Has anyone else been harassed while they were metaling detecting?

[EastHavenCT-ACE350]

The other day I was out detecting a local ballfield/park I figured it would be a good place because its kind of secluded and basicly not used in the winter months, I was ther for about a half hour and an older gentleman came up to me and asked me how I was doing and if I found anything, I told him no not yet and we proceeded to talk for a good 20 mins about how he was a coin collector,His service at the park and just life in general, He wished me luck and was on his way, Shortly after a car with blacked out windows pulled in the parking lot and parked off in the corner I continued to swing my detector enjoying the day, About 15 mins later the car backs up and a kid probably 18-26? Started yelling out the window at me "Hey look its a penny" and started throwing change out the window..I shrugged it off as some moron and figured it was over, well he came back and parked up on the street and was yellling down at me for a few minutes until I decided I better get out of there because I didnt know what he was capable of, So I walked slowly to my car and packed everything up in my trunk and sat in the car with the heat on to warm up hoping he would leave because there was only one way out of the park and he was pretty close to it and I was affraid he was going to block it..He left shortly after I got in my car so I go out of there and made sure nobody was following me....Never would I thought that I would get harassed while enjoying a "new" Hobby ( I have only been detecting a little over a month) Have any of you guys had similar experiences?? Is there anyone out there in the state of Connecticut? If so have you had anything like this happen to you?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[muddyknees10]

Wow, there are some crazy stories here! I just recently started with the hobby about a month ago. I have had a some stupid comments yelled in my direction...I like the ear phones comment, I'm going to get some and then no one will know if I can here them or not!! Also I have had busy body people complaining that I'm damaging the sod...even though I do my best to do the least amount of damage to my plug and replace it the best I can...and not to mention it's the first week of December!! I'm sure the sod will be fine!! Sheesh!!!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[CoilyGirl]

Want them to disappear

Look them over and tell them they would go great with potato's

Or fava beans and a nice chianti.

 

[dholland02]

Last time someone gave me a hard time I told him to F... off and to go back to his trailor court. He put his head down got in his POS 91 cavalier and left lol

 

[cudamark]

I think we have all been hassled and been made fun of. I've even had folks throw rocks at me while wading the water. Don't take it personal as it is the sport or hobby you are doing. People don't understand we just like to find stuff and we don't care if we make a "Profit." Depending where I hunt, I am usually armed.

Same here......as the saying goes........A gun in hand trumps a cop on the phone. The best thing to do is avoid the situation to begin with, or at least not make it escalate to violence. My advice is to just walk away and hunt the place another day/time.

 

[Imnengr]

I try to look bad*ss and not to be messed with, with camo pants, heavy boots, and shiny/sharp digging tool, and I always wear headphones so I can pretend like I don't hear what hecklers are saying...but, that being said, I always try to be friendly to adults and kids who are truly interested in what I'm doing. No one has bothered me yet beyond taunting me with "beep beep". I suppose I would break the shaft of my etrac before letting someone take it away...you ain't gettin' my Minelab...not in one piece anyway.

 

[bill from lachine]

Folks,

Generally I can't say I've had much trouble while detecting.....I've had a few cases where people with to much time on their time on their hands have phoned the police complaining I was digging holes in the local parks or school yards....but 3 times only over 20 years is not to bad.....a few young hecklers here and there.....but the best experience I had was back in the summer when I was detecting a sports field and a young guy about 12 or so kept coming over and checking on what I was finding while driving his bike.....I told him mostly junk....and naturally I was wearing grungy jeans and pretty dirty to say the least.....lol....after a few visits he came over with an aluminum frame from a folding lawn chair and gave it to my thinking I was down on my luck.....scrounging for scrap metal.....it made my day....lol.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I try to look bad*ss and not to be messed with, with camo pants, heavy boots, and shiny/sharp digging tool, and I always wear headphones so I can pretend like I don't hear what hecklers are saying...but, that being said, I always try to be friendly to adults and kids who are truly interested in what I'm doing. No one has bothered me yet beyond taunting me with "beep beep". I suppose I would break the shaft of my etrac before letting someone take it away...you ain't gettin' my Minelab...not in one piece anyway.

