Tom_in_CA
Gold Member
- Mar 23, 2007
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Speaking of military bases, here's an encounter I had at one:
There's an army base near me: "Fort Ord". It dates to about 1940 in origin. Not counting some earlier bivwac activity from nearby Monterey Presidio usage). It was decommissioned in the late 1990s, and parcelled off to neighboring towns. But for all the last decade or two prior to being decommissioned, it was a typical "open" base. Meaning, there was nothing to stop anyone from coming on base, driving around, walking, etc.. This was all before 9/11, etc... There was back-country trails that people, for example, would hike at, fish, camp, etc....
In the early 1990s, my wife, a dog-enthusiast, had heard from friends of hers that there was places you could walk/run your dogs in the back-country. So we decided to go check it out. We packed a lunch, loaded up our two dogs, and headed out on the back roads. I brought my detector along, because I knew there was some old PT fields back there in the east garrison part of the base where we were headed. The idea was, that I'd detect, while my wife ran the dogs around.
We drove around a bit, and found a good looking place to pull over. No activity d/t the base was winding down in these waining years. Nice open fields. Old rusting PT equipment in the distance (parallel bars, hurdles, ropes, etc...). We pulled to the side of the road, and prepared to enjoy nature. I was getting my equipment out of the back of my truck, putting on my apron, checking my batteries, etc.. Meanwhile, my wife had let the dogs off the leash, and they were running off playing.
But within a minute, an MP's truck came rushing up to us in a cloud of dust. The guy jumps out and starts yelling at us, demanding to know what we're doing, etc... We tried to explain and answer his questions, but he would just bark new orders and new questions non-stop. Demanding to see our ID's, etc... And when he saw one of our dogs walking back this way, screamed at us to "control your animal!!". By now my wife was panicking, thinking "we're busted! we've done something wrong!". I struggled to remove my hipmount straps, and put all my stuff back in the bed of my truck. And all the while, the guy is on his radio calling for backups. Wow! what did we do! I have to admit, I figured it was my metal detector and federal land stuff. But I just didn't know at this point.
The guy leaned over and looked into the bed of my truck and went ballistic when he saw some spent cartridges/bullet shells (from wherever else I'm been md'ing previously, as I tended to unload debri into the bed of my truck). He went ballistic again and said we had "contraband ammunitions!". This was almost getting comical, had it not been so real. So realizing this guy was outside of his bounds (no matter what he thought our infraction was), I asked him his name. He wouldn't answer, and kept barking questions back at me. All the while shouting into his radio for backup units. When he had failed to give me his name by the 2nd time I asked, I noticed that he had a name badge on. However, he was standing too far away for me to read it. So I took a step his direction, leaned forward, and squinted to see it. At that motion he went ballistic yet again! He pulled his gun, pointed it at me, and said "NEVER make a threatening approach towards an officer!!". He ordered my wife and I to get into the car, and put our hands on the dash where he could see them. By this time, my wife was in tears.
Then a 2nd unit comes up, and I could see in my rear view mirror them talking. After a search of our vehicle, and many more questions, it became apparent what the transgression was: the place I had pulled my vehicle over to park, on the side of the road, wasn't paved. It was like a gravel shoulder. And that the rules of the back-country there say to "stay on paved roads" and "no off-road 4-wheeling", etc... This was in the list of rules they pass out to each car as you enter the base, apparently.
So my detector had nothing to do with it. Nor our mere presence there, etc... Just an MP on a major power trip. Even the backup officer I could see, in my mirror, had the quizzickle look to his co-worker as a sort of "so what?" look (like "you called me out here for this??" type of thing).
The MPs told us we'd have to leave, and warned us we could have gotten a ticket and all sorts of dire things. But that they were going to let us off the hook this time. As we left to drive away, the one guy literally followed us all the way out to the exit of the base! I mean, sheesk, did he think I was going to turn around, and plant a nuclear bomb somewhere??
That night , as my wife and I recovered from this trauma, I started to get very mad about this. Not only did I think it was totally uncalled for, but my wife, whom I'd assured ahead of time that I knew where to take us, would no doubt think I was obviously not to be trusted in future such decisions, doh! The more I thought about it, the more I fumed.
So the next morning early I went back to the main posts buildings. Went to the MP's administration main offices. Asked to speak to a supervisor. Got put through the 20-question gauntlet of "why?" and "who are you?" and "what do you want?" and so forth. Finally I was allowed in to an office, where some high ranking senior fellow was. He appeared to be early 60s in age, perhaps nearing retirement age.
