able to run the serial numbers on that just to make sure that it's not lost or stolen from anybody other than of course the rightful owner or to also make sure that it's not being used in a crime so with that being said we got to get up to Lake we're about 20 minutes late compared to what I told you guy we'd be up there but we've got to get up the lake we're gonna find out exactly where it's at do a good search pattern and then of course hopefully we'll find the gun to him and get it back to him with that being said let's get on up the lake all right guys so I wanted to commentate through this as we've kind of been doing in a lot of our search and recovery videos just to give you a little bit better understanding what it is we're doing underwater and hopefully this video is going to be educational for you as well so basically here we're just getting ready we're fixing to make our entry we're doing our final gear checks making sure we've got all the equipment that we need to thoroughly do a good investigation when we're underwater or a search so I'm gonna be the first diver going in here so once we've done our gear checks I'm just gonna do a roll back entry straight off the boat the particular vessel that we're almost easiest way to get out of this one there's a simple roll back you'll notice that my metal detector is there I'm not gonna worry about it dear in my entry that's what the other diver is gonna do he's gonna hand it down to me once I get the water make sure that my equipments adjusted properly make sure I do my weight check everything that you're pretty much learnt or that you are taught in the open water course that's basically what we're doing here but here he's gonna hand it down to me I'm gonna you know just Rivera fie everything sealed up the way it is make sure everything is in good working order get it set before I make my descent just just to make sure that we can make this search as thorough as possible and as safe as possible as well and we want it to be successful all our searches we want to be successful obviously so here I'm just getting my metal detector get my earphones put on make sure I get the volume set just right get to sensitivity all that set right and then of course he will make his entry we will develop a game plan now the first thing that we're gonna do here is we've already ran this area for sonar just to see what was down at the bottom and that helps us a lot by helping us to determine what's going to be the best search pattern for us now we did see a lot of heavy returns a lot of real bright returns on it what we are assuming to be rocks some other types of debris possibly so we're gonna go down we're just do a really quick investigative dive this is going to be maybe 30 seconds to a minute just to see what's in the area now them a little orange floating buoys that you see they're basically those are just bass buoys that fishermen use sometimes we'll use big bumper buoys with lines and anchors attached to them we just use that to mark our general search area as well and it gives us a good reference point one more under there so we're going down on one now and we're just doing an investigative search just to see what's in area so that we can come up with a good methodical dive plan or a good methodical search to make our search even more successful so as we go down here I'm just checking the depth taking the temperature checking the visibility everything that you would do pretty much on any search and recovery diver to be honest with you any dive in general but as I'm going down just making a slow safe descent now I am I did start in that vertical position but just like every other diving you want to get into that horizontal trimmed out position and make your descent that way the reason we do that especially in a lake like this there's a lot of silt and stuff that can be stirred up and you don't want to come down and let your feet hit like that because you're just going to stir up the visibility now one thing that we do have going for us on this table is we are in a pretty decent current it's probably three quarters to a non-current so anything that we stir up is just going to be gone behind us so we are starting our search say a little bit downstream of where where the person said he had lost his firearm and that way if we do stir up anything it's going to be brushing behind us as we search upstream so here I'm just making sure everything's good with my metal detector I'm just doing a really quick sweep of the area just to see what's down there and like I said yes we're searching for the firearm at this point in time but we're also just searching the general area just to see what's there so that we can just really determine what's gonna be our best search pattern for the particular dive so you'll see I'm just kind of sweeping back and forth a little bit just you know in the hopes I do happen to come across it and - I can set the sensitivity of the metal detector as well so if I don't want to pick up bottle caps and things like that I want big heavy metal objects or larger metal objects I can actually set the sensitivity which is kind of what I'm doing here you'll see me sweep back and forth and I'll reach up and I'll set it and things like that and then once again I'm just taking note of what's there you know what debris is in the area I think here in a minute I'll come across a brush pile so I'm making a mental note of where that's at I'll look down at my company what direction it is compared to what direction I'll started in and then of course I'm gonna meet back up with my other diver and then we can surface together and formulate a good dive plan um any time you do searches like this I can't stress this isn't enough this is not a typical search and recovery yes the search patterns that we're using things like that or that's what you're going to learned in your search and recovery course but this is a firearm that we're going after this is not something that we can just locate and immediately give back to the person who hired us we'd have to go through the proper authorities so we want to be safe when we do this we want to make sure that we do not