Best thing to do is make yourself Unapproachable....works for me too...and it does help to have the Lesche in my hand

 

[lookindown]

Yes I have, earlier this year I moved to Columbus, OH. My fiance and I was at a local park detecting and a group of colored teens (16-18 yrs old I'm guessing), (African American, Black..wanna be politically correct) showed up and at first they were just asking questions about what I was doing and I answered all their questions, showing them my detector, it's features and probe and they left to go sit on a picnic table nearby. Sometime later I heard a thud sound close to me and seen woodchips go flying..here a good sized rock had just and I mean just missed hitting me..I looked in the direction it had come from having seen the direction the woodchips had flown and it came from where the group of teens were. I didn't say anything but they were sitting there laughing and two of them looked away quickly when I turned towards them..there was 4 of them verses just me, I just went on with scanning but the more I thought about what they had just nearly done to me (had that hit me, it would have hurt like he**, it would have done some damage from it's size) the madder I got. I finally turned around and told them calmly & nicely..I don't know which of you threw that rock at me but if you do it again you'll found out how bada** a white woman can be...that done it, a huge fight ensued. My fiance jumped in front of me to shield me when they came at me..at one point, the one thug put his hand in his waistband like he was going to pull a gun, my fiance flashed his Lesche digger in his face and the other 3 teens grabbed their friend and they left..still spewing their garbage at us. That's the worst we've faced so far..except for another time when we were in another park, a kid maybe 7-8'ish wanted to help. He had been bugging us for quite sometime, going back and forth between us helping with the digging but we wouldn't let him do the scanning. When my fiance laid his detector down to start digging a target..the kid grabbed it and took off but he caught him easily and got his machine back. We're on-guard at all times now.

When he went in his waistband I would have put that Lesche in his eye.

 

[cudamark]

The problem with that is, if he didn't really have anything in his waistband, you end up going to jail for murder. In this day and age it's best to avoid those type of conflicts if at all possible. Even if you're totally in the right and use deadly force to protect yourself or others, you're into a lot of grief and expense to defend yourself in court. Even if you are found totally innocent of all criminal charges, the dead guys family can sue you civilly where less evidence is needed to prevail. Heaven help you if you kill a gang banger as the other members will see it as their mission in life to avenge his death.

 

[lookindown]

The problem with that is, if he didn't really have anything in his waistband, you end up going to jail for murder. In this day and age it's best to avoid those type of conflicts if at all possible. Even if you're totally in the right and use deadly force to protect yourself or others, you're into a lot of grief and expense to defend yourself in court. Even if you are found totally innocent of all criminal charges, the dead guys family can sue you civilly where less evidence is needed to prevail. Heaven help you if you kill a gang banger as the other members will see it as their mission in life to avenge his death.

You bring up some good points...I would still stick him in the eye.

 

[Tnmountains]

Yes I have, earlier this year I moved to Columbus, OH. My fiance and I was at a local park detecting and a group of colored teens (16-18 yrs old I'm guessing), (African American, Black..wanna be politically correct) showed up and at first they were just asking questions about what I was doing and I answered all their questions, showing them my detector, it's features and probe and they left to go sit on a picnic table nearby. Sometime later I heard a thud sound close to me and seen woodchips go flying..here a good sized rock had just and I mean just missed hitting me..I looked in the direction it had come from having seen the direction the woodchips had flown and it came from where the group of teens were. I didn't say anything but they were sitting there laughing and two of them looked away quickly when I turned towards them..there was 4 of them verses just me, I just went on with scanning but the more I thought about what they had just nearly done to me (had that hit me, it would have hurt like he**, it would have done some damage from it's size) the madder I got. I finally turned around and told them calmly & nicely..I don't know which of you threw that rock at me but if you do it again you'll found out how bada** a white woman can be...that done it, a huge fight ensued. My fiance jumped in front of me to shield me when they came at me..at one point, the one thug put his hand in his waistband like he was going to pull a gun, my fiance flashed his Lesche digger in his face and the other 3 teens grabbed their friend and they left..still spewing their garbage at us. That's the worst we've faced so far..except for another time when we were in another park, a kid maybe 7-8'ish wanted to help. He had been bugging us for quite sometime, going back and forth between us helping with the digging but we wouldn't let him do the scanning. When my fiance laid his detector down to start digging a target..the kid grabbed it and took off but he caught him easily and got his machine back. We're on-guard at all times now.

That is just crazy. Welcome to t-net Sue ! I was hunting a civil war site in a really bad neighborhood. The lady gave me permission for the lot but said be careful. There was a guy standing there like it was his area and I am assuming he was dealing drugs. I asked him to watch my truck and parked it beside him and hopped down into the lot with my gear. I think he was scared and curious. I kept yelling up at him if everything was ok and we would yell back "It's cool man". I tend to approach people. I think that throws them off. Another time I was hunting a dead end street and as it was getting dark came off the ridge out to my truck and it seems a party was starting at he dead end. They were curious about what I was doing. I put my gear in the truck and hit the alarm and pulled out some cw bullets and told them of the battle of Missionary ridge.They had never heard about it. I told them it was about slavery (I lied) and all the men that had died right there (true). They gave me a beer. One of the kids pulled out a 9mm round and I held it up to the 58 cal 3 ringer and I said now imagine getting hit with that chunk of lead. They were going nuts passing it around.. I drank my colt 45 malt liquor(yuck) they gave me, gave them a bullet and headed out. Who knows next time it could be different. It seemed the best tact at the time. But I hunt places like that with my phones off and eyes wide open.
Be safe and be aware and if you can hunt with a friend.