He sat me down, and listened to my story. I spelled out everything that happened, saying that I felt his officer had over-reacted, over-reached his authority, was acting bizerk, wasn't called for, etc... The head guy listened. Then he responded in this way: He agreed that this was totally un-called for, and an abuse of power. And said he was willing to open an investigation into it, and call that guy to the carpet. HOWEVER, he said that if he does so, that he would have to also give me a ticket for parking in an area that wasn't allowed (being off the pavement). He then asked if I wanted to proceed. I thought about it for a few seconds, and realized that I didn't want a ticket. Wasn't sure what it costs, but ... just didn't want a ticket. So I told this guy, never mind, in that case, I don't want to press charges. As I got ready to leave, the officer told me to sit back down. He then said that what he would do, is just put a "note" in the guy's folder. But not that it would be like "pressing charges". Ie.: just a memo.
I said, sure, whatever, go ahead. And that was that. He gave me his card, apologized for his officer's behavior, and said that if I had any other problems in the future, that I could give him a call.
One thing that arose out of that meeting though, was that at one point, the subject turned to the act of metal detecting itself. And I interupted myself, and said to him: ".... there's nothing wrong with casual hobbyist metal detecting, for areas that aren't in use, and aren't bothering anything, right?" After some casual chit-chat, he agreed, that no ... that wasn't the issue. And no, he doesn't see anything wrong with metal detecting.
I carried that business card with me for many years. In fact, I'm STILL carrying it. And over the years, whenever hassled at any base I come to, I just open my wallet, show them my "permission", and they leave me alone! Or at worse, say something like, "well that's only at Ft. Ord", or "well I say you can't", etc.... Thus the card has worked wonders. It turns out, I found out later, that this head officer MP fellow I'd spoken to retired right after that, in the early '90s. And passed away a short time later. So I'm showing this card now, of a person who's not even alive anymore. And odds are, no one now even knows who the fellow is anyhow. But the card has his RANK on there. The guy had been a highly decorated WWII vet, and was just finishing out the final year or so of his career in a desk job as head of MP's, having risen through all the ranks to whatever # of bars and stars rank he had by then.
So apparently, anyone seeing the rank, would just assume "oh", and let me alone, haha
There's an army base near me: "Fort Ord". It dates to about 1940 in origin. Not counting some earlier bivwac activity from nearby Monterey Presidio usage). It was decommissioned in the late 1990s, and parcelled off to neighboring towns. But for all the last decade or two prior to being decommissioned, it was a typical "open" base. Meaning, there was nothing to stop anyone from coming on base, driving around, walking, etc.. This was all before 9/11, etc... There was back-country trails that people, for example, would hike at, fish, camp, etc....
In the early 1990s, my wife, a dog-enthusiast, had heard from friends of hers that there was places you could walk/run your dogs in the back-country. So we decided to go check it out. We packed a lunch, loaded up our two dogs, and headed out on the back roads. I brought my detector along, because I knew there was some old PT fields back there in the east garrison part of the base where we were headed. The idea was, that I'd detect, while my wife ran the dogs around.
We drove around a bit, and found a good looking place to pull over. No activity d/t the base was winding down in these waining years. Nice open fields. Old rusting PT equipment in the distance (parallel bars, hurdles, ropes, etc...). We pulled to the side of the road, and prepared to enjoy nature. I was getting my equipment out of the back of my truck, putting on my apron, checking my batteries, etc.. Meanwhile, my wife had let the dogs off the leash, and they were running off playing.
But within a minute, an MP's truck came rushing up to us in a cloud of dust. The guy jumps out and starts yelling at us, demanding to know what we're doing, etc... We tried to explain and answer his questions, but he would just bark new orders and new questions non-stop. Demanding to see our ID's, etc... And when he saw one of our dogs walking back this way, screamed at us to "control your animal!!". By now my wife was panicking, thinking "we're busted! we've done something wrong!". I struggled to remove my hipmount straps, and put all my stuff back in the bed of my truck. And all the while, the guy is on his radio calling for backups. Wow! what did we do! I have to admit, I figured it was my metal detector and federal land stuff. But I just didn't know at this point.
