Viddy
Sr. Member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2011
- Messages
- 447
- Reaction score
- 220
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Harrisburg, PA
- Detector(s) used
- Xterra 705, F2, Etrac, T2, V3i, AT Pro, CTX3030, Equinox 800, Vanquish 540, Go-Find 66, F5, Q60, Apex
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
- #1
Thread Owner
I was hunting the nice fall day in a central park in the next county over in a small little town. The town that has been around sicne the early 1800's and everyone knows everyone. It was about my 6th hunt there, since finding it, and totalled hundreds of coins, the oldest a 1865.
I took my GF (AKA: DiggerBee) there once with her using my AT Pro, but every other time it was just me. There is always people walking thru the park, some stop to talk and inquire about my activities, but mostly they just walk by. I am always careful to avoid the people parked on the benches, playing in the leaves with their kids, and filling in all V-cuts I make.
I was in the park for about 2 hours and hit a dime target, about 1-2" down, with my ETrac. I had just got down on one knee, put my Etrac on the fallen leaves, and looked up to see a gentleman in dress pants and a button down dress shirt making a bee-line toward me across the park. The first thing to go through my head was 'uh oh!' Something about the way he walked towards me with a laser focus and a sense of urgency made me pretty sure I just didn't win the key to the city.
I just waited on one knee, not digging, just waiting for what would happen. He came over, stopped about 2 feet in front of me and said 'no digging in the park!'. I replied 'Sorry. I started coming here about 2-3 weeks ago. I didn't know it was an issue. I don't even have a shovel'. He responded, 'I am the Borough Manager and there was a few people out here a few weeks ago with metal detectors and spades. They were digging holes and not filling them in. The leaves filled them in and we have been getting complaints from people almost twisting ankles from not seeing the holes.'
I just kept it positive, kept on one knee, put my hand put and introduced myself. It actually caught him off guard a little bit, but he shook my hand and introduced himself back with his first and last name.
I asked, 'if you want me to leave the park, just tell me. I won't come back again. It's a nice fall day, I am just here for fun, and if you look around, you won't see one single hole or anything else from me from the past 2 hours or any other time I was here. With your permission, may I show you how I dig something out of the ground? I use this'. I pulled out my Lesche digger and showed him.
He replied, 'uh, yeah...ok... go ahead.'
So I showed him my Etrac. How the 2 double digit numbers work and the other features like depth and how accurate the pinpoint is. I then showed him, how I make a V-cut in the turf, flip it up, and use a pin-pointer to help find the coin. I then show him that after I flip the turf back down, and after a few pats, you can't even notice I was there.
I think he was pretty impressed at the respect for the park, the technique of no big hole with a shovel, the technology used to find a coin and pin-point it, and my... maybe call it... efficiency ... which comes from hour after hour of detecting and digging everything from pop tabs, to coins, to everything else over... and over...and over...
We got talking about the town and it's history. He was very proud of it, and I had done some research (looking for good spots) and it impressed him. We talked about a few bad apples ruining hobbies for everyone. He asked 'what's the oldest thing you have ever found?', 'How much does all the stuff cost?', 'what's the oldest thing you found in this park?'.... etc...etc...etc...
He took my info down after I told him, 'If you or anyone from the borough ever needs anything found, including the police department, let me know. Free of charge. I'd be glad to help out. If I am not working or sleeping I am out metal detecting.
In the end, he tried thinking of some more good old spots for me to go metal detecting within the borough. He said he had to be going back to the office, and I told him I was heading home. We shook hands and he wished me luck finding some good stuff the next time I came down to the park and told me a good place to eat down the street.
Sometime... diplomacy, courtesy, respect, patience, and just listening goes a long way. I not only got out of what looked to be a 'bad situation', by I got a few new hot metal detecting spots! I am gonna make sure I pick them up some coffee when I am down there next... one of the early morning park hunts.
I never really give out my 'hunt-spots', except to friends, BUT.... the town is very famous.... and with the whole 'FrankenStorm' thing.... let's just say....
The town is known as 'The Weather Capital Of The World'....
