"treasure" and "dig" were the killer words there. The way that article reads, the general public is going to think that this goon was destroying the park while stealing valuable things from the ground. Now everyone else can watch out for one of these treasure hunters raping their public land for profit and report them to the police! Dressed as a "treasure hunter"!? What the hell does that mean? Obviously this fellow was attracting attention somehow in a bad way. Here are my personal rules for detecting parks to avoid situations like this:
There have been quite a few comments about how I was dressed that I must have attracted attention in some way. The way the officer and the reporter described me as being "dressed like a treasure hunter" I can understand everyone's concern that I must have been attracting attention. Just to clarify...I was wearing a pair of cargo type shorts, a blue t-shirt, and sandals. I had a finds pouch on a belt with a pin-pointer and trowel on the same belt. No resemblance to Indiana Jones whatsoever. I do understand and follow proper MD etiquette. Hope this helps to clear up some confusion.
Did not mean to accuse or insinuate anything towards you personally. Why was your story put in the paper in the first place? Does somebody that works for the city have a chip on their shoulder to yourself or people who metal detect? Seems like a great deal of trouble to go through just to announce that some cop kick a guy out of a park.
And what about the cop changing your words around to make you sound bad? Anyone reading that story, myself included, would have thought that you were somehow being a public nuisance. It sounds like that whole town is against metal detecting!
