How many places have you been thrown out of? (Asked to leave)

[foiled_again]

It's never fun and always disappointing, but it happens. My own score is 4, as follows. Three have been in the past year as I have devoted more time to park and school hunting.

--grassy area adjacent to a very popular beach; the lifeguard said I was welcome to detect in the sand but not the grass. Solution; work it in the off season when there are no lifeguards around. The grass is LOADED with coins but very hard to work in some placed due to thick thatching of the grass.

-- School...guy didn't want me "digging holes". He may have had me confused with the thousand gophers that infest the same lawn

-- School--asked to leave by some district guy. The week before I had asked another district guy if it was ok. Oh well. School was pretty sparse but I dug a few wheaties there and was hoping for silver.

-- Park--I mentioned to the guy who accosted me that if he walked five feet from one of my digs, he'd never find it. He agreed but said other detectorists had left open holes and detecting and therefore banned.

And so it goes. Any good stories?

 

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[wainzoid]

Over the past 10 yrs..... my score is 0

 

[Dak]

There was this one time in a bar up in Alaska I had a few too many………… Never while metal detecting 34 years

 

[Normsel]

I was asked to leave one time and that was because some other jerk left a bunch of open holes in a ball field. He was nice about it but said no one could hunt in their city parks any more

 

[Fixitdave]

Hi yea myself nephew and grandson went driving country side one afternoon looking for place came acrossed old school house so went back to closest house knocked on door little old lady answered door by opening just enough to speak I ask the lady if she owned the school she replied that she did but her sons took care of the place so asked if sons were around she said no so then I explained why I was asking about school and told her what I would like to do she replied that she guess it would be ok so we start swinging had been there about 10 minutes when hear a 4 wheeler coming it was one of her sons he stopped i explained that I had stopped at the house and talked with the lady he replied yea I know I then asked if he owned the church across the road and he rudely replied yes thats my property and you stay off of it I said no problem is it ok for us to be here he said I suppose since she told you ok so he left and we go back to searching I had just found first wheatie when car pulls up needless to say its her other son now he is more polite so it seems I explain that I talked to lady he said I know but now you have to go because that he might want to detect with his kids and grandkids so we left but I bet you he never does there were also to old privy holes that could of produced goodies but guess will never know this happened a year ago thanks for reading sorry for long post happy huntin

 

[BryanM362]

Hi yea myself nephew and grandson went driving country side one afternoon looking for place came acrossed old school house so went back to closest house knocked on door little old lady answered door by opening just enough to speak I ask the lady if she owned the school she replied that she did but her sons took care of the place so asked if sons were around she said no so then I explained why I was asking about school and told her what I would like to do she replied that she guess it would be ok so we start swinging had been there about 10 minutes when hear a 4 wheeler coming it was one of her sons he stopped i explained that I had stopped at the house and talked with the lady he replied yea I know I then asked if he owned the church across the road and he rudely replied yes thats my property and you stay off of it I said no problem is it ok for us to be here he said I suppose since she told you ok so he left and we go back to searching I had just found first wheatie when car pulls up needless to say its her other son now he is more polite so it seems I explain that I talked to lady he said I know but now you have to go because that he might want to detect with his kids and grandkids so we left but I bet you he never does there were also to old privy holes that could of produced goodies but guess will never know this happened a year ago thanks for reading sorry for long post happy huntin

Similar thing happened to me. My daughter and I Knocked on an old farm house and got permission from an elderly lady. About an hour later her daughter showed up and said we had to leave. Wasn't finding much anyhow. I got the impression she thought there was a cache buried on the property.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hey foiled, I've been booted lots of times. As much as I/we wish we all had "red carpets rolled out" for us, yet , let's be honest: detecting has connotations, and you can't please every last person in the world. So I've gotten to the point where I've developed a tough skin, and .... quite frankly, ... learned how to avoid such persons as might gripe, ... to begin with.

Like I notice in the case of the lifegaurd who told you "only on the beach, but not on the grass", you say the solution to that was (tsk tsk) to simply go hit that grass in the off-season when lifeguards weren't around. Oh the horror, say it isn't so!

And as for the case of the first school you cite: That type story is VERY COMMON ! It comes up frequently on forums, where someone thinks the solution to such encounters, is to merely go in ahead of time, and ask "can I?" They find someone to say "yes". But lo & behold, in the field, someone else decides they don't like it. So.... guess what happens to your permission? Again, the solution in my opinion, is to avoid such person who might gripe, from the git-go.

And as for the last park you cite, don't be so quick to assume that just because some city person says "because of holes", that there was ever actually such an incident, that they can cite. Often-time it's just the "go-to" reason someone gives, to justify the "no" they just passed out. And we md'rs say to ourselves "durned those persons who must've left holes". When in reality, it's just the connotation, and thus the reason, passed out by whomever is deciding they don't like it. It doesn't necessarily mean they can cite any such incident. It's just the image that some persons will naturally get, when you ask "but why?".

