Harassed for the first time

[ckpage86]

So I started MDing about a month ago with my 10 year old son. We have fun. I was out solo today as he wasn't feeling it. I was at the park in the neighborhood I live in, not a public city park.

Always, a car pulls in and sits there while I was doing my thing. I paid them no mind. 20 minutes later a lady gets out of the car and walks up to me, "Hey, do you know what you're doing is illegal?!" (she had a very British accent which is weird in southern AZ), I tell her that it isn't, and that is I was in Tucson I WOULD need a permit for city parks, but this isn't a city park nor in Tucson and she continued telling me reasons (mostly made up) to support the fact that what I was doing was the absolute worst thing a person could be doing.

Anyway, our neighborhood has a FB group and she continues to tell me that someone posted me on the group and was saying I was digging up the park and to keep an eye out for the police, and she even said the people on the FB group are a bunch of babies who call people out for the silliest things. HERE IS THE KICKER: SHE was the one who called me out on the FB group. Instead of talking to me directly BEFORE she called me out on the internets, she decided to throw me under the bus and then tell me that I was in the wrong.

Usually I don't let stupid things get to me, but this is just tooooooooo dumb, and I am still very mad about the situation. Just needed to vent.

Carry on.

 

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[Mifarmer]

Post this on FB-

Since my release from prison for strangling two people my psychiatrist suggested I move here, start anew and get a hobby. He decided this would be good for me as the beeping in the earphones help keep the voices from controlling me.

I suppose I should call him, but the voices are coming back and telling me not to call.

I'll try to not disturb you anymore ma'am, but you do remind me of someone very familiar.

That's the best post I've seen yet!!!!

 

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[cudamark]

Many local metro parks give you a permit at no cost In Mich anyway!!!!!

That doesn't give you carte blanche or protect you from complainers. Permits can be revoked at the drop of a hat. That's why most of us prefer they didn't have them, or even have bureaucrats give detecting a second thought.

 

[choppadude]

I was detecting as public area once when I was approached by a man who said "Can I help you?" Without missing a beat I replied "Sure, do you want to dig or run the machine?" He found no humor in that and informed me that "We do not allow that here" I told him unless he is a city councilman that drafts and passes local ordinances or laws then he has no business telling me what I am allowed to do or not do. I then said "have a good day" and went about my detecting leaving him there with his mouth wide open. Thought I might see the cops soon but didn't happen.

 

[Honest Samuel]

If being harass, call the cops, and have the thugs and bullies arrested. Good hunting and good luck.

 

[trooper531]

Should have asked her for her Green card! lol........from a former Federal Agent of Homeland Security

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... Thought I might see the cops soon but didn't happen.

choppadude, Here's another possible outcome of this experience:

Let's say your skin wasn't/isn't as thick as it is/was. You tuck your tail between your legs, apologize, and leave. After all, sort of hard to argue with a cop, gardener, alderman, or duly appointed city official eh ? After all, you're grateful you "didn't get a ticket".

Later, you see a post on a forum where someone asks: "Is it legal to detect at such & such area ? You recognize that it's the place you got booted from, so you chime on to the thread and say "no it's not legal". That is picked up on key-word searches, such that ..... later ... . other posts link to that . And after awhile, it's just taken as a "given". Because all the links simply point to each other, all saying "no".

Then some day, some old-timer scratches his head and says "SINCE WHEN ?" or "SAYS WHO ?" So to "put the matter to rest", someone else seeing this skeptical challenge (bless their little hearts) takes it upon themselves to go ask. Some bored desk clerk (envisioning geeks with shovels) says "no". Do you see the self-fulfilling vicious loop ?

We actually had a city that was supposedly "off-limits" in our area, that .........25 yrs. later, it was traced back to JUST this type of "he said she said" type thing. When in reality, it was probably no more than someone having a bad hair day. But once it gets put into the "rumor mill", you can NEVER put it to rest.

 

[Relichunter1]

Don't sweat it man, keep on doing what you're doing....she's got deep parental issues....pray for her..