The guy leaned over and looked into the bed of my truck and went ballistic when he saw some spent cartridges/bullet shells (from wherever else I'm been md'ing previously, as I tended to unload debri into the bed of my truck). He went ballistic again and said we had "contraband ammunitions!". This was almost getting comical, had it not been so real. So realizing this guy was outside of his bounds (no matter what he thought our infraction was), I asked him his name. He wouldn't answer, and kept barking questions back at me. All the while shouting into his radio for backup units. When he had failed to give me his name by the 2nd time I asked, I noticed that he had a name badge on. However, he was standing too far away for me to read it. So I took a step his direction, leaned forward, and squinted to see it. At that motion he went ballistic yet again! He pulled his gun, pointed it at me, and said "NEVER make a threatening approach towards an officer!!". He ordered my wife and I to get into the car, and put our hands on the dash where he could see them. By this time, my wife was in tears.
Then a 2nd unit comes up, and I could see in my rear view mirror them talking. After a search of our vehicle, and many more questions, it became apparent what the transgression was: the place I had pulled my vehicle over to park, on the side of the road, wasn't paved. It was like a gravel shoulder. And that the rules of the back-country there say to "stay on paved roads" and "no off-road 4-wheeling", etc... This was in the list of rules they pass out to each car as you enter the base, apparently.
So my detector had nothing to do with it. Nor our mere presence there, etc... Just an MP on a major power trip. Even the backup officer I could see, in my mirror, had the quizzickle look to his co-worker as a sort of "so what?" look (like "you called me out here for this??" type of thing).
The MPs told us we'd have to leave, and warned us we could have gotten a ticket and all sorts of dire things. But that they were going to let us off the hook this time. As we left to drive away, the one guy literally followed us all the way out to the exit of the base! I mean, sheesk, did he think I was going to turn around, and plant a nuclear bomb somewhere??
That night , as my wife and I recovered from this trauma, I started to get very mad about this. Not only did I think it was totally uncalled for, but my wife, whom I'd assured ahead of time that I knew where to take us, would no doubt think I was obviously not to be trusted in future such decisions, doh! The more I thought about it, the more I fumed.
So the next morning early I went back to the main posts buildings. Went to the MP's administration main offices. Asked to speak to a supervisor. Got put through the 20-question gauntlet of "why?" and "who are you?" and "what do you want?" and so forth. Finally I was allowed in to an office, where some high ranking senior fellow was. He appeared to be early 60s in age, perhaps nearing retirement age.
He sat me down, and listened to my story. I spelled out everything that happened, saying that I felt his officer had over-reacted, over-reached his authority, was acting bizerk, wasn't called for, etc... The head guy listened. Then he responded in this way: He agreed that this was totally un-called for, and an abuse of power. And said he was willing to open an investigation into it, and call that guy to the carpet. HOWEVER, he said that if he does so, that he would have to also give me a ticket for parking in an area that wasn't allowed (being off the pavement). He then asked if I wanted to proceed. I thought about it for a few seconds, and realized that I didn't want a ticket. Wasn't sure what it costs, but ... just didn't want a ticket. So I told this guy, never mind, in that case, I don't want to press charges. As I got ready to leave, the officer told me to sit back down. He then said that what he would do, is just put a "note" in the guy's folder. But not that it would be like "pressing charges". Ie.: just a memo.
I said, sure, whatever, go ahead. And that was that. He gave me his card, apologized for his officer's behavior, and said that if I had any other problems in the future, that I could give him a call.
One thing that arose out of that meeting though, was that at one point, the subject turned to the act of metal detecting itself. And I interupted myself, and said to him: ".... there's nothing wrong with casual hobbyist metal detecting, for areas that aren't in use, and aren't bothering anything, right?" After some casual chit-chat, he agreed, that no ... that wasn't the issue. And no, he doesn't see anything wrong with metal detecting.
I carried that business card with me for many years. In fact, I'm STILL carrying it. And over the years, whenever hassled at any base I come to, I just open my wallet, show them my "permission", and they leave me alone! Or at worse, say something like, "well that's only at Ft. Ord", or "well I say you can't", etc.... Thus the card has worked wonders. It turns out, I found out later, that this head officer MP fellow I'd spoken to retired right after that, in the early '90s. And passed away a short time later. So I'm showing this card now, of a person who's not even alive anymore. And odds are, no one now even knows who the fellow is anyhow. But the card has his RANK on there. The guy had been a highly decorated WWII vet, and was just finishing out the final year or so of his career in a desk job as head of MP's, having risen through all the ranks to whatever # of bars and stars rank he had by then.
So apparently, anyone seeing the rank, would just assume "oh", and let me alone, haha
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