Tom_in_CA
Gold Member
- Mar 23, 2007
- 13,804
- 10,336
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
Years ago, someone posted this lament on a forum:
The neighborhood where he lived, backed up to a small municipal airport. (just little private-planes type affairs.) When that airport had been built back in the 1940s (or whatever) they had snatched up surrounding land, so as to have a right-of-way extending out way beyond the end of the runway. Ie.: at ANY airport runway there is always an extended section , even beyond the edge of the runway, so that in case a plane were to go off the end, or so that there's no noise issues, or whatever.
And so there was ample vacant land well beyond the runways, that was just dirt and scrub-land. Apparently where this was, had previously been a couple of homes (perhaps torn down at the time the airport was built). But a few fruit trees remained.
And in the era before 9/11, there were no fences (at least not at little municipal affairs like this). And residents of this area knew that in summer season, they could go pick fruit at these old trees. That would otherwise just go to waste and fall off the trees. Their backyards backed up to the airport, so they would just waltz on out and pick fruit and the right time of year. This had gone on for years and years.
The fellow telling the story got into metal detecting, and was wondering "where can I go?". He remembered the airport fruit trees, that marked the site of earlier homesteads. And thought that would be a good place to detect. So he went to the airport to "get permission". His request went up and down through various channels, till finally it came back that this would be trespassing, and no one is allowed there. To which he responded: "How can that be? Because the neighbors and I have gone out to pick fruit for years now and it's never been an issue. So how can it be 'trespassing'? ". To which the airport replied "no fruit picking either".
The dejected md'r , resigned to his fate, said 'ok'. and left it at that. Later, during the next fruit ripe-season, when his neighbor buddies got ready to load their basket with ripe fruit, he told them "it's not allowed". To which they looked at him like he was from outer space. Promptly shrugged their shoulders, took the well-worn paths out to the tree, and picked fruit. And, as always, no one cared or said a thing.
In the end, the md'r realized that if he'd simply gone detecting, no one would ever have cared either.
I realize this story might not apply to private property (since the airport was some sort of quasi muni. entity), but .... just thought it made for an interesting story on the basic psyschology of the permission vs. level-of-innocuousness issue pertaining to md'ing.
The neighborhood where he lived, backed up to a small municipal airport. (just little private-planes type affairs.) When that airport had been built back in the 1940s (or whatever) they had snatched up surrounding land, so as to have a right-of-way extending out way beyond the end of the runway. Ie.: at ANY airport runway there is always an extended section , even beyond the edge of the runway, so that in case a plane were to go off the end, or so that there's no noise issues, or whatever.
And so there was ample vacant land well beyond the runways, that was just dirt and scrub-land. Apparently where this was, had previously been a couple of homes (perhaps torn down at the time the airport was built). But a few fruit trees remained.
And in the era before 9/11, there were no fences (at least not at little municipal affairs like this). And residents of this area knew that in summer season, they could go pick fruit at these old trees. That would otherwise just go to waste and fall off the trees. Their backyards backed up to the airport, so they would just waltz on out and pick fruit and the right time of year. This had gone on for years and years.
The fellow telling the story got into metal detecting, and was wondering "where can I go?". He remembered the airport fruit trees, that marked the site of earlier homesteads. And thought that would be a good place to detect. So he went to the airport to "get permission". His request went up and down through various channels, till finally it came back that this would be trespassing, and no one is allowed there. To which he responded: "How can that be? Because the neighbors and I have gone out to pick fruit for years now and it's never been an issue. So how can it be 'trespassing'? ". To which the airport replied "no fruit picking either".
The dejected md'r , resigned to his fate, said 'ok'. and left it at that. Later, during the next fruit ripe-season, when his neighbor buddies got ready to load their basket with ripe fruit, he told them "it's not allowed". To which they looked at him like he was from outer space. Promptly shrugged their shoulders, took the well-worn paths out to the tree, and picked fruit. And, as always, no one cared or said a thing.
In the end, the md'r realized that if he'd simply gone detecting, no one would ever have cared either.
I realize this story might not apply to private property (since the airport was some sort of quasi muni. entity), but .... just thought it made for an interesting story on the basic psyschology of the permission vs. level-of-innocuousness issue pertaining to md'ing.
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