Been busted detecting? What penalty?

[bergie]

Let's hear worse stories on anyone who has gotten 'busted' detecting and what kind of
penalty was received and can you laugh about it now, or not.

 

[diggummup]

Good grief, guys. Why the guilt trips? I'll be the first to admit we should have responsible behavior. But I also grew up in the days before hunting leases. You could go to any patch of woods nearby in the country and just go hunting - guns, dogs and all. You didn't have to ask for permission because people in those days assumed trust of others. Those days are gone and I know times have changed. But some of us remember those days and still feel "assumed trust" is just as respectable as "permission based trust." Call me an idealist and out of date, but don't lay the heavy on me just because I go detect a patch of woods somewhere and didn't call the paper company ahead of time. I always ask individual land owners for permission. I can't say I do for public or company owned land. Bergie asked for stories, so let's stick with his request instead of critiquing how we got there.

Yeah,I'd have to agree with you Darren.The good old days are gone and i'm sure at one time or another most of us here have been somewhere we should't have been.So let us stick with the subject at hand.Personally,I don't have any good stories, so let's hear from those who do.

 

[coinshtr]

I suppose I should agree with you Darren regardless of my previous reply. The fellow was asking for stories not 20 lashings. So with out further ado here is my story. My next oldest brother asked me if I remember this certain fellow whom we grew up with. Yes I did. He told me the story of how he is also a treasure seeker. A very naughty one at that. His thought apparently was to hell with you in this life or in the next. This A hole found a well hidded out of the way old grave yard and proceeded to exume not just 1 but 2 graves for their personal belongings. Before he could get to the third one he was busted and from what I am told is serving time. Makes me furious. Those folks could be any one of our relatives. Thats the kinda crap that give true treasure seekers bad PR.

 

[bergie]

Some story! His real punishment could be if the ghosts of these people he dug up come and visit him at night in his cell.

 

[paratrooper]

That is where the term "Gold Digger" came from .

 

[Shutterbug]

I've been ask to quit detecting once in a Seattle city park and also once on private property. In both cases I had ask for and recieved permission. The first time was on private poperty. I did some research on a local museum and found that the property used to be an old elementry school. I went to the museum and paid a small fee to walk through the place. After I had seen the displays and was leaving, I told the lady at the door that I had a hobby of MD'ing and ask if it would be OK to detect on the property. She said she would check for me and ask a man standing nearby. He said it would be fine. I thanked them, went outside and begin detecting. About twenty minutes later, this older lady comes tearing out of the building with her arms frailing up and down. I had my earphones on and didn't hear her at first. She acted like I had just killed her dog or something. I didn't know what she was so excited about. Finally I discovered that she was after ME ! She was really excited and I thought she was going to lite into me. She was all but screaming when she ask me just what I thought I was doing. I told her that I had gotten permission from the lady inside. She said that lady had no authority to give me permission. I apologized and told her in a calm voice that I was sorry and that I would leave. I had picked up quite a bit of trash and one or two clad coins ( I thinks the property had been detected over many times before me.) I showed her the trash I had picked up and offered to give her back the couple of coins I'd found and she quited down a little but she was still shakeing. I think she must have thought I was going to give her a bad time or something. Anyway the moral to this story is to have WRITTEN permission from the person in charge. The second time I was ask to leave was in a Seattle city park. I had ask for and recieved permission by mail that it was alright to detect in Seattle's city parks and I carried the letter in my wallet just in case I was ever stopped. Sure enough, one day I ran into one of the park employees that was working nearby and he got all excited about me digging in the park. I always fill in the holes and try to leave the area just like I found it. He ask me what I was doing and I showed him a handfull of coins I had found and also the garbage I had picked up. He was one of those guys that had a superior attitude and told me not to dig in the park. I told him that I had permission and was going to show him my letter. He started raising his voice and getting excited before I could get the letter out. I figured it wasn't worth argueing with the guy, so I told him I would leave. I've detected in a LOT of Seattle parks and have never had any other problems. I think there are a few people like to throw their weight around and it's best that we just "put our tails beteen our legs and leave" as someone else said. I used to be really shy about asking permission and have missed a lot of good places to detect. When you ask for permission, they can only say yes or no and I have found that most people are really nice and say yes. The ones that say no are pretty nice as well. It's a lot better to hear the "no" before you get started than to hear it after you get caught without permission! Get permission, it's better to be safe than sorry...

