I was kicked out Detecting a ball field...

[Eagle101]

I have been detecting for 3 years. I've hit my town pretty hard. So today i thought i would go to a park that i haven't hit yet and detect around some picnic tables and the basketball court. I was there for about 1 1/2 hours and doing pretty good. I found 67 coins nothing great but it was fun. Then all of a sudden a DPW worker comes up to me waving his finger like i'm a 12 year old kid saying "you can't be doing that" So i said "who says i can't". He replied that there's a town ordinance. I'm pretty sure there's not. He said that the town owns the land and i have to leave. I said i paid $7100 a year in property taxes and it's my land not the towns and that he works for me . So i left there pretty pissed. I wasn't on the baseball fields. I filled my holes perfect. Am i in the wrong I really feel bad for this generation. It seems like all they do is make laws to screw us now.

 

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[cudamark]

I liked the part were you jeff said you have been at this for 40 years and could be closer to 50 years.. I am in that club also..

Same here!

 

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[cudamark]

Show me the ordinance in writing. You know where to find me. If your wrong bring your boss.

The problem you will have doing that is that they WILL find some ordinance that will apply to the situation. They can morph all kinds of vague laws into whatever they want if you come on with an attitude. We'd all like to tell off the knucklehead giving you grief, or kick his butt 6 ways from Sunday, but, after the adrenaline wears off and your testosterone gets under control, you'll realize that it's just best to comply without giving them any guff and then come back at a better time.....assuming you still want to have metal detecting as a hobby.

 

[Lady Pirate]

I kinda have mixed feelings.....Yes, stand up for yourself- and do it in a justly manner, then get as nasty with them as they are with you, or kill them with kindness .....then I think to meself "Is it worth the hassle"? Maybe I should hunt at night when it is calm and serene ....but then that's giving in to them and letting them have their way and what would be next, and at night we kind of have to watch for mountain lions, bears, and other critters that come out more at night than the day. Indecisive I am.....I guess it would be according to my mood. LOL

 

[releventchair]

The problem you will have doing that is that they WILL find some ordinance that will apply to the situation. They can morph all kinds of vague laws into whatever they want if you come on with an attitude. We'd all like to tell off the knucklehead giving you grief, or kick his butt 6 ways from Sunday, but, after the adrenaline wears off and your testosterone gets under control, you'll realize that it's just best to comply without giving them any guff and then come back at a better time.....assuming you still want to have metal detecting as a hobby.

My attitude is calm. Most polite and friendly. Till you are a wiener. When I,m in the right I will not be talked down to or ordered off a site I know is hunt-able. D.P.W. workers around here have no problem with my detecting or my attitude. They see a value in my being there. More than one has shared info on other municipality sites and even site of historic significance elsewhere. Hunting the nearest park, besides workers visiting with me the mayor who knows me from other business has stopped to chat repeatedly.. Don,t tell me what to do and I won,t have you told what to do when I am not violating any ordinance. Big bossy brother not the game here it is elsewhere. Nor is attempts to treat people as subjects to be steered by those who think they are elite accepted. So be right when dealing with enforcing law or it will bite you. Small towns are known people, not numbers. The police see rotating fresh recruits wet behind the ears yet over the years not one has approached. Were there a law against detecting you may believe they would be all over it. No stranger to blade sharpening my value of picking up blade dulling trash along with softer trash is a free service and workers get shown finds when they visit. Why run that off? It is technically free money in saved labor.
Any one from the D.P.W. or any other "They" better have their ducks in a row and will not see me slink away because they don,t approve. I represent detecting here. Legally, politely,knowing where detecting fits, the nicest guy sharing how with any staff and visitors but dang sure not submissively. I do stay clear of employees work. Swap ends of areas to where mowing is finished, hit equipment digs after hours.. That's common sense. Everyone does their thing with a wave most encounters.

 

[Auriemma]

Sounds like a call to the court house is in order.

Did you get the workers name?

 

[migrider56]

I was detecting in the city park and a city employee came up to me and ask if I was doing any good. I told him that I had found some clad and a lot of bottle caps and pull tabs. he told me that I should hunt the ball fields. I said I would like to, but signs are posted stating no digging on the fields. I knew there no ordinances against metal detecting in the city. I said that I didn't want to violate any rules. He told me his name and said that he was the supervisor over all of the fields and that if if i covered the holes and removed trash from them as I was doing he would allow it and told me that it was good for the ground as it helped the soil and grass to grow. He told me the most used fields to hunt. I thanked him and continued to detect and have started to hunt the fileds.

 

[jeff of pa]

I was detecting in the city park and a city employee came up to me and ask if I was doing any good. I told him that I had found some clad and a lot of bottle caps and pull tabs. he told me that I should hunt the ball fields. I said I would like to, but signs are posted stating no digging on the fields. I knew there no ordinances against metal detecting in the city. I said that I didn't want to violate any rules. He told me his name and said that he was the supervisor over all of the fields and that if if i covered the holes and removed trash from them as I was doing he would allow it and told me that it was good for the ground as it helped the soil and grass to grow. He told me the most used fields to hunt. I thanked him and continued to detect and have started to hunt the fileds.

Yea there is a local Ball field I hunt, They Tie Logs to their Vehicles And Ride around
Ripping up the Grass at the end of the Season.
it Leaves holes everywhere
By next season everything looks good again

 

[cudamark]

Talking with people who have some common sense is not the problem here. It's the idiot with power who is the problem. With them, facts mean nothing. They get an idea in their head and there's no getting it out unless their boss changes their mind for them.....or even worse....the bosses mind gets changed by the idiot. Best to just avoid them both. Now if there are written rules against detecting, then yeah, fight it with all you've got. I mean, what do you have to lose at that point. But where there is a gray area or where rules are not strictly enforced, play it cool by not making waves and bringing what you do to the fore front of the people in charge. They have no incentive to rule in your favor. Just keep a low profile, make clean recoveries, and hunt at off hours when the lookie loos and/or government workers aren't around.