 

[foiled_again]

It's always easier to ask forgiveness than permission, right? LOL

I like to think of myself as the doctor of detecting--"First, do no harm." I'll walk away from a lawn if I can't repair my plugs/cuts in a satisfactory way due to grass or soil conditions. I don't venture onto manicured lawns and rarely dig below 4 inches unless it sound really good and the coast is clear. (There are few deep targets in the sites I hunt anyway). If a landscape crew is around I go elsewhere. And now, I look around like around like a pro football quarterback before settling in under pinpointer to dig.

Fortunately, I'm sneaky by nature.

 

[Ripper1313]

I was just tossed today, I was at lowry AFB ( former) I stoped and asked security before I attempted to dig where the old officers houses were. They said no problem but after about an hour security comes and asks me to leave. I guess that the groundskeeper did not want me to dig holes...... It was mostly weeds. I left, I didn't find much anyway. I'm running out of places though.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I was just tossed today, I was at lowry AFB ( former) I stoped and asked security before I attempted to dig where the old officers houses were. They said no problem but after about an hour security comes and asks me to leave....

Yup, another example of this

 

[Msbeepbeep]

I haven't been ask to leave yet. I was told I could detect all I wanted but it was illegal to dig and remove anything from the public land in this town, at that point I really wanted to put "back" all the trash I had dug. The look but don't touch thing.

Then the idiots called me for jury duty, what where they thinking!!!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I haven't been ask to leave yet. I was told I could detect all I wanted but it was illegal to dig and remove anything from the public land in this town ...

misbeep-beep, when you say you were told that you could detect, but just not dig or remove, how did this conversation come-to-be ? I mean, was this what someone came out and told you when you were on some public land in that city ? Or was this what someone told you when you went and asked in city hall ? Or ... ?

 

[icyheart]

1 time and the guy was very rude

 

[Msbeepbeep]

misbeep-beep, when you say you were told that you could detect, but just not dig or remove, how did this conversation come-to-be ? I mean, was this what someone came out and told you when you were on some public land in that city ? Or was this what someone told you when you went and asked in city hall ? Or ... ?

This was a public park/beach that I had detected several times before in full view of the local law. This day they saw me too, it was later when I was heading back to the truck a police car comes whipping up & stops in front of me the officer then informs me I can detect all I want but digging & removing any thing from town owned land is illegal. He says this as I am watching 4 people digging clams to take home and a boy & dog digging shells to take home, but I'm digging trash and clad & have a detector so "I am the bad one"!
I don't leave holes either, you can't tell where I dig, I use a screw driver most of the time.

 

[BuffaloBob]

Zero for me also because I try to ask for permission. High country or high plains are usually to remote to locate a land owner. Wait have to change that to One. Last year the new owner of some farm land asked what I was up to. No problem and he pointed to his ranch so I can get permission next time.

Many times not allowed on great detecting sites. Big outfits worried about damages or liability. I carry a hard hat, steel toed and regular boots for construction areas. Blend in and stay away from machinery. Helps if you look nerdy too!
BB

 

[icyheart]

what if there is no one to ask for permission

 

[Tom_in_CA]

This was a public park/beach that I had detected several times before in full view of the local law. This day they saw me too, it was later when I was heading back to the truck a police car comes whipping up & stops in front of me the officer then informs me I can detect all I want but digging & removing any thing from town owned land is illegal. He says this as I am watching 4 people digging clams to take home and a boy & dog digging shells to take home, but I'm digging trash and clad & have a detector so "I am the bad one"!
I don't leave holes either, you can't tell where I dig, I use a screw driver most of the time.

ok, thanx for the info. If that policeman was using those wordings ("dig" and "remove"), then what's odd is: such verbage exists at every single beach and/or park, in the entire USA. You know, so no one thinks he can go "remove" the park benches, etc..., for instance. Yet truth-be-told, rarely applied to md'rs . Because if the day came when such things, of necessity, meant "no detecting", is the day we can all give it up right now.

So it sounds like you just had the mis-fortune of running into a single barney-fife. Now as to why he singled THIS particular thing/activity out (as opposed to, as you say, clam diggers, etc...), is another matter of speculation!

 

[foiled_again]

For shallow targets (I call them "poppers") I use a tack puller, which looks like a flathead screwdriver with a bent tip. Ace Hardware sells a nice one. For deeper digs I use a Japanese gardening (hori-hori) knife, which is like a Lesche (I think) but smaller.

Sometimes I carry a supply of recent trash items like pull tabs, rusty bottle caps, razor blades, crown caps with broken-off glass in them, etc. If somebody accosts me I could embrace the rhetoric of liberalism; "A small child could step on this, develop blood poisoning and die! Why do you want small children to die?" Good luck to me with that one.

 

[foiled_again]

So let's see, among the perils we face are rattling wildlife, demented property owners, gangbangers, officious government drones, polar vortexes, EMI, bad ground and unexploded ordnance. Makes you wonder. Hey, but I found $3.09 clad today!

 

[Rangerbb]

Got booted once metal detecting a farmers market area belonging to the university. Rude guy said he didn't want people digging and damaging the grass never mind you couldn't tell where I had been and all the trash I had picked up. The best of it was he was in his truck and drove across all his precious grass.