 

[SilverBug90]

Wow, nothing too interesting has ever happened to me while detecting. Curious people do come up to me and ask me what I'm doing and I tell them metal detecting. They usually tell me something about how they lost a ring once or know of a place where someone lost something of value. they wish me luck and go on their way.

Before I got my AT Pro, I was using this old cheap toy metal detector I snagged from my little brother. I was detecting by a park and a guy walked up to me and offered to buy the metal detector.

 

[herb n surf]

Never been harassed , but figure sooner or later the bad guy (criminal) will show up . Always armed .

 

[lem49]

WHen you mentioned car with darken windows, I immediately thought, drug dealer or gangbangers. Need to be careful where you hunt, especially in the
big cities.

 

[Trackerman]

Every now and then you get some punks or older dudes that either think they own the park or are just smart asses . At the beach no probs. I say to hell with them. Go about your buisness and screw them

 

[TheMcs]

I tend to approach people. I think that throws them off.

Exactly!

 

[Joseph Gilbert]

The other day I was out detecting a local ballfield/park I figured it would be a good place because its kind of secluded and basicly not used in the winter months, I was ther for about a half hour and an older gentleman came up to me and asked me how I was doing and if I found anything, I told him no not yet and we proceeded to talk for a good 20 mins about how he was a coin collector,His service at the park and just life in general, He wished me luck and was on his way, Shortly after a car with blacked out windows pulled in the parking lot and parked off in the corner I continued to swing my detector enjoying the day, About 15 mins later the car backs up and a kid probably 18-26? Started yelling out the window at me "Hey look its a penny" and started throwing change out the window..I shrugged it off as some moron and figured it was over, well he came back and parked up on the street and was yellling down at me for a few minutes until I decided I better get out of there because I didnt know what he was capable of, So I walked slowly to my car and packed everything up in my trunk and sat in the car with the heat on to warm up hoping he would leave because there was only one way out of the park and he was pretty close to it and I was affraid he was going to block it..He left shortly after I got in my car so I go out of there and made sure nobody was following me....Never would I thought that I would get harassed while enjoying a "new" Hobby ( I have only been detecting a little over a month) Have any of you guys had similar experiences?? Is there anyone out there in the state of Connecticut? If so have you had anything like this happen to you?

Allot of fellow Texas metal detectors and myself often carry a "Legal" firearm its a good idea especially in Texas to have one just because you never know exactly what you could run int. here in Texas besides the people being crazy sometimes you also must deal with wild hogs snakes all kids of creatures you could run into. When it comes to people making fun or messing with you if you are carrying a big .45 on your hip it may be a deterrent to that all by itself lol. Don't worry about jerks just think about finding valuable coins or relics and don't worry about them.

 

[SusanMN]

As a general rule I try to stay away from people while detecting because of nasty comments and looks you sometimes get, but summers are short here in Minnesota and if its hot the water is always crowded. So I was detecting in the water and a little girl parks herself right in front of me and stares at me. I am waiting for the inevitable barrage of questions as she leans even closer to my face, both of us at dead stop in the water. Then she gets right up in my face, says "you're pretty", turns on her heel and leaves.

 

[Bum Luck]

Yes yes and yes. While detecting I've been bitten by one dog and just narrowly avoided being bitten by many others. Gotten more poison ivy so many times I think I've developed immunity. Been treed my a pack of wild hogs. Almost stepped on more copperheads than I care to recall. Came uncomfortably close to an alligator. Swarmed by hornts. Ate up by fireants. Once I got into mosquitoes so thick on Galveston Bay I literally got sick from all the bites. Lots of sunburn. Been made fun of by kids and others (who got it right back). Yelled at by old ladies. Mistaken for a john by a would be prostitute. Asked to kill a homeles guy by another homeless guy who thought my minelab was a rifle. Been questioned by cops but never told to leave by them. And ran into more than a couple folks who thought they owned the city park. And they say this hobby is for old folks.

Waaay too much excitement for me! You might as well be on a PD payroll for all your troubles.

 

[oldnlazy]

Coinshooting up at local city park told 3x no digging period in grassy areas. Left and went to cityhall. They had no metal detecting laws in effect but did have exsisting against disturbing city landscaping. I moved on to other sites...