Gobs of rings in a field, a busy-body, and a fantastic experience with the police!

Skippy SH13

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Yesterday, I took the afternoon (I had the day off), and went detecting at a middle school/elementary school combo about 8 miles straight down the road.

When I got there, I started with the tot-lots and elementary side... It was ROUGH... I spent the first hour finding only about $0.70 and one kids ring. I couldn't prove it, of course, but only finding a single nickel in 2 huge bark lots is pretty rare. I'm sure it had been recently detected. The close part of the field felt the same.

I finally gave up and went to the middle school, not finding anything between "here and there" either. The middle school is the first photo below. I started at the track field, where I had found a gold ring, 3 years ago...

While digging up my first target, which was a nice solid 62, but deeper than it should have been (indicating it was NOT a ring, but a chunk of metal), a guy walking the track stood over me. I looked up, smiled, and said, "Hi! How are you!" He asked me what I was doing, I told him, "I think I might have gold ring, but now I'm not so sure..." Usually, that would peak someone's interest, like crazy.

Not this yahoo. He immediate started into me, telling me what I was doing was illegal, and that it could be a pin for the field. As in, like raised voice, aggressive.

So, I raised my voice back. "Look here. To start with, I'm not doing ANYTHING illegal, I'm not looking for field pins, and I can tell the difference by the way they sound... and I'm not hurting the field, either! LOOK!" I then closed up the flaps of the field, and presto! No marks.

He kind of looked shocked for a second, then immediately went back to telling me what I was doing was "wrong and illegal, and I shouldn't be there."

I told him, "Man, you've got to be kidding me. I've been doing this for FIVE years, and I know the laws. I have a permit for the city's parks"
And at that point he interrupted me saying, "Well, this isn't a park."
Me: "Yeah, there's no permits required for schools, and there's no ordinances prohibiting it. I'm legal."

He started yelling again that he KNOWS it's illegal and that I shouldn't be there. At this point I stood up and yelled back, "GET OUT OF MY FACE, I know the law, and I don't need BUSYBODYs telling me what they think is the law. If you have an issue with this, call the cops."

Him, "FINE I WILL"

Me: "you're just wasting theirs and your time."

And that was that... I went back to detecting, and he decided to walk somewhere else. There were two families walking the track at that point, who probably got the show of their life. LOL As the first dad and his daughter came around, I looked up and said, 'Hi there! Having a good day?"

He chatted briefly, saying yes, and I told him I thought I had something for his daughter, and pulled out the kid ring I'd found earlier. Her eyes just LIT up. The whole conversation was very pleasant, and everything with the other walkers went back to normal... just nice people having a nice day.

Well, it was clear after another 15 minutes that the field was pretty empty, so I went to the large open field by the school (which historically is where the kids go to lunch and lose all kinds of stuff). I wasn't disappointed with my finds, there! (more on that in a bit).

About 10 minutes into it, sure enough, a Police vehicle pulls up (marked K-9), and out hops this lady officer. I wave to her, and walk over, and start the conversation with, "Oh my gosh, I'm SO sorry for having to waste your time..."

She immediately relaxed, and asked me if I was the person the guy called about.

"Yep! Just a busybody with nothing better to do that harass me. Sorry about that. I could have probably stopped it, but he got aggressive and I told him to get out of my face."

She busted up laughing, and told me in all the years on the force, she'd never gotten a call about a metal detectorist. I told her, that's because it's not against the law.

She laughed, and said, "My Sergeant and I wondered what to do about it, he told me to just ask if you had permission to be at the school."

I told her, "No, but I don't need it, just like someone throwing a frisbee doesn't need it, or someone putting in volley ball stakes doesn't need it."

Officer: "that makes sense."

Me: "there is a permit, though, for the city, but it's only required for the parks."

Officer: "oh, really? I was unaware..."