contaminate any of the evidence as well let's say the firearm is stolen or it was used in a crime well if we find it and we don't take proper care to preserve that evidence well then we can be charged criminally tampering with that evidence as well so we want to do everything that we can to preserve it so here I'm talking to the other diver up the surface we're talking about what we noticed under there all the debris what type of search pattern is going to work good you'll actually see a little bit of the current drift there were like I say we're about a half not to a full nada current which we can use that in this situation for our advantage or in our advantage so we're just talking about how we're gonna sweep how we're gonna use a reel to do this what each divers role is going to be and I'm also explaining to the gentleman that hired us for this particular search and recovery what it is we're doing you know I try my best to always explain our actions how we're going to do things just so that they have a better understanding what we're doing because a lot of people think you know this is super easy you jump in you go down you pick it up and you come up and sometimes they can get frustrated if things don't work out the way they think it should or if you don't locate the object just immediately so I'm trying to explain my actions to him as well and and he worked with us he he didn't have any issues with anything that we did and he was actually interested in what what we were doing as well so he wanted to learn so I tried to explain that to him on the surface as well but here we're making our second descent down we've already got our game plan in if you will or our search plan what we're gonna do and instead of doing a circle search around our drop line here around our center point of our search area we we got a pretty good idea it's not behind us it's somewhere that's gonna be in front of it so I'm gonna start over here on the right-hand side and I'm gonna make a 180 sweep and then I'm like stand out five feet based off visibility and make another 180 sweep and back and forth and we're just gonna do a fan pattern in front of us and not really worry about what's behind us so here is the wait for our down line or a reference line if you will and I'm just kind of moving it over a couple feet trying to get it wedged up against that rock and that way as I'm searching as I'm sweeping my pivot man is not gonna miss that search area or mess up that reference line so I'm just kind of pushing it up against the rock here and he can actually lay on this rock and it makes it very easy for him to sweep with me and just be a pivot man so he's going to get everything ready and we are going to go ahead and get our reel deployed here now this is just a standard cave reel if you will or a wreck reel I'm just gonna let out a little bit of line now I need to create a loop in the end for my hand to go in so that's what I'm gonna tie off real quick here and I'm just using a standard square knot making me a Lube cotton you can use whatever you want most of my reels already have a loop in the end of it this one I hardly ever get to use unless I'm doing some type of recovery like this so it's usually not pre tied so just taught me a quick little loop in it there making sure everything's good once again with my metal detector I'm gonna signal my buddy that I'm gonna start to Serge and I'm gonna start on my right hand side because that's where my metal detector is so basically my hands gonna be extended here my arms gonna be extended here with the middle checker and I'm gonna sweep as I continue to sweep and pivot around him and of course I'll go all the way around let out five feet and come back now thankfully when the client that hired us here when he lost his firearm he was very smart and he marked it on his sonar so it did not take us very very long to actually come across it here and you should see it come on camera or on the screen here in just a second I barely caught a glimpse of it with with my face there with my eyes and then of course I swept the middle ticker over just to verify that's what it was it was actually just a little bit out of my reach and I had to pull a little bit on the string but what after I verify that's what it is and I'll pick it up I'm gonna signal to my buddy I'm gonna give him three quick pulls to let him know that I've located that object and then I'm gonna swim back to him as he's winding up there you'll see I told him that I was okay I gave him an OK symbol he signal okay as well I showed him that we did find the target that we were after now this I can't stress enough if you're not used to handling firearms your best bet in this situation is simply mark it shoot a buoy up on it and leave it be if it's something that you are not comfortable handling then by all means don't even pick it up I've spent a career in law enforcement I've been around firearms and and guns my entire life I own you know quite a few guns myself I've shot in competitions I've shot obviously in law enforcement and things like that so it's something I am very comfortable with but now let's talk about the investigative side of this now this was not a typical investigation where law enforcement calls us out this is just a gentleman who was out on the lake and he accidentally dropped his gun in the water and so there are still steps that I take to preserve evidence first thing I want to do is make sure that firearm is safe so once we get all of our equipment in place where it needs to be and we're winding the reel back up I'm actually gonna check to see if it's loaded now there's several different ways to do this but the safest way by all means is if it's a semi-auto like this you're gonna drop the magazine and you're gonna open the chamber up to see if there's anything in there and like I said if you are not comfortable handling firearms and this is something you shouldn't be doing simply mark it come up to the surface and of course notify the the proper authorities or say some type of firearm professional who can come and get it for you as well but obviously I've got plenty of experience with firearms so once we