 

[choppadude]

choppadude, Here's another possible outcome of this experience:

Let's say your skin wasn't/isn't as thick as it is/was. You tuck your tail between your legs, apologize, and leave. After all, sort of hard to argue with a cop, gardener, alderman, or duly appointed city official eh ? After all, you're grateful you "didn't get a ticket".

Later, you see a post on a forum where someone asks: "Is it legal to detect at such & such area ? You recognize that it's the place you got booted from, so you chime on to the thread and say "no it's not legal". That is picked up on key-word searches, such that ..... later ... . other posts link to that . And after awhile, it's just taken as a "given". Because all the links simply point to each other, all saying "no".

Then some day, some old-timer scratches his head and says "SINCE WHEN ?" or "SAYS WHO ?" So to "put the matter to rest", someone else seeing this skeptical challenge (bless their little hearts) takes it upon themselves to go ask. Some bored desk clerk (envisioning geeks with shovels) says "no". Do you see the self-fulfilling vicious loop ?

We actually had a city that was supposedly "off-limits" in our area, that .........25 yrs. later, it was traced back to JUST this type of "he said she said" type thing. When in reality, it was probably no more than someone having a bad hair day. But once it gets put into the "rumor mill", you can NEVER put it to rest.

I agree Tom. Nothing makes me cringe more than seeing an online post where someone says they asked the city, town, village if they can detect in the park, school, open public space and were told no. I want to scream at my computer "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you idiot you do not NEED permission!" I pay a hefty tax bill every year to maintain these areas for PUBLIC use. When I am there I AM the public and I have as much right to be there as the guys playing disc golf, the Pee Wee football practice, the people letting their dogs take a dump or the couple on a romantic picnic.
I have been at this for 35+ years and have had less than a dozen encounters in that time and I think I know why, I try to blend in. It's that simple. I do not carry a big shovel, I do not hang around the tot lots when there are loads of kids there and I don't try to attract any attention. I also respect the area knowing that it is not there just for my pleasure but for others too and I do not want to do anything that would refrain them from being able to use this same PUBLIC space.
I have also found it is best to be prepared for a "situation" in the event that you do come across on of "Those" people. I am a great debater and I will stoop to the low of using FACTS if approached. The fact is I am a free man in a free country and I refuse to freely give another citizen control over me. I do use a flat tone when speaking, I do not raise my voice or utter profanities and I question THEM as much as they question me. "Who are you?" "Do you live here" "Who do you work for" and like my above post, when told "WE do not allow that here" WHO is we? Some people are bossy by nature and like to tell others what they can and cannot do. Guys like me take great pleasure in putting a Chink in their armor, tactfully though.
I am fortunate in my area most of the lawn care is subcontracted out and those guys are only concerned with getting the job done and moving onto the next area.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

well said choppadude. And another "take away" I see in your story, is that we md'rs need-not-be-so-quick to assume that any "scram" constitutes "law", from then on out. Even if coming from a cop, or some sort of city official.

YES BY ALL MEANS give "lip service" if it's a cop (I'm not advocating arguing with cops or city officials). But just saying that it need not amount to "law" for evermore thereafter. Sometimes it only means to "give the place a rest" and come back at more opportune times. Example of this:

One time a cop booted me from a park in a big city here in CA (where no *specific* law exists). I could have tucked my tail and left (no one wants to further anger a cop after all, right ?). And I could have construed this to mean this park (or all that city's park) were "off-limits" because of the scram I was receiving , right ?

But instead I chatted the guy up, with a big smile. And then he confided in me: "See the apt. complex behind me? We got a call from a miss-lookie-lou in the upstairs apt. that looks down over this end/corner of the park. So just go to the opposite end of the park , where she can't see, and .... what she doesn't see won't hurt her".

If I had not chatted the cop up (or if he'd simply not revealed that he was ONLY there to answer a call-out by a griper), then I could CERTAINLY have construed that as "law", from then on out.

It's many examples like that, that have brought me to feel that isolated "scrams" do not mean : A) go seek clarifications and permissions, and B) that this constitutes gospel law that the park is off-limits.