backwater
Full Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2017
- Messages
- 147
Why not go to the Ranger station and ask about him, they should know who and where he was sent to be on duty.....
Craig : You and KOB are advocating this ^ ^ To not simply "chalk it up to experience" and not simply to "chalk it up to a single place to avoid from now on" and not to simply "kiss your gear goodbye".
And while this is Gregazor's decision, it reminds me of an incident I had, where I had a gun pointed at me by a military police, and was berated and hassled for 30 minutes. Finally, the MP let me go with only a warning. (long long story). Although it didn't result in any confiscation or ticket, yet .... you can bet I was *very* frazzled.
So I did exactly as you say : The next day, I went to the MP office-station (at a shift purposefully 12 hrs. removed from the time I got the ticket, so that I could be certain that that cop wouldn't be on-duty). And I notified the desk clerk that I'd like to make a complaint. I was led to the chief of operations there, who heard my gripe/lament.
The bottom line was, it resulted in that MP being demoted. He was stripped of any ability to carry a firearm, and was relegated to a desk job from then on out !
But this decision is Gregazors. In my case, it was questionable whether I was doing something wrong (no rules forbidding md'ing, the cop was merely p*ssed that I had parked off the pavement, supposedly). And in my case, it involved guns being pointed at me. Not the same for Gregazor. Although, it's no-less-unsettling to be the victim of a confiscation. But this revolves around whether or not a law was actually really broken on Gregazor's part. Like in my case, I was told by the head of MP's, that they would pursue an investigation against this MP, as long as I agreed to get a ticket for parking off the pavement. Doh !
So: There's a lot to un-pack here
His fines are over $800 dollars I would fight it and yes go after his equipment I don't roll over for anyone...Craig : You and KOB are advocating this ^ ^ To not simply "chalk it up to experience" and not simply to "chalk it up to a single place to avoid from now on" and not to simply "kiss your gear goodbye".
And while this is Gregazor's decision, it reminds me of an incident I had, where I had a gun pointed at me by a military police, and was berated and hassled for 30 minutes. Finally, the MP let me go with only a warning. (long long story). Although it didn't result in any confiscation or ticket, yet .... you can bet I was *very* frazzled.
So I did exactly as you say : The next day, I went to the MP office-station . At a shift purposefully 12 hrs. removed from the time of the incident, so that I could be certain that that cop wouldn't be on-duty. And I notified the desk clerk that I'd like to make a complaint. I was led to the chief of operations there, who heard my gripe/lament.
The bottom line was, it resulted in that MP being demoted. He was stripped of any ability to carry a firearm, and was relegated to a desk job from then on out !
But this decision is Gregazors. In my case, it was questionable whether I was doing something wrong (no rules forbidding md'ing, the cop was merely p*ssed that I had parked off the pavement, supposedly). And in my case, it involved guns being pointed at me. Not the same for Gregazor. Although, it's no-less-unsettling to be the victim of a confiscation. But this revolves around whether or not a law was actually really broken on Gregazor's part. Like in my case, I was told by the head of MP's, that they would pursue an investigation against this MP, as long as I agreed to get a ticket for parking off the pavement. Doh !
So: There's a lot to un-pack here
You set up a court date and represent your case yourself. When that dude doesn't show up if he was legit, you just won your case. If the tickets aren't real you really have nothing to worry about. I do know a couple career traffic violator's who get off the hook for street racing. But where you are located may matter? If your metal detector wasn't on "wink wink" the ticketing officer will need to be there to dispute your claim. As far as confiscated items the way it used to work here was they auction that stuff off and it goes into the police retirement fund. So it can be hard getting stuff back. You should have seen the stolen bikes i used to watch them auction off at the local FOP lodge.I don't even have a court date. As far as I know, I can't just show up at the court and get heard. Without a scheduled court date, I would have to have an attorney file something to get me in court. Right? I have no idea how that works.