get all this I'm gonna check to make sure that it's unloaded and that way it's safe for us to handle and of course safe for him to handle as well once we once we hand it back to him I'm also taking note of the serial numbers here and obviously I've got a camera to document that but if I didn't have a camera I would write the serial numbers down on the slate things like that because if I found myself in a situation where I needed to leave it on the bottom and Mark it to where it wasn't gonna wear a place it in an area where where it could go to where I'd still have the information of what to make the model the caliber and even the serial number is so that I can notify the appropriate authorities on the surface to you know to run it to find out but here I noticed that the magazine did have rounds in it and of course what I'm gonna do I check the chamber indicator there to let me know whether it's got around in the chamber and depending on the make and model a firearm you can't always trust that so I'm still gonna rack the slide so I remove the magazine yet again keep it pointed in a safe direction open up the chamber notice that there's nothing in there now I am gonna go ahead and replace the magazine but at this point it's gonna get reholster the chamber is not going to be opened up for any reason so there's no chance of it get reloaded and the reason underwater I did this as well putting the magazine back in it's just easier to handle with that I don't have to deal with the metal detector a firearm a holster a magazine a reel and come up the line I've got other things to worry about other than this particular firearm and considering I just did a safety check on it I feel pretty confident that I can bring it up with a loaded magazine in it as long as there's not one in the chamber and still be safe so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna go ahead and make our scent and then of course once we get to the surface we will go ahead and contact me local law enforcement agency in our area the other diver that happens to be with me is a sworn officer so it is very easy for us to run this firearm to see if it was reported stolen or used in a recent crime or anything like that but once we get to the surface we were gonna keep it in our possession until we are notified by law enforcement that it is safe to give back to the rightful owner if you will and that it's not stolen or reported lost or anything like that or even used in a crime but yeah very very successful surge he actually dropped the buoy the little fishing buoy there you can see he dropped it within ten feet of it as you noticed my very first sweep around it was less than ten feet and we was able to locate it so very very successful search a very safe search a very methodical search and if you're doing things like this even if you're not looking for firearms if you'll follow these steps your searches will be much more successful as well but here this is where we're checking to see if it's stolen he's on the phone with with his department actually to see if it's stolen and of course is not and they would coordinate back to get hold on for you toss because I'm gonna give you any information there you go brother thank you keep it a little more secure and maybe get you a dry bag or something to put it in while you're on the boat but yeah definitely check out Springer Gun Club give them guys a call ask for daddy they'll tear it down completely part by part just tell Jack Jack that the scuba shop sent you you'll take really good care and I appreciate you calling us I'm glad we could help ya yeah it's bobynin just possible to not know what to do when I kept thinking about stupid I know God and my problem and I'll say duh some key going out there to 73 school for dining that thing let's scuba dive good man I'm gonna give you a card of ours that way you'll have our direct contact and I'll send you some some footage that we got as well but make sure you call Jack get that thing cleaned out okay all right brother okay so we just got finished up we had a very very successful search you know if searching for items underwater or something you want to do please go ahead get proper training for it and if you're looking for items like this such as a firearm or something like that please make sure that you go through the proper authorities now this gentleman seemed pretty legit but we didn't know him he literally called us up on the phone and asked if we come look for a handgun that he lost in the water so when you do stuff like that you're not gonna immediately give it back to them you got to make sure you go through the right authorities call local law enforcement get them to come out and in all reality you probably shouldn't be the one releasing it back to them you should release it to law enforcement as most of you guys know a lot of the guys that work for me are local law enforcement so we've kind of gotten in there but you want to make sure that you protect yourself that gun could have been reported stolen it could be used in a crime and now if I was to release that to him then of course I'm gonna be an accessory to that crime as well so please make sure that you're staying safe when you're out there if you're not comfortable handling a gun simply mark it underwater and then get a professional to come out there and get it for you because I really appreciate you coming on this video with me if you got any questions please drop me a comment down below and I'll try to answer it the best I can guys if you like this video give me a big thumbs up definitely share it as well as always make sure you follow on Instagram and Twitter like us on Facebook pin us on Pinterest subscribe to us here on YouTube and as always guys we appreciate your business [Applause]

Channel: LakeHickoryScuba

Views: 2,835

Rating: 4.9384613 out of 5

Keywords: Underwater Criminal Investigations, Search For Evidence Underwater, Using A Metal Detector Underwater, Finding Lost Objects Underwater, Lake Hickory Scuba Center And Marina, Instructor Trainer Bryan Stafford

Id: WR-JAACfUcM

Length: 18min 21sec (1101 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 18 2020