Pretty sure I had the cops called on me... slight rant

Rothman

Full Member
Jun 30, 2015
105
227
SW Pennsylvania
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Xp Deus, Garrett Infinium LS, Bounty Hunter LRP
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All Treasure Hunting
I was in a local park today doing a bit of detecting and after an hour or so a truck pulls up outside the fence about 50 yards away from me. The older fella inside of it just stared at me for a while and then made a rather lengthy call while continuing to watch every move I made. Mind you that there are no regulations against metal detecting in the park as expressed to me by the local borough representative over the phone. No posted signs, rules, nothing.. Been there several times for several hours without issue.

This guy was making me a bit uneasy so I started walking towards his truck to see what was going on and he turned his head away and drove off. I was wrapping up anyway so I walked back to my car and stowed my gear. Wouldn't you know it... as I was driving out of the park there was a police cruiser entering.

Now, this could have been pure coincidence but I rather doubt it. I thought maybe he'd seen my Lesche and thought it was a knife but after thinking about it for a while, I hadn't even dug a single target while he was there. I was in cherry picking mode and there were no good signals!

I guess my biggest problem with all of this is, why not just talk to me if you have an issue? Even if it is okay to detect in the park I'd rather not have to deal with explaining everything to the police, having them investigate, and make calls only to find out that there really is no issue. Furthermore, I'd rather not pull the police away from their duty for something so insignificant. I'm sure it would have soaked up over an hour of the officers time for no good reason.

The whole situation gets me a bit heated AND there were no worthwhile finds to boot!!
 

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crashbandicoot

Gold Member
Sep 27, 2020
12,129
27,100
Dumas,AR
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Not a bad idea!
Actually I got it from an old post right here on Tnet.Most peolple are accustomed to seeing guys around town with those vests doing city work or the like and hardly ever question them.I call it urban camouflage.The letters make it more credible and gives you a good talking point.Really want to go whole hog? Get a hard hat too.
 

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Rothman

Rothman

Full Member
Jun 30, 2015
105
227
SW Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Xp Deus, Garrett Infinium LS, Bounty Hunter LRP
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Actually I got it from an old post right here on Tnet.Most peolple are accustomed to seeing guys around town with those vests doing city work or the like and hardly ever question them.I call it urban camouflage.The letters make it more credible and gives you a good talking point.Really want to go whole hog? Get a hard hat too.
Heck I may get an excavator and a big classifier and start an industrial operation!
 

gunsil

Silver Member
Dec 27, 2012
3,864
6,207
lower hudson valley, N.Y.
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These new fangled VLF and multi freq machines lack one great feature my old Garrett BFO detector had. It would pick up police radio car calls!! While hunting a school near Terry in Elmsford, NY I was surprised to hear a voice in my earphones calling for a radio car to investigate strange goings on at the school. Then another voice in the phones saying he was responding and sure enough along comes the radio car in a couple minutes. The cop was amazed at the concept of detectors and that we were finding coins in the ground but thought it was good clean fun and left us alone. This was circa 1972 and most people had never heard of detecting. I heard police radio calls more than a few times in those headphones, usually nothing to do with us detecting.
 

BennyV

Hero Member
Feb 22, 2021
864
1,472
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I was in a local park today doing a bit of detecting and after an hour or so a truck pulls up outside the fence about 50 yards away from me. The older fella inside of it just stared at me for a while and then made a rather lengthy call while continuing to watch every move I made. Mind you that there are no regulations against metal detecting in the park as expressed to me by the local borough representative over the phone. No posted signs, rules, nothing.. Been there several times for several hours without issue.

This guy was making me a bit uneasy so I started walking towards his truck to see what was going on and he turned his head away and drove off. I was wrapping up anyway so I walked back to my car and stowed my gear. Wouldn't you know it... as I was driving out of the park there was a police cruiser entering.

Now, this could have been pure coincidence but I rather doubt it. I thought maybe he'd seen my Lesche and thought it was a knife but after thinking about it for a while, I hadn't even dug a single target while he was there. I was in cherry picking mode and there were no good signals!

I guess my biggest problem with all of this is, why not just talk to me if you have an issue? Even if it is okay to detect in the park I'd rather not have to deal with explaining everything to the police, having them investigate, and make calls only to find out that there really is no issue. Furthermore, I'd rather not pull the police away from their duty for something so insignificant. I'm sure it would have soaked up over an hour of the officers time for no good reason.

The whole situation gets me a bit heated AND there were no worthwhile finds to boot!!
People suck
 

OP
OP
Rothman

Rothman

Full Member
Jun 30, 2015
105
227
SW Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Xp Deus, Garrett Infinium LS, Bounty Hunter LRP
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
These new fangled VLF and multi freq machines lack one great feature my old Garrett BFO detector had. It would pick up police radio car calls!! While hunting a school near Terry in Elmsford, NY I was surprised to hear a voice in my earphones calling for a radio car to investigate strange goings on at the school. Then another voice in the phones saying he was responding and sure enough along comes the radio car in a couple minutes. The cop was amazed at the concept of detectors and that we were finding coins in the ground but thought it was good clean fun and left us alone. This was circa 1972 and most people had never heard of detecting. I heard police radio calls more than a few times in those headphones, usually nothing to do with us detecting.
That's awesome! It's very cool that you've been into the hobby so long! I'm sure you have some stories to tell and wisdom to share. Also, I'm fairly certain you were correct about folks digging up silver in the parks before modern trash and aluminum. I cherry picked a huge part of the park from my other post and didn't hit a single coin older than 1968.
 

devldog

Silver Member
Mar 9, 2012
3,632
6,313
Georgia
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Whites MXT ALL PRO, Minelab Safari
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Relic Hunting
Some folks just aren't happy unless they are raining on someone's parade. We've had the cops called on us several times in the parks down here. I'm going to get even though......I'm going to start calling the cops on picknickers. Lol
 

BuckSniffer

Newbie
Dec 30, 2009
3
2
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Get one of those reflective vest and in reflective tape put across the shoulders big letters like MPCC, if asked tell them you work for Municipal Park Cleaning Company. Any thing like that will work, use your imagination.
A great idea, but I'd recommend against adding "CC" on the end. It often means Corrections Center!
 

bc5391

Hero Member
Sep 23, 2016
522
749
Southern Arizona
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Minelab ,XP
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've been stopped by the BORDER PATROL as I was unaware they were watching me arrowhead hunt close to the Mexico/New Mexico border. They were friendly enough but were concerned "about me" being all the illegal activity along the border, and they suggested I move to another area. I listened to them but did not move from the area I was hunting around.
I usually trip the sensors the boarder patrol has and a chopper will be above me in minutes, I just wave and continue.
 

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