Me: "Yeah, it's free, doesn't expire, and anyone can get one from the parks department, here it is." I show her the permit taped to my detector rod. "The permit pretty much just says you know the rules of not digging more than 8", and that you use the proper equipment."

Officer: "Good to know!"

Me: "Yep, permit for the parks, anywhere else, there's no ordinance prohibiting it."

Officer: "Thank you. My team is going to want to know about this, we were all curious. It's good to educate them about these things, so if we get called in the future, we know what to say to the caller."

(Look... I know this sounds like a "oh, sure THAT happened." But I kid you not.. that was the way it went down!)

I then showed her what to watch for (no shovels, as they destroy the turf), and what my tool was for, and how I dig trace-free recoveries (I demonstrated for her, which she appreciated.)

After that, we talked about her dog, how my brother-in-law is a handler for the State Police (and that that point, we started swapping stories).

She was everything a police officer should be. Willing to listen, friendly, understanding of the actual law (and how the absence thereof applies), and completely NOT trying to enforce something that doesn't exist. BTW, she ended up telling me the report would be filed as the man harassing ME. LOL

She left when she got another call, wished me luck.

I loved it, it's like every other experience I've had with police around here. 100% professional, courteous and never harassing. In fact, I'll probably call in an appreciation for her.

Then I went back to detecting, and really ran into a jewelry box of a field!

In the next hour, I found 7 more rings (2 silver), and one silver charm with gemstones. Definitely worth sticking around for!

I'm looking forward to heading back, and I sure hope that guy is there and sees me detecting again. LOL

Cheers!

Skippy

EDIT: I decided to follow-up and sent a kudos to the Chief of Police for her. Sometimes, great law-enforcement should be recognized with more than just happy thoughts. :)
 
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Skippy, I loved this play-by-play. Thanx for typing it all out. Could almost envision the entire scene :laughing: And while you did, in fact, hush up the busy-body (ie.: the cop sided with you & didn't care), a few thoughts :

a) This type busy-body (for our admittedly odd-hobby with connotations) is exactly why 95% of my nice-manicured park turf hunting is done at night these days. So peaceful. So Serene. Why even argue with people to start with ?

b) While it's true that the cop sided with you, yet there's ample cases posted where it doesn't turn out that way. :( EVEN WHEN (as you say) no specific laws forbid. Here's why : They could say that you're "altering" or "defacing" or "harvesting & removing" blah blah. Oh sure, you can stand there are debate the cop on semantics. But that can be a loosing battle, and no one wants such hassles.

c) I love how the cop wasn't aware of the city park permits where you're at. So let me guess : No one's ever "carded" you for that, in your city, eh ? :roll:
 
Dang Skippy, you sure find rings :lol:

Glad the police encounter was good. Mirrored mine pretty much - cops were nice, saw I wasn’t “digging up the ball field” and wished me luck and left. Guy who got in my face got away though I guess! Some people are just @holes.
 
Skippy, I loved this play-by-play. Thanx for typing it all out. Could almost envision the entire scene :laughing: And while you did, in fact, hush up the busy-body (ie.: the cop sided with you & didn't care), a few thoughts :

You know, when I wrote it up, I wondered how you would react to this one... thanks for chiming in!

a) This type busy-body (for our admittedly odd-hobby with connotations) is exactly why 95% of my nice-manicured park turf hunting is done at night these days. So peaceful. So Serene. Why even argue with people to start with ?

I do a lot of my hunting (especially in the winter) at night, too. In fact, most of it, these days, since it gets dark around 5:45pm, LOL. Parks around here, though, close at dusk. Schools are fair game. :)

b) While it's true that the cop sided with you, yet there's ample cases posted where it doesn't turn out that way. :( EVEN WHEN (as you say) no specific laws forbid. Here's why : They could say that you're "altering" or "defacing" or "harvesting & removing" blah blah. Oh sure, you can stand there are debate the cop on semantics. But that can be a loosing battle, and no one wants such hassles.

