NOT such good PR for us!

[SeabeeRon]

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/112007/11092007/331996

 

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[wedjlok]

I guess that they forgot their ninja training.

All joking aside, though, that really is what makes a lot of outsiders see us MD'ers as looters and vandals, in a sense. I do not totally agree with the fact of people wanting us to "leave it in the ground for future generations" as most private collectors end up actually saving a lot of these artifacts from eventually destruction or paving over, in a lot of cases. Most private collectors take better care of the articles that they have than a lot of public collections, in my opinion, and leaving them in the ground will just ensure their continued degradation and deterioration, if not outright destruction in the case of area of construction (as happens all the time where I live with the shopping malls and housing divisions).

There are laws, though, and they must be followed whether we like them or not. Like the saying goes, one bad apple ruins the whole bunch. When I hear about these sorts of things, it makes me wonder what further precedence it will set for others to have to contend with, as well as what other laws will be constructed as a result of the offense.

Sometimes it seems that I spend more time explaining to people that detectorists are not all like they've heard, and we don't all leave crater holes that are a nuisance and hazard for the public to deal with and sue the city over. Some people need to think before they act, and realize that there are plenty of areas out there that are NOT illegal to hunt and that they have just as much chance of finding tresure there as well, without going to prison over trying to find them. In the end it hurts us all a little bit more each time.

I wish these guy luck, and hope that others take heed from their mistakes. We have enough restrictions placed upon us already in a lot of areas, we don't need any more.

That's just my two zincs.

Aeryck

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

Well, they broke the law, they weren't supposed to be there in the first place and now they face a reailty check, two years in jail.............but the spokesman should take his little speech and shove it straight up is behind. None of it would be in their possesion had someone not took the time to find it. THe morons don't realize either that after a while those things don't just lay there either. Sooner or later they'll be gone just as good as someone taking them because they will either be destroyed by the ground/corrosion or sink too deep to find. No artifact or item is worth two years of prison in my opinion. They can keep it as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't get caught up like that no matter how badly I was after something. There's always another place to find it. Really bad PR for the hobby.

 

[diggummup]

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,118200.0.html

 

[strike it rich]

"These are public property and owned by future generations. Once these artifacts are gone and in private collections, they cannot be replaced," said Keith Kelly, military park's chief ranger.

what and i say again what OK fair dos the guys got caught committing a crime but lets be frank here to leave something in the ground to rust away how is that preserving it for future generations why don't' the proper authority's search retrieve put in a museum these artifacts if they really want to preserve them. Then these guys and others like them just wouldent be there giving he hobby a bad name and spending time in jail.

 

[eathan]

Breaking the law is breaking the law, and I can understand protecting park sites like the one in the article, but being relatively new to detecting, I find the following to be a bit much.

"It is illegal to collect or search for artifacts on federal land without permission."

With BLM and Forest Service land tossed in, that statement covers a huge amount of public land. I'd also be curious to see their difinition of the word "artifacts". I don't want to get done for picking up an old penny on a hiking trail. Someone might say I was scanning the ground as I walked...

BTW, on a totally unrelated note, somebody needs to tell all these "news" sites that endless streams of pop-up advertising are annoying as hell!