 

[ZR2guy]

I have actually considered approaching the councils in cities near me that are off/on about metal detecting their parks with a proposition to purchase a Metal Detecting permit. Maybe $10-20 for the entire year. This way, the city gets a little revenue and local Metal Detectorists get an official permit to hunt the parks. No one gets offended/upset this way and there is absolutely no confusion/anxiety as to if a park can be hunted or not. I would not have a problem being asked to show my permit as compared to hoping that the city worker that approaches me is not a jerk that just wants to make life difficult for me. If approached-asked and you don't have a permit then pack your stuff and go home or go to the city building and get a permit. Almost like a fishing license, but through the city only.

 

[mikeraydj]

If you saw my thread earlier, you would know that I was arrested on a soccer field cause someone called the cops and I had a old warrant for a fishing ticket. I was arrested and taken to jail. I had to pay the $85 fine in order to leave. I was very angry but also embarrassed because the person that called the cops I am sure thought I was arrested for metal detecting. As soon as I paid my fine I went back and finished the day detecting that site. I walked away with 3 silver rings and the satisfaction that I stood up for my right to be there. The reason I did it was because I didn't want them to think detecting was illegal. There is so much bad press on our hobby, It is sad that a few bad apples can make some people so hostile towards us.

 

[NGE]

I was once metal detecting in a county park (with paid for permit) When a county truck with two dorks drove down to the lower "Moist" area I was hunting and told me I couldn't do that in the park. I told them I had a "PAID" permit from the county, they asked to see it, when I handed it to them, they promptly tore it to unreadable shreds. I said why did you do that, he replied, "because I can" I left them there and went and found a county cop, they were still there, their truck sank in the soft moist ground up to their floorboards. The cop asked where my permit was, and they said they threw it away, the cop asked where (since they were stuck and couldn't open their doors) the cop couldn't find it in there truck however he did find paper on the other side of the truck, in the mud...lol Come to find out they were summer help and had no business doing what they did! Plus they were issued a ticket for littering, and when their boss found out, they were immediately fired. I was nice to them but, when they asked if I could help push their truck out I replied "sorry it's not my job" and I continued hunting all around the stuck truck.

 

[RiverRat]

I like your attitude...if confrontation is easily avoided, why do it?....stress (i.e anger) , is more harmful to us than high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.....it's true...it's a fact...look it up....why harm yourself for some ah?

 

[RiverRat]

LOVE IT!

 

[cudamark]

I have actually considered approaching the councils in cities near me that are off/on about metal detecting their parks with a proposition to purchase a Metal Detecting permit. Maybe $10-20 for the entire year. This way, the city gets a little revenue and local Metal Detectorists get an official permit to hunt the parks. No one gets offended/upset this way and there is absolutely no confusion/anxiety as to if a park can be hunted or not. I would not have a problem being asked to show my permit as compared to hoping that the city worker that approaches me is not a jerk that just wants to make life difficult for me. If approached-asked and you don't have a permit then pack your stuff and go home or go to the city building and get a permit. Almost like a fishing license, but through the city only.

You don't want a permit process. That isn't going to stop the complaints from your local busy bodies. They get enough complaints and guess what? your permit won't be worth toilet paper. They'll just revoke it or refuse to renew it. If they can grant you permission, they can also deny it. It would be better to fly under the radar and avoid the complainer or if someone does complain, they don't know what the complainer is talking about. Personally, I'd rather have no rules regarding metal detecting than a set of rules that I have to comply with, and pay for the "privilege".

 

[srcdco]

Back just before Labor Day, I was kicked out of a local lake by someone who told me that he "didn't allow that in the park". I've been detecting that park, on land and in the water, for over 20 years and this was the first time anyone said anything about it not being allowed. The County Sheriff even has a substation there, for their water patrol and they always ask me if I've found anything good. When I asked him who he was, he told me he was the superintendent of the park. He yelled at me for crossing the rope he put up at the shore (I was outside of the swimming area so I wouldn't bother the swimmers) to "keep us out of the water". I left and went to another area for the rest of the day.
The day after Labor Day, I called the Town Hall and asked who the superintendent of the park was and they told me that there isn't one, which is what I expected. I then asked to have a meeting with the Town Supervisor. We met a week later and had a nice 45 minute chat. We talked about the Historical Society, which I used to be President of, and about Scouts and about metal detecting. As it turns out, he's interested in metal detecting and had been recently researching it. He asked about the machines I had and what I thought of them. Then he told me that it was no problem to detect in the park and that he'd tell this person to leave me alone. I gave him my business card and told him that if the town needs me to look for something, or someone says they lost something, I'd be happy to look for it. He joked that he'd make me the official "finder of lost items" for the town.
Overall, it was a very friendly meeting and I believe that if I'd put up a fight with the original guy, things wouldn't have gone as smooth when I met with the Town Supervisor. Apparently, this self-appointed "Park Superintendent" lives near the park and keeps an eye on it for vandalism and he takes it on himself to try to keep it clean, so they put up with him. I wasn't too happy to find out that he was the one that put the string (he called rope) up along the shore line, outside of the swimming area, to try to keep people out of the water. I think that was going too far on his part.
I went back this past Sunday and found 2 Mercury dimes (1924 & 1928), a dateless Buffalo nickel, some other change and a tag that has the number 16 punched in it. This area, just outside of the marked swimming area is where the steamboats used to come in, so I've found a lot of old coins there. I definitely don't want to lose that spot!

Scott