Have you ever hunted private property without permission?

[Tom_in_CA]

Teverly, you say: ""trespassing on public land....". Can you 'splain that one to me? Sorry, I lost ya.

And as for the threat of confiscated cars and detectors, can you please cite for me an incident? Well, I'm sure there's a few, but I bet most are incidents of guys night-sneaking sensitive sites, or morons who couldn't take a "scram", or whatever. As for the few honest guys who just didn't know (or figured it was innocuous enough that no one would care). getting into trouble, I would say those are the great exception. I remember as a kid fishing in cattle ponds (man-made mini-reservoirs to water cattle). A Jr. High chum warned us that if we were caught, we'd have our fishing poles "confiscated" and arrested, strung up, tried, tarred, etc..... A few times we were sighted by a passing farmer. If the farmer even cared, we got a "scram" at most. I'm not saying it was/is right, I'm just saying that you're talking about extreme odds when it comes to things like un-fenced remote forest, or a blighted intown vacant lot, etc... Yes, perhaps for someone's backyard, or a posted fenced site, but not for something like endless unfenced desert, or whatever.

A friend of mine works for the salvation army, in their accounting offices. One day they got a call from a govt. agency asking what they were going to do about the homeless people that had set up a little tent camp on their land. They said "huh? what land?". Turns out, some 30 yrs. earlier, some small useless section of land, in a canyon near a shopping mall (non-developable, thus left as open space), had been willed or donated or whatever, to the Salvation Army. It was just a book entry, of no value. That was lost in the paperwork of this big nameless faceless national denomination. Anyhow, the lady telling me this said that the local level officials, who were currently employed, weren't even aware they owned this land. Someone had gone to the title records and tracked down the owner (I think Salvation army was 33% owner, or something like that).

So in this case, you have what basically amounts to "open space", yet if you looked long enough and hard enough, you'd find someone who owns it, but basically lets it sit. The current generation wasn't even aware they owned it (unless they searched their own archives, old books, etc...) Once again, I'm only saying c'mon folks, there's gotta be a balance between paranoia and common sense.

 

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[rebelLT]

I guess someone already said it best. I guess it boils down to the risks you are willing to take. I don't think a silver dime would be worth getting thrown in jail or having to go to court over. That's why I DONT break the law when I metal detect. A good idea for my fellow TH'ers would be to check out YOUR local criminal trespass law where you live. The Federal Govt has laws regarding trespassing on federal property and ALL kinds of laws about artifacts. I assume ALL states have criminal trespass statutes as do most municipalities. These are usually the same statute adopted as a municipal code. And of course some states also have a criminal trespass statute that applies to RAILROAD property. I know several railroad agents and they will issue a citation to ANYONE they catch scroatin around on railroad property. This is the meat of the Criminal Trespass statute for the state/city I reside in. There is more though it applies to medical facilities..

-3721. Criminal trespass. (a) Criminal trespass is:

(1) Entering or remaining upon or in any land, nonnavigable body of water, structure, vehicle, aircraft or watercraft, other than railroad property as defined in K.S.A. 2006 Supp. 21-3761, and amendments thereto, or nuclear generating facility as defined in K.S.A. 2006 Supp. 66-2302, and amendments thereto, by a person who knows such person is not authorized or privileged to do so, and:

(A) Such person enters or remains therein in defiance of an order not to enter or to leave such premises or property personally communicated to such person by the owner thereof or other authorized person; or

(B) such premises or property are posted in a manner reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, or are locked or fenced or otherwise enclosed, or shut or secured against passage or entry; or

(C) such person enters or remains therein in defiance of a restraining order issued pursuant to K.S.A. 60-1607, 60-3105, 60-3106, 60-3107, 60-31a05 or 60-31a06 or K.S.A. 2006 Supp. 38-2243, 38-2244 or 38-2255, and amendments thereto, and the restraining order has been personally served upon the person so restrained;

WOW! that's a lot to digest. I know that there are a few people on this forum that are cops, or lawyers and understand how to read this. For everyone else I can try to translate this. KEEP in mind that this is only MY local law for criminal trespass.

In order to be convicted of the crime of criminal trespass you must meet the requirements of (1) AND (A, B, or C). In other words you must BE SOMEPLACE that you know you are not supposed to be AND enter or remain in this place in defiance of an order not to enter or to leave such place or property PERSONALLY COMMUNICATED to you by the owner thereof or other authorized person. Authorized person meaning someone who has "legal authority" to tell you to leave. OR such premises or property are posted in a manner REASONABLY likely to come to the attention of intruders, or are locked or fenced or otherwise enclosed, or shut or secured against passage or entry. This means that you cant jump a fence, ignore a no trespassing sign (if you see it) or enter into some sort of closure.

Keep in mind that these laws are can be different from city to city. If you break the law your equipment CAN be seized as "evidence of a crime" and held until the court issues a disposition of your property.

So, for my neck of the woods that means that you ARE NOT trespassing if you enter into the yard of and old abandoned house and swing a detector around. I KNOW, you could be charged with theft or criminal damage to property, though that all comes down to what you tell the individual officer that MIGHT come and contact you 8)

I am also not telling anyone that it is OK to not have permission. Having permission to hunt is always the best road to travel.