Well, sure... You can (and often do, btw) always say it "could" have gone badly. Bottom line is, I've NEVER had one go badly with the police or parks department. I suspect much of that has to do with how I interact with them. If I'd started out being defensive, it might have gone very differently. But yeah, I agree, it "could" have gone badly. But it didn't, hasn't, and in my opinion is MUCH less likely than a positive outcome.

c) I love how the cop wasn't aware of the city park permits where you're at. So let me guess : No one's ever "carded" you for that, in your city, eh ? :roll:

Actually, it made perfect sense. The school I was in was right on the border of two cities. The officer called out was for city #2, and the parks pass was for city #1. I believe, like most cities that "bleed" into each other, that the Police officers of both cities cover calls on the border (and have agreements to do so). She was from the city that has zero restrictions, and the permit (and technical boundary of where I was) was for the city that had parks permits. I failed to mention that.

Cheers!

Skippy
 
Dang Skippy, you sure find rings :lol:

Glad the police encounter was good. Mirrored mine pretty much - cops were nice, saw I wasn’t “digging up the ball field” and wished me luck and left. Guy who got in my face got away though I guess! Some people are just @holes.

I suspect that's 99% of interactions. Police are like, "Have fun!" I've never encountered anything different, as long as I had the proper permits.

Cheers,

Skippy
 
Last fall while digging on a sledding hill i noticed a police car parked about 50 yards away.

After a minute or two it pulled up beside me and the window rolled down.

A very serious looking officer then said "if you strike oil we get half of it".

Glad he had a sense of humor.
 
Last fall while digging on a sledding hill i noticed a police car parked about 50 yards away.

After a minute or two it pulled up beside me and the window rolled down.

A very serious looking officer then said "if you strike oil we get half of it".

Glad he had a sense of humor.

Yep, I've had police use that one on me, too! I'm always happy for a kind word from the officers.:)
 
I do a lot of curb hunting and the cops have been called 4 times, not by property owners but neighbors.

Let me say I appreciate people looking out for their neighbors. To a point.

Once a GORGEOUS female cop responded. Movie star beautiful. I was hoping she’d frisk me but it didn’t happen. In all 4 cases I approached the police with my business card. Introduced myself and showed them what I was doing. They were impressed that they couldn’t see any signs of holes and more by all the trash I had collected (I always pick up surface litter as well. ) they then told the neighbors I was legit. Once I was asked to move my car about 100 feet.

One time a man approached me very angry. The house was on a corner and on the front side a large amount of building materials was dumped. I explained as long as I stayed on the curbside I was legal. He claimed I had been in with the supplies. I denied it and he threatened to call the cops AND I told him to go ahead. I knew he was trying to bluff me and I wasn’t buying.

And once I had permission to hunt an athletic complex and I went early on a Sunday morning but I was reported to the President of the Little League Association. He was a HUGE man and he was pissed. He said he’d gotten a bunch of calls that I was digging holes in his fields. I asked him if he could see any evidence of my holes. He could not. I told him I had just removed some nasty metal right at the toe of his left boot. He looked down and saw a little fresh dirt. Then I showed him the metal that had been just under the surface and asked him which he preferred. Then I pulled out the contents of my pouch and showed him what other nasties were no longer in his fields.

Then I told him I’d actually been searching the complex for over 6 months trying to find a lost Cub Scout ring for a 10 year old. It had been his grandfather’s then father’s. His dad was deployed and had given him the ring but he wasn’t supposed to take it from the house. But he wanted to show his friends and lost it. Then his grandfather died and the kid was heartbroken.
The guy almost started crying. He told me to go ahead and he’d straighten things out with the parents.
 