 

[Hank]

"I think there are a few people like to throw their weight around and it's best that we just "put our tails beteen our legs and leave" as someone else said.? I used to be really shy about asking permission and have missed a lot of good places to detect.? When you ask for permission, they can only say yes or no and I have found that most people are really nice and say yes.? The ones that say no are pretty nice as well.? It's a lot better to hear the "no" before you get started than to hear it after you get caught without permission! Get permission, it's better to be safe than sorry...? ?"

You say you had "written permission" to search the parks, yet you meekly submit to tyranny from an insignificant, brainless clod whose wages are subsidized with your taxes ?!!?? ?
When would you find it appropriate to assert your rights.....[rhetorical] .....AFTER the police state begins? nocturnal arrests....or before??

 

[MDnoob]

Well. Perhaps more places would be legal to detect if detectorists hadn't gone in illegally first. ...that whole "reputation" thing.

Actually I blame it all on the show "LA Law". That show probably quadrupled the number of lawers in this country and led to all of our problems now with lawsuits and whatnot. I know people who don't work, but just look for people to sue.

These stories about MDing illegaly or semi-legally are actually quite similar to stories about exploring caves on private land, which happens to be another hobby of mine...

I have no time to detect on any land let alone private land and I would never bother to do so, as I couldn't have fun while looking over my shoulder. Some sites are tempting tho, but remember: there is always another.

If my detector was ever confiscated, I equipped it with a self-destruct device, set to go off 5 hours after I hit a hidden switch.

 

[Shutterbug]

A little note for Hank and his reply....

There are times, Hank, when it's better to walk away than to make a confrontation. I believe there are things to fight for and things we should walk away from. I take offence to the term meekly. I served three terms in the jungles of Viet Nam and have two Purple Hearts to show for it. That was worth fighting and dieing for... metal detecting isn't.

 

[lookstwice]

just in case you never heard it...welcome home, shutterbug

 

[Hank]

A little note for Hank and his reply....

There are times, Hank, when it's better to walk away than to make a confrontation.? I believe there are things to fight for and things we should walk away from.? I take offence to the term meekly. I served three terms in the jungles of Viet Nam and have two Purple Hearts to show for it.? That was worth fighting and dieing for... metal detecting isn't.?

I find it curious that you, [or anyone]? is easily offended by mere words in cyberspace ?? ?I made no implication that anyone should be dumb enough to fight over the situation under discussion?? ?There are more intelligent ways to make ones point-than resorting to violence.... that you imply might be forthcoming from "a confrontation".?

The? principles you choose to "die for" , [an abstraction, viz., "the State"] , make no more sense to me than dying over a metal detecting issue.? The old maxim is still valid...."it takes two to make a fight....or a war".

 

[Darren in NC]

To all on the forum...I have ex-friends who loved to push my buttons and then play innocent when they finally got a reaction. I found out if they are ignored, they go away. It's no fun when they can't get others to notice their needy cries for attention. Cheers.

 

[Hank]

To all on the forum...I have ex-friends who loved to push my buttons and then play innocent when they finally got a reaction. I found out if they are ignored, they go away. It's no fun when they can't get others to notice their needy cries for attention. Cheers.

:P The reason they 'pushed your buttons", [I imagine] , is because you are so easy to wind up. ? "Cheers".? ?

 

[Buffalobackhoe]

Re: Been busted detecting? What penalty? Even with permission!

