Atlanta's "Magnet Man" continues mission to clear streets of scrap metal
One flat tire after another, an Atlanta man kept finding nails and screws the hard way.
In 2020, Alex Benigno said he was one of the few people on the road making deliveries for work. After getting 15 flat tires from screws and nails in the street, he decided to do something about it. That's how he became the Atlanta Magnet Man.
"Instead of saying somebody should do something, I realized that, wait a minute, I'm somebody," Benigno said. "I can do something."
Benigno rides around metro Atlanta towing a trailer outfitted with heavy-duty magnets behind his e-bike. Perfecting the trailer took some trial and error.
"This is like the, the fifteenth iteration and it goes all day long, it can take a beating, it hits all the bumps all day long and nothing falls off," Benigno said.
He collects scrap metal from sunup to sundown, stopping to clean his magnets along the way.
"I'll start to hear it, start to feel it dragging and I'll just stop and check on it every now and then," Benigno said.
He said he removes at least 200 pounds of scrap metal from metro Atlanta streets each week.
Benigno said he has seen improvements, but there is still work to do.
"But it's a really good feeling going back to certain places that used to be really bad and now they're not accumulating metal nearly as quickly as I thought they would," Benigno said. "But there's some places, some roads that are just really bad and that just every time I come through, I find new stuff."
Once he sees a problem, Benigno said, he can't ignore it.
"This is the kind of thing I see all these nails and screws on the ground, nobody's doing anything about it, I was like, I can do something and this is culmination of my efforts," Benigno said. "I love it."
CBS News Atlanta contacted the city about his mission. A spokesperson said:
"The Department of Public Works and ATLDOT do tremendous work each and every day to maintain Atlanta's streets and roadways to keep them safe and accessible. The City also appreciates residents who roll up their sleeves, identify a need and find a way to help their neighbors. That kind of civic engagement—a group project—helps make Atlanta cleaner, safer and better for everyone."