I am a big supporter of Law Enforcement Officials BUT...So, I have been away from the forum for a while. My brother, who lives in Atlanta Country Club Estates, took me to detect a new spot where he frequently rides his mountain bike. This place is not far from his house and he goes there several times per week. I have never been there but I did look it up on Google Maps and it's a really big wooded area. It's a wooded area with bike trials all throughout. I wasn't planning on doing much detecting. I just wanted to see the area and would plan to come back when I could spend the day there. Anyway, after about an hour, we started to leave and he said there was a better way out which was a short trek through the woods to a dirt road that would lead back to where we were parked. Once we got on the road and were walking back towards the car, we were approached by a Park Ranger. Yep, it turns out this area was NPA land and they do not allow detecting. Google Maps did not list this as NPA land. I know better and would not have gone there if I knew that. Actually, it's not NPA land, it's just managed by the NPA. I did a web search and found it listed as NRA land and the website said it was open to everyone for recreational use. There was no mention of Metal Detecting being forbidden. I guess my brother knew it was NPA/NRA land but he didn't now detecting was not allowed and he has never seen a park Ranger there before. Not only did I get $860.00 in citations for "Possession of a Metal Detector" and "Destroying Plants" which I did not do. I dug one hole in a dirt area and properly filled it back in. He never even saw me digging. I was just walking with the detector turned off. But this jerk took my AT Pro, 2 Pro-Pointers, a Lesche Samson Pro, my edge digger and Garrett digger's bag, rechargeable batteries, gloves and everything else I had with the exception of my phone and my clothes. The odd thing about this is that so far, the U.S. District Court has no record of the citation or my gear being confiscated. It's been nearly 6 weeks since this happened. It looks like I got robbed by a Federal Cop. He did make the comment "This is MY metal detector now" when he confiscated it but I took that as a smart remark rather than his true intentions of keeping my gear. He was also careful to tell me brother to go ahead and walk back to the car, obviously so he wouldn't be a witness to the theft of my gear.
Well, I have an AT Gold but rarely use it and without a pin-pointer, shovel and edge digger I just wasn't interested in doing any detecting. I bought a new AT MAX and Pro-Pointer AT which I got Sunday and the new Lesche Samson Pro is scheduled to arrive today. I am going to go buy an edge digger and some gloves tomorrow morning the head out to do some detecting.
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Why not go to the Ranger station and ask about him, they should know who and where he was sent to be on duty... if he did this on his own then you may be able to get your gear back.... I would not pay those tickets... if I had to go to court I would do it without a lawyer... just don't roll over fight it...
I also think that would be a good idea, especially since you know about when it happened.Now that is the one thing I do know. It happened on December 17th. 2022, it was a Saturday around 1:00 PM. They should be able to figure out who was working that area at the time. Good lead. Thanks.
Sorry to hear of your unjust misfortune. I believe this individual has certainly crossed the line of corruption enough to warrant being fired, losing his pension and being banned from any type of law enforcement activity. Unfortunately, justice does not always prevail. I would tend to believe he still has the equipment and is using it.I would like to hunt him down and comfront him but if he's a "bad cop" or worse, if he's not even a cop and is impersonating a cop there's no telling what he might do or accuse me of. Anyway, if I am even able to find this cat, I seriously doubt he will just appologze and give my me gear back. I suspect that by now he has either sold the gear or otherwise disposed of it. Porbably even went metal detecting with it. Who knows what an evil mind might do.
I second this!Do you have his name at all? Any way to identify him? Do you know what agency he works for? I'd be looking to speak to his superior. There are always other legal options other than paying an attorney to cause him grief. Make waves don't just let him steal your gear. If you can find him start with asking to speak with his supervisor and explain the interaction with them , he obviously didn't follow normal seizure laws. If you don't get anywhere with that then file a claim in small claims court against the individual. Looks like a case of a crook working for the government and throwing his weight around. Drag his ass to court. make HIM explain himself in front of a judge. Put the power shoe on the other foot.