I have two intersting stories about getting busted with permission, but we were digging a privys.? Back in 2000 I had gotten permission to dig a privy in Lockport, NY from an old woman who owned an 1860's house.? We (my friends Pistol Pete and Grieg) were digging the privy and had removed about the top 5 feet of dirt when the same woman came screaming out of her house.? She was yelling about what we were doing and that why we were there.? Several minutes later the Lockport PD showed up.? Apparently the woman had the early stages of Alsheimers and has bouts of confussion and had forgotten she gave permission.? The police officer had know that she had the disease and talked to her to calm her down.? We cleaned up and left but that was rather disturbing because the woman was so emotional.? Also on another dig we had gotten permission from the people who lived in a 1830's house.? They told us they were owners but they were just renters.? We found the privy but it was very deep and filled with stones because the stone privy wall had fallen down.? We took way to long to dig and it go dark out side.? The woman who had given permission to us to dig had gotten angry because it was close to 11:00 at night and we were still digging.? She had called the land lord (with out telling us) and had? embellished the story.? The landlord showed up with his two brothers and two cousins with bats to remove us Physically.? Thank god for my digging buddy Julian Sodja and his quick talking, because these came out of nowhere and they were angry.? Anyhow Julian got the landlords attention and explained what had happened before blood was shed.? The landlord gave us an hour to clean up and get off his property.? And so we did.? After all that I guess moral to the story is that if we didn't have permission things could have gotten way out of control.? Anyhow, Thanks for the Look, Monte

 

[bergie]

Hey Buffalobackhoe, good thing it wasn't permission to have sex with the one lady, as you would have been charged with rape instead of trespassing. :-(

 

[Talos]

In addition to treasure hunting, I also collect aluminum cans and other scrap metal. (Don't laugh, scrap metal prices are at an all-time high due to massive new construction in China, India and portions of Europe.) One fellow told me of a house whose renters had just moved out of in recent days. So I went there and began to gather up all of the cans (beer mostly, God could these people drink!), which had apparently been sitting there for some time. Soon enough, here comes some snotty old woman charging out of the house next door who "claimed" to own the property. "What are you doing in my yard!" she spits out in a bark reminiscent of a rabid Doberman. I calmly told her that one of her neighbors said it would be all right. That wasn't good enough for this woman, who continued with her rant. Hell, I just gathered up my aluminum booty and left...the job was finished anyway. The people who bitch about this type of thing, including metal detecting, are the same boring losers who complain about people taking a drink or visiting a strip club. They have lived totally pleasureless lives, and can't stand anyone who has a little fun.

 

[FISHEYE]

This is funny what happened to me an 2 friends.years ago. i used to go to wekiva river for the yearly river clean up,they would give us a rental canoe for free for the day plus a box of garbage bags, we could pick up trash anywhere along the river or in it,so we all brought our scuba equipment,plus i brought my underwater metal detector, we got about 4 trash bags full of beer cans,plus 1 friend found a wallet with about 200 bux cash in it but no id,i found a camera an a cell phone,after we turned in our bags,i suggested that we paddle up stream to the wekiva state park where there was a big pool on the other side of this walk bridge,the pool wasnt really in the state park area,but they had rental canoes there an alot of people would turn over thier canoes and i thought would lose whatever wasnt tied down.so we tied up the canoe on the far side near the river,all three of us went down,it was only 15-20 feet deep,4 feet of silt at the bottom,we got to the area where they launch the canoes i was detecting an just got a goodie bag full of cans an some pop tops,then i noticed some canoers trying to poke paddles down at me,well it got worse all 3 of us were getting paddles poked at us one of my buddies grabbed one of the paddles an the canoe tipped over,what i saw almost made me spit out my reg,i was laughing so hard i almost sucked in water,in the water struggling an trying to swim was 2 seminole county cops an 1 park ranger all with full uniforms and guns on.well we all surfaced an went to the canoe launch site,where the 2 cops gave us the third degree an kept saying that we wernt allowed to scuba dive in the state park.well i informed them that we wernt in the state park an that if they could show me a law that said we wernt supposed to be there then i would believe them,they threatned to take away all our equip.the ranger never said a word.they never saw the md,they finally said just leave.so we all did laughing all the way back to our trucks.i guess that will teach those cops not to poke paddles at divers ever again.

 

[jeff of pa]

THAT IS TOO FUNNY, FISHEYE. Best one yet?

 

[MistaCotta]

Fisheye,

Absolutely hilarious! What a funny story! I would have loved to have been down there with you guys when you saw those cops fall into the water! Man--what a sight!

 

[Shutterbug]

Hey Fisheye...

I wish I could have been there to see that. THAT is a cool story!

 

[FISHEYE]

I wish i would have had a underwater video camera at the time,it could have won on the worlds most funnyest videos.or made the news.