Hostile park "team leader"

[nnjal85]

so in my search of seeing if different areas where i live have parks opened to metal detect i asked a park director. This is the message i received :

We do not allow metal detecting because people put probes or shovels in the ground and that is against our Ordinance . Once someone turns over a blade of grass to find hidden treasure they will be fined up to $500.00. Please don’t come to our Parks with a metal detector.

to me this sounds very hostile what do you guys think?

[OZARKS]

Ask what ordinace or law you would be violating and if he can point that out to you?

I had law enforcement in a town tell me "The consensus is that we don't allow digging in the parks."

Umm, who cares about "the consensus" can anyone show me a LAW that I would be violating there if I "should" hunt the parks?

I USED to visit that town couple times a year spending money in their stores, zoo, convenience stores, car washes, gas stations

But, now I wouldn't spend a penny in their town if they needed it to put out a fire! I will take my business and leisure time somewhere where I feel like I'm welcome!!!

Don't want my money? Fine, your neighboring town does!

[kcw12]

I agree with Ozarks, Towns that don't let me metal detect for good reason, i wont spend my money in there town.

[kmad515]

What you have is an overzealous bureaucrat with absolutely no tact! Ozark is right. I would definitely challenge this person on where you can get a copy of the ordinance. They may very well have something vague in an ordinance prohibiting removal of grass or artifacts which in itself can be argued pretty convincingly IMHO (is digging a U plug, folding back the grass and placing it back exactly the way it was considered removing grass OR if someone dropped a coin last week, last year, 10 years ago or 100 years ago, is it considered an artifact??).

Check out municode.com. You may be able to find the county's or city's ordinances online. Good luck!

[vanstheman3]

I searched today in a local hometown park. we have several but this one is the biggest and nicest. I did a lot of digging and repairing, and in three hours had a nice pouch of Misc scrap. This Park has about 4 to 6 soccer fields, a couple of baseball/softball fields, a nice sized totlot, many picnic tables, a refreshment stand with an eating area of picnic tables. This park is huge and the pride and joy of my hometown! It is so big they hold a good sized Carnival there every year now, so it should be a killer search area! I have never seen a MDer there. I started somewhere around 11am during school hours (there is a school property along the entire one end of the Park) and about 2;30pm right before school lets out at 3, one of the towns police cars rides by me detecting and goes up and parks across the street of the school and park! I can't even begin to imagine a town with more ordinances and required permits than this town, they are as ornery as any I have dealt with in my 56 years! This cop was in a church parking lot parked at and angle facing oncoming school traffic sort of hidden from anyone driving towards him, but we were in perfect view of each other because of the angle. I continued detecting and digging and repairing my holes with us in prefect view of each other! I figured as soon as he was done with his School speed trap and cel phone users trap he would come see me! As the school zone lights went off at 4pm I was digging a target and when I was done and stood up he was gone. Since I started detecting the last few months in the public areas of town they have passed me several times and they don't seem to pay any attention to me at all. I have never asked permission for any of the parks I search here because I went to our towns website and looked for anything prohibiting detecting and found nothing, and none of the parks or public areas are posted against it, and they have signs at ever one of them with the prohibited things stated. I don't know why anyone would ask rather than Reading their entire towns website and permit requirements and Ordinances??? If you can't find anything stating it is prohibited just detect, then yes if they stop you from detecting they will need to state a reason and show an ordinance against it!!! I don't know of any towns these days that don't have enough real crime and criminals to deal with. Malicious metal detecting if illegal would have to be the lowest crime in the books. There isn't a town in america these days that don't have a drug problem and a known drug dealing area/street. We elect the officials and our taxes pay the salaries of these police. We the Legal citizens are not their door mats, we are their actual bosses. If they hassled me I would just tell them calmly, "wouldn't my tax dollars that pay your salary be better spent if you went down to G Street or Bank St and dealt with some real criminals"???? Good Luck and Happy Hunting..... oh the names of the streets have been changed to protect the innocent,,,LOL

[mark v]

Originally Posted by OZARKS

Ask what ordinace or law you would be violating and if he can point that out to you?

I had law enforcement in a town tell me "The consensus is that we don't allow digging in the parks."

Umm, who cares about "the consensus" can anyone show me a LAW that I would be violating there if I "should" hunt the parks?

I USED to visit that town couple times a year spending money in their stores, zoo, convenience stores, car washes, gas stations

But, now I wouldn't spend a penny in their town if they needed it to put out a fire! I will take my business and leisure time somewhere where I feel like I'm welcome!!!

Don't want my money? Fine, your neighboring town does!

[nnjal85]

sent an email asking what ordinance is preventing me from detecting and was just given a number. So i looked up and its a very vague ordinance that just says Amending ordinance regarding the use, care and protection of County. Parks - Synthetic Field use

one thing i find strange its for a city near my town however my town is in the same county as this city. so im wondering if she couldnt find anything and just gave me the ordnance for the city.

so very confusing maybe ill find a cache of gold and move the hell out of this state to a more md friendly state

[yardhunter]

Originally Posted by vanstheman3

I have never asked permission for any of the parks I search here because I went to our towns website and looked for anything prohibiting detecting and found nothing, and none of the parks or public areas are posted against it, and they have signs at ever one of them with the prohibited things stated.

Same here. I know if you ask, you'll receive an automatic "no" as your answer. Just hunt, retrieve targets with small diggers & place the plugs back better than how you found them.

They will most likely ignore you............see ya yardhunter

[kurtmj76]

Boy, I'm glad I live where I go. I recently went to a park and parked my car right next to a Rock Island Police squad car, pulled my gear out from the back seat and said "hi" to the officer as I headed towards the bandshell.

[Milhaus]

Another success story for the word "treasure".