I took my GF (AKA: DiggerBee) there once with her using my AT Pro, but every other time it was just me. There is always people walking thru the park, some stop to talk and inquire about my activities, but mostly they just walk by. I am always careful to avoid the people parked on the benches, playing in the leaves with their kids, and filling in all V-cuts I make.
I was in the park for about 2 hours and hit a dime target, about 1-2" down, with my ETrac. I had just got down on one knee, put my Etrac on the fallen leaves, and looked up to see a gentleman in dress pants and a button down dress shirt making a bee-line toward me across the park. The first thing to go through my head was 'uh oh!' Something about the way he walked towards me with a laser focus and a sense of urgency made me pretty sure I just didn't win the key to the city.
I just waited on one knee, not digging, just waiting for what would happen. He came over, stopped about 2 feet in front of me and said 'no digging in the park!'. I replied 'Sorry. I started coming here about 2-3 weeks ago. I didn't know it was an issue. I don't even have a shovel'. He responded, 'I am the Borough Manager and there was a few people out here a few weeks ago with metal detectors and spades. They were digging holes and not filling them in. The leaves filled them in and we have been getting complaints from people almost twisting ankles from not seeing the holes.'
I just kept it positive, kept on one knee, put my hand put and introduced myself. It actually caught him off guard a little bit, but he shook my hand and introduced himself back with his first and last name.
I asked, 'if you want me to leave the park, just tell me. I won't come back again. It's a nice fall day, I am just here for fun, and if you look around, you won't see one single hole or anything else from me from the past 2 hours or any other time I was here. With your permission, may I show you how I dig something out of the ground? I use this'. I pulled out my Lesche digger and showed him.
He replied, 'uh, yeah...ok... go ahead.'
So I showed him my Etrac. How the 2 double digit numbers work and the other features like depth and how accurate the pinpoint is. I then showed him, how I make a V-cut in the turf, flip it up, and use a pin-pointer to help find the coin. I then show him that after I flip the turf back down, and after a few pats, you can't even notice I was there.
I think he was pretty impressed at the respect for the park, the technique of no big hole with a shovel, the technology used to find a coin and pin-point it, and my... maybe call it... efficiency ... which comes from hour after hour of detecting and digging everything from pop tabs, to coins, to everything else over... and over...and over...
We got talking about the town and it's history. He was very proud of it, and I had done some research (looking for good spots) and it impressed him. We talked about a few bad apples ruining hobbies for everyone. He asked 'what's the oldest thing you have ever found?', 'How much does all the stuff cost?', 'what's the oldest thing you found in this park?'.... etc...etc...etc...
He took my info down after I told him, 'If you or anyone from the borough ever needs anything found, including the police department, let me know. Free of charge. I'd be glad to help out. If I am not working or sleeping I am out metal detecting.
In the end, he tried thinking of some more good old spots for me to go metal detecting within the borough. He said he had to be going back to the office, and I told him I was heading home. We shook hands and he wished me luck finding some good stuff the next time I came down to the park and told me a good place to eat down the street.
Sometime... diplomacy, courtesy, respect, patience, and just listening goes a long way. I not only got out of what looked to be a 'bad situation', by I got a few new hot metal detecting spots! I am gonna make sure I pick them up some coffee when I am down there next... one of the early morning park hunts.
I never really give out my 'hunt-spots', except to friends, BUT.... the town is very famous.... and with the whole 'FrankenStorm' thing.... let's just say....
The town is known as 'The Weather Capital Of The World'....
I bet there's a bunch of people who .......... in that situation (hearing someone say "no detecting" or whatever) would simply slink away. And then tell others in their area : "such & such place is off-limits". Word then spreads amongst local md'rs, and ....... within a certain time, it's just taken as truth (afterall, "so & so got booted last year", etc...). Yet as your situation shows, we can not take isolated incidents as necessarily precedents. Sometimes they're just someone having a bad day, or an authority responding to a call (in which he is duty-bound to make some sort of response, even though he personally didn't care). And as your story shows, sometimes a little small talk, and a big smile, makes the outcome go entirely differently, and forgotten about from then-on-after.
