Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Hunting old empty lots Lawrenceville, GA

maxxkatt

maxxkatt

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I have noticed more than a few empty lots which were old home sites in Lawrenceville, ga with old sidewalks. Anyone have experience metal detecting in Lawrenceville, ga? It is somewhat a small town with a large police force.

I wonder what the police would say if you were metal detecting on an empty lot or on some old sidewalks. Anyone with experience with metal detecting in that city please respond. Or any others with just advice in metal detecting in those small type cities.
 
They are private property, best course of action is to ask permission, if I am not mistaken detecting in Gwinnett County parks is illegal just fyi

https://www.municode.com/library/ga/lawrenceville/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICO_CH28PARE

Sec. 28-31. - Damaging or removal of any park property or vegetation prohibited.
It shall be unlawful for any person to deface, graffiti, harm or damage any park buildings, wildlife, property, equipment or signs; or dig up, cut, damage or remove any trees, tree limbs, shrubbery, flowers, rocks, mulch, water, historical artifacts or other vegetation in a park or recreation facility.

So be sure to call and ask permission first so you don't get into trouble. Not trying to be a buzz kill, trying to help you stay outta trouble. :)

I have a very good friend that lives there and last we spoke he told me it was illegal to metal detect their parks...
 
maxxkatt said:
I have noticed more than a few empty lots which were old home sites in Lawrenceville, ga with old sidewalks. Anyone have experience metal detecting in Lawrenceville, ga? It is somewhat a small town with a large police force.

I wonder what the police would say if you were metal detecting on an empty lot or on some old sidewalks. Anyone with experience with metal detecting in that city please respond. Or any others with just advice in metal detecting in those small type cities.
Click to expand...

I have no experience with Lawrenceville, or any other city in GA for that matter, but I can say that more than likely all of these are private properties that you SHOULD ask permission for. That being said, there are a lot of abandoned lots here in Indy, and as far as the cops are concerned, they couldn't care less about a dude metal detecting them. This isn't by any means a small town but from what I've seen, the cops have more pressing things to worry about than things like this. At the worst, they would probably tell you to get the hell out. I have yet to hear of someone getting ticketed or charged with anything for swinging a detector. Like anything, YMMV. Good luck and HH!
 
Ive been there but I haven't detected there. You are going to want to do some research , make sure there is no law or ordinance banning metal detecting on city or public property. And look up the county GIS site ( if there is one , but there usually is ) and find out who owns the property , with any luck the city now owns it....if not you will want to locate the owner and get permission. Most of this information is online somewhere and usually found by google search. Without a GIS site you can still contact the county auditor or tax assessor and get information on who owns it. Without knowing who owns the property.....and if private property, getting permission....you could be trespassing and breaking the law.

If I found out the property belongs to the city , I would not ask the city for permission , they are likely to give you a big fat uncalled for NO , only because they didn't understand what you are asking or the person was having a bad day. As long as I don't see any law banning detecting on city property I would just go hunt it , but be very neat and fill your holes well. There is a slight chance that someone would hassle you about being there but atleast you can say you did the research and found no reason you cant.

It might seem like a lot of work or steps to take but that's half of what this hobby is about.
 
NectarDetector said:
Sec. 28-31. - Damaging or removal of any park property or vegetation prohibited.
It shall be unlawful for any person to deface, graffiti, harm or damage any park buildings, wildlife, property, equipment or signs; or dig up, cut, damage or remove any trees, tree limbs, shrubbery, flowers, rocks, mulch, water, historical artifacts or other vegetation in a park or recreation facility.
Click to expand...

All parks have those rules, including one here with a police station on the same grounds..

Never stopped me, and they have never said anything..

Where does it say it's unlawful to metal detect?

Tom, here's your chance...

<°)))>{
 
Ice Scratcher said:
All parks have those rules, including one here with a police station on the same grounds..

Never stopped me, and they have never said anything..

Where does it say it's unlawful to metal detect?

Tom, here's your chance...

<°)))>{
Click to expand...

See the words dig up...and i as relaying what was told by someone who lives there and asked...

Just call the parks department and get it straight from them!
 
here ..the area between the side walk and road is city property. I've only had one issue in the past and it was from a home owner across the road from where I was detecting. This lady didn't like me detecting there. I was a fireman there at time and the mayor didn't had an issue with it.

It may be different there.. in metal detecting.. asking for permission is better than asking for forgiveness.
 
Grab your detector and go for it! What's the worst that can happen? A ticket and they take your detector :mad:... Seriously, Gwinnett Co. is a bit of a pain in the butt with their parks. There are several detectorist around Lawranceville so I'd expect that the detectable areas have been covered already.

BCD
 
NectarDetector said:
See the words dig up...and i as relaying what was told by someone who lives there and asked...

Just call the parks department and get it straight from them!
Click to expand...

I have no reason to call, it's clearly spelled out! (to my advantage)

It says you can't dig up.. flowers, rocks, water etc.. Absolutely nothing about DIRT, gold rings, pull tabs, or clad...

If you advise that verbiage should stop someone from detecting, the entire country should stick to private property permissions..

Where you at Tom?

