Silver Saver
Hero Member
Just wanted to share my experience..First of all I live in a city of 60k population and in my 26 years of living here I've never seen anyone metal detecting so they are a rare sight and not something people are used to seeing.
I was at a public school, on a Sunday, and a teacher called the cops on me. When I was first asked what I'm up to I laid out all my good points right away so it would be harder for them to ask me to leave. I had a nice plug opened at the time with extra dirt on a laid out towel and briefly explained/showed what I was doing. I said I was picking up nails and garbage. And said I read all the local ordinances and there is nothing against it. Which he agreed and mentioned filling the holes back so no kids trip or anything and I said that is one of my biggest concerns too because I don't want to get in trouble. And the younger of the 2 cops said it would be dumb for anyone to have a problem with what you're doing, if I'm cleaning up nails and garbage in the process. So that was defiantly a good sign. I was extremely respectful and polite and said I understand that they are just doing their job and need to check it out. Then they just let me be and keep doing what I was doing. If they had asked me to leave I would have stressed the point that if I have to leave this public area then that means I would have to leave every public area I go to when people make a call to LEO, then where would it stop. Being respectful of course and not pushing too hard but stressing the importance.
It probably helped that there was a mom and her young boy there that I had met and made conversation with and let the boy follow me around and see what I was finding and what not. And the mom stuck up for me to the LEO. I ended up finding a clean/newer toy car which I gave to the young boy.
I was at a public school, on a Sunday, and a teacher called the cops on me. When I was first asked what I'm up to I laid out all my good points right away so it would be harder for them to ask me to leave. I had a nice plug opened at the time with extra dirt on a laid out towel and briefly explained/showed what I was doing. I said I was picking up nails and garbage. And said I read all the local ordinances and there is nothing against it. Which he agreed and mentioned filling the holes back so no kids trip or anything and I said that is one of my biggest concerns too because I don't want to get in trouble. And the younger of the 2 cops said it would be dumb for anyone to have a problem with what you're doing, if I'm cleaning up nails and garbage in the process. So that was defiantly a good sign. I was extremely respectful and polite and said I understand that they are just doing their job and need to check it out. Then they just let me be and keep doing what I was doing. If they had asked me to leave I would have stressed the point that if I have to leave this public area then that means I would have to leave every public area I go to when people make a call to LEO, then where would it stop. Being respectful of course and not pushing too hard but stressing the importance.
It probably helped that there was a mom and her young boy there that I had met and made conversation with and let the boy follow me around and see what I was finding and what not. And the mom stuck up for me to the LEO. I ended up finding a clean/newer toy car which I gave to the young boy.
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