Cops are often accused of enforcing their “feelings”. How it works is, they can’t possibly know all the laws and Regulations , so they enforce what they feel the law should be if the cop “ feels” people shouldn’t be digging holes, then that’s the law today. Often, he’s alligence is to the caller who is out there keeping an eye on things for the cops. If the cops make the digger leave, then the caller will see that he’s doing his job.
I never had any contact with cops till I started detecting. That’s when I found out that” this is private property, it belongs to the county !”
There’s a law against putting anything in another’s mailbox ( could have sworn that is a federal law !)
“ we got a call”
“ let me see some ID “
They come after us, skateboarders, cyclists, bar- b- ques and on and on.
Why is this ? Because enforcers go for the easy target.....always !
When i was in the High Power Rocketry hobby, they shut us down ( tobacco and firearms ). No ! Why can’t they go after the Timithy Mc Veigh ?
When they need to look good on the high seas, they go after the partyboats and not the guys with miles of net, dragging up every fish in the way !
I’m sorry to pick on the cops, but if you looks up the figures for “closed cases” for car theft, burglary, rape, theft and especially murder ! You’ll see that we aren’t getting our money’s worth. They go after the easy targets. Us, jaywalkers, etc.
I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this here, but I want “protect and serve”, I want Andy Griffins want the women and the weak and the “special” people protected and a lot less “law enforcement “
I know we need cops......I KNOW. It. I just wish there could be a real discussion on what we want from our police force
One last example of what I’m trying to get at. I was rear ended last year right in front of the police barracks. Me and the guy ho hit me (he was txting), we went inside , out of the rain, told the staties we had an accident. I went right into the bathroom to check my forehead. We exchanged info. The cops never said a ord to us. Never checked up on us. I asked for a complaint form, nope, internet. I said I want to complain to someone ! Well first, we’ll need your license ! Really ? Finally they gave me a corporal ( couldn’t bother a Sargent with this, and finally, hears my complaint ?
I said corporal, you’re really young, so I hope you take this to heart. I came in here after an accident. Three troopers hardly looked up, they were BS ing with each other and didn’t even get out of their chairs with their feet up.
I said to the corporal, want to know why I’m mad ? Tell me, what if my wife or one of my daughters came in here , out of the rain, after an accident ? They would get more attention from a bystander ! And you guys are getting paid !!
Tell you the truth, I don’t feel very served. At that, the cop with his feet up, picked up a phone and asked “ you want an ambulance?” I looked at the corporal and said, “ I hope none of the women in your life ever has to come here for help !”


I apologize, too much YouTube, too much virus, too much inside and all this has very little to do it’s our great hobby that is a life preserver in these times. I’m sure, tomorrow will be better. I actually had a pretty good summer and I know that’s where my thoughts should be
Be well everyone and thanks to Friendly for being a place we can occasionally let off a little steam !
 
I've never had an upset bystander and hope not too. Everyone has generally been polite to me. Felt nervous a few times when groups of teenagers approach and joke if I've found Hector's lost chainz etc but never really harassed.

I suppose once in California a horse back rider accused me of creating all the gopher mounds that her horse was going to trip on... But I laughed, explained I was trying to fix them, and sometimes the gophers dig up the coins for me...and she moseyed off.

Same experience with cops so far. They seem just as curious as anyone.

Good luck and be safe out there.
 
Last fall while digging on a sledding hill i noticed a police car parked about 50 yards away.

After a minute or two it pulled up beside me and the window rolled down.

A very serious looking officer then said "if you strike oil we get half of it".

Glad he had a sense of humor.

