RICHMOND, Va. -- An inmate has been busted for making a homemade rod and reel and using it to collect contraband. Now the Richmond Sheriff’s Department needs your help. In this story, it's not about fishing with a rod and reel…exactly.
"You tie what the other person needs to it and you drag it back," said retired corrections officer Maurice Tyler.
He explained an inmate uses a mop handle with strips of bed linens cast outside hoping someone on the outside man would hook on a catch of contraband.
"He was trying to fish some items up to the pod, little telephones and drugs, and other items, so we wanted to let them know that we know and several will be charged on the inside and we are looking for that person on the outside," Richmond Sheriff Antionette Irving said.
The cellphones confiscated are about the same size as a thumb drive.
Tyler spends some time on the James with his rod and reel. The retired corrections officer said fishing like this is a way of life on the inside.
"No matter how good of a job you think you’re doing, they'll always figure how to get around it because that's their job in there: to watch you and what you do 24 hours a day," Tyler said.
Sheriff Irving said a man attached contraband to the inmate’s line from the 18th Street side of the Richmond Justice Center.
"We are going to get you,” Irving said. “We don't want you harming our inmates. There's enough going on with the virus and such and definitely don't want him mixing stuff in.”
If you recognize the man in the photo, Irving says call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000, or call the jail desk in the facility.
