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

[Rothman]

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]

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]

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!

 

[crashbandicoot]

Heck I may get an excavator and a big classifier and start an industrial operation!

Now you,re thinking outside the box.I can see it,Rothman Excavating and Classifying Company,RECC.

 

[gunsil]

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]

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

 

[Rothman]

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]

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]

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!

 

[crashbandicoot]

A great idea, but I'd recommend against adding "CC" on the end. It often means Corrections Center!

All the more reason for folks to leave you be!!!!!!!!!!! Like your puppy.

 

[bc5391]

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.