Funny!!
Great story Skippy
 
Cops are often accused of enforcing their “feelings”. How it works is, they can’t possibly know all the laws and Regulations , so they enforce what they feel the law should be if the cop “ feels” people shouldn’t be digging holes, then that’s the law today. Often, he’s alligence is to the caller who is out there keeping an eye on things for the cops. If the cops make the digger leave, then the caller will see that he’s doing his job.
I never had any contact with cops till I started detecting. That’s when I found out that” this is private property, it belongs to the county !”
There’s a law against putting anything in another’s mailbox ( could have sworn that is a federal law !)
“ we got a call”
“ let me see some ID “
They come after us, skateboarders, cyclists, bar- b- ques and on and on.
Why is this ? Because enforcers go for the easy target.....always !
When i was in the High Power Rocketry hobby, they shut us down ( tobacco and firearms ). No ! Why can’t they go after the Timithy Mc Veigh ?
When they need to look good on the high seas, they go after the partyboats and not the guys with miles of net, dragging up every fish in the way !
I’m sorry to pick on the cops, but if you looks up the figures for “closed cases” for car theft, burglary, rape, theft and especially murder ! You’ll see that we aren’t getting our money’s worth. They go after the easy targets. Us, jaywalkers, etc.
I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this here, but I want “protect and serve”, I want Andy Griffins want the women and the weak and the “special” people protected and a lot less “law enforcement “
I know we need cops......I KNOW. It. I just wish there could be a real discussion on what we want from our police force
One last example of what I’m trying to get at. I was rear ended last year right in front of the police barracks. Me and the guy ho hit me (he was txting), we went inside , out of the rain, told the staties we had an accident. I went right into the bathroom to check my forehead. We exchanged info. The cops never said a ord to us. Never checked up on us. I asked for a complaint form, nope, internet. I said I want to complain to someone ! Well first, we’ll need your license ! Really ? Finally they gave me a corporal ( couldn’t bother a Sargent with this, and finally, hears my complaint ?
I said corporal, you’re really young, so I hope you take this to heart. I came in here after an accident. Three troopers hardly looked up, they were BS ing with each other and didn’t even get out of their chairs with their feet up.
I said to the corporal, want to know why I’m mad ? Tell me, what if my wife or one of my daughters came in here , out of the rain, after an accident ? They would get more attention from a bystander ! And you guys are getting paid !!
Tell you the truth, I don’t feel very served. At that, the cop with his feet up, picked up a phone and asked “ you want an ambulance?” I looked at the corporal and said, “ I hope none of the women in your life ever has to come here for help !”


I apologize, too much YouTube, too much virus, too much inside and all this has very little to do it’s our great hobby that is a life preserver in these times. I’m sure, tomorrow will be better. I actually had a pretty good summer and I know that’s where my thoughts should be
Be well everyone and thanks to Friendly for being a place we can occasionally let off a little steam !


Wow, it's clear you're not thrilled with your interactions with the Police. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

What I offer next, is NOT in the form of any criticism, it comes from experience and learning over the years... offered by way of explanation for their behavior.

Functionally speaking, when you went into the State Police department, there wasn't anything they could do for you. And, interestingly enough, you are supposed to know that as a driver (it's in the driver's manual for PA). See page 81:

https://www.dot.state.pa.us/public/... drivers manual by chapter/english/pub 95.pdf

In a non-injury accident, the only thing you do is exchange insurance information, and take some pictures. No police form is required, and certainly not if the accident is an obvious who is at fault scenario. In this case, you were rear-ended... with only extreme circumstances altering this (such as if you were backing up) it's ALWAYS the guy's fault rear-ending you.

If you could both drive your vehicles and you didn't need an ambulance, you didn't need a police officer. Maybe they could have told you that better, but I suspect you didn't realize you didn't need a police officer. If you needed an ambulance, you said they were willing to call for one.

BTW, Calling for a police officer for any accident is probably one of the most common mistakes a motorist in an accident makes. 911 receives a lot of these, and they'll even tell you on the phone you don't need an officer, unless a vehicle needs to be towed, or there is an injury requiring an ambulance.

Sorry you had that experience, but you should understand your role as a motorist in an accident better... and teach your daughters and wife, too, btw. Police are not required at accident scenes most times.

And if the police don't investigate it, and someone is hurt or dies, you can fill out the form and submit it yourself (which is sufficient). So if your head injury required a form, they were correct in telling you to get it and fill it out and send it in.

Cheers, and best of luck to you in the future!

Skippy
 
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