<°)))>{
 
haha, what brings my name up ? :laughing:

Two issues brought up in this thread:

a) vacant lots. My input would be: Sure, you can figure out if they are publicly owned, or privately owned. And the *technical* answer, if they are privately owned, is to get permission. But if they're anything like some of the vacant lots in my city, you'd probably never get a hold of the owner (some out of city or out of state entity or person).

If you're talking the type lots with short-cut trails across them, and no signs or fences, then .... I consider myself just as innocuous as the person who takes the short-cut trail. But I acknowledge that's not the technical answer.

b) as for if it's public (and same for public parks), no, I do not consider the verbiage in Nectar's #2 post, to mean "no detecting". Such wording is obligatory (in some fashion or way) in ALL cities, across the entire USA. Yet as you can see, detecting routinely goes on at parks. If you leave no trace, then you haven't alterED, or defacED anything. And yes, I consider the phrase "dig" and/or "dig up" to be the same logic, if you've left no trace.

Hence if I don't see wording specifically saying "no detecting", then it's not prohibited ;)
 
as far as the Gwinnett County parks, I have been metal detecting them for years. The Gwinnett County police are much different in small town city police in Gwinnett county, GA.

The Gwinnett County police never have said anything to me other than nod or wave. They really don't go out of their way unless someone complains. The park workers all know me by site and often ask me if I had any luck. But they also see digging plugs and carefully putting all back together and putting trash in my bag. I always show them my finds and trash. They always seem interested.

But the city police in Gwinnett county are much, much more vigilant on even small traffic violations. I just wondered if that vigilant attitude carried over to metal detecting. I think I will just ask a Lawrenceville police sometime about detecting on the sidewalk area.

As far as other metal detectorists in Lawrenceville, my attitude is maybe they have cleaned up a lot of junk and it will make it easier for me. I have multiple volleyball and basketball courts in Gwinnett county that I have gotten pretty clean over the past year.

Actually two weeks ago in one city park a park official showed up early one morning when I was searching the swing/playground area. She simply looked at me and said good morning. Again she saw me covering up the wood chip holes after I recovered coins. Funny, I found eight quarters in different areas of the playground and no dime, nickels or pennies. That was odd.

But my attitude is to tell people what I am doing if they ask, and if they object I will just be polite and move on.
 
A lot of guys hit those parks. But a few years ago they did ban detecting anywhere but totally lots and volleyball courts. Yet it seems they only enforce that if you go into a ball field. I only know of 1 guy that has gotten kicked out as he was in a baseball field.
 
Reading all the inputs on this thread re.: Gwinnett city parks & cops, versus Gwinnett county parks & cops: As for ancillary wording (deface, alter, dig, etc...) versus possible specific verbage at some level. Or at some time ever purported to have been a law or rule, etc....

Yet despite anything that could be said (if you asked enough park personnel and desk-bound bureaucrats) look at what maxxkatt's "real world" experience is . That as long as you're not being a blinding nuisance (or asking silly questions), then the *reality* is, that you will be ignored. Interesting psychology here.
 
WildDigger said:
A lot of guys hit those parks. But a few years ago they did ban detecting anywhere but tot lots and volleyball courts. Yet it seems they only enforce that if you go into a ball field. I only know of 1 guy that has gotten kicked out as he was in a baseball field.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, thought I remembered that was the case
 
Tom_in_CA said:
Reading all the inputs on this thread re.: Gwinnett city parks & cops, versus Gwinnett county parks & cops: As for ancillary wording (deface, alter, dig, etc...) versus possible specific verbage at some level. Or at some time ever purported to have been a law or rule, etc....

Yet despite anything that could be said (if you asked enough park personnel and desk-bound bureaucrats) look at what maxxkatt's "real world" experience is . That as long as you're not being a blinding nuisance (or asking silly questions), then the *reality* is, that you will be ignored. Interesting psychology here.
Click to expand...

That's a good point, even when people are detecting in areas you know for sure are okay you still might occasionally have a nosey Nellie call and report you because they wrongly think you shouldn't be there, one solution to try to minimize that is to have an "official" look so nosey nellies don't give you a second thought, wear something like this for an "official" look -

safety vest.jpg
 
....but, you never know. Different park person or cop could be a totally different response. Someone gets up on the wrong side of the bed and they might decide differently. I am very cautious when I am metal detecting anywhere in the public view.
 
maxxkatt said:
....but, you never know. Different park person or cop could be a totally different response.....
Click to expand...

Ok, sure. And so-too could the same be said about highway patrol, city cops, etc... You might run into one who "woke up on the wrong side of bed". Who "roughs you up" for nothing but a tail-light. Ok, then does this stop you from driving now ? :?:

Of course not: You write off such stories as "flukes" by "over-zealous" cops, right ? Oh sure: Use due discretion and don't tempt fate. But on the other hand, to assume this means you "stay and home and hide under your bed" is also over-reacting.
 
surveyor hat and vest

ok, some might find this an overkill. but I ordered an used surveyor bill cap with the surveyor's name printed on it and wear it along with the bright green worker vest and nobody bats an eye at me when I hunt sidewalks in older residential areas. Put on earphones if you really don't want any questions asked. Plus earphones shuts out the traffic noise and allows you to hear fainter signals.
 
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