An event that spurred me to my stance:

Tom_in_CA

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My descent into "the dark side" came through an eye-opening occurrance in the early 1990s: The newspaper in our city had an article announcing how our city's oldest high school (built 1919) was about to undergo renovations. And amongst the detailed items slated to be done, was all new landscaping and remodeling of an inner-court grass area.

Now to put it in perspective, this was an grassy inner-court quad, in which hundreds of kids per day would sit and eat their lunch for the last 70+ years. And it was spongy crab grass, so ....... anyone over the years who'd tried to md it, would probably get disgusted, only be able to reach clad, etc...

At the time we had a club in my city. So you can bet that at the club meeting, persons had brought in that newspaper article "giddy with joy" about the prospects of metal detecting when the old grass was to be ripped out with tractors. Yum yum. But others in the room mused about whether or not we'd be allowed to do it. Or "what happens if they put up a fence?" :shock: (as is so often the case around construction sites nowadays, right?).

So all of us club members schemed and devised the way that our club could get permission to detect this demolition site. We formulated a letter on our club's letterhead, to send to the school district's offices. We detailed how we have our own club's liability insurance for our members when on outings. We detailed how we'd turn in all items of interest or value to the school's history, to the city's museum. We detailed that we'd go after hours on given day that they approve, thus not being in anyone's way, our good deeds for the community, etc..

Then we sat back and waited for the reply. And waited. And waited. And waited. 2 months went by and still nothing in our post office box :( Finally tractors arrived on scene and started tearing down some perimeter walls. At the club meeting that night, it was suggested that we call the school district offices to see what had become of our request. So the next day, I called. After getting bandied about from office to office, personell to personell, I FINALLY got someone upon who's desk our request had landed. He told me that they were still considering our request, and that it had to go through various legal channels, get approvals, etc...

I let the club members know. All the while the school demolition process is on-going, and I can see, each night on my way home from work, that they're getting closer and closer to the part where they'll be tearing out the inner court. Then one night as I was driving by, I saw a guy out there metal detecting! In the distance an md'r was visible. So I pulled over, scuttled through a wide spot in the fence, and went over to see who it was. It turned out to be a fellow I knew in our city who was not a club member (work schedule conflicted with our meeting times).

So I told him "hey John, what are you doing here? The club has pending permission to get in here and hunt as a group". John looked at me with a "you silly boy" look and said "why did you ask? why don't you just hunt ? This is a public school, right?" And he opened up his apron to show me all the silver he was finding! Turned out he'd been in their all week up to that time, in full view of passing traffic, and had handfuls of silver to show for it. He just waited till after 5pm workers to cut out. Just opened the bailing wire to the fence panels, and went in. No one seemed to care. Example: while he and I were standing their talking, a janitor (from the un-affected portions of the school) came out to see what John's find were from this night. Apparently he'd been going out there each night to see John's haul each night.

Well that was all the torture I could take ! I promptly went back to my truck, got my metal detector, and joined in the fray. A few weeks later, at the next club meeting, our club P.O. box brought the reply to our club's request: "no".

Hence my descent into the "dark side" :(
 
Location- Guts-Timing-Detector Hats off to the gentleman with the silver. He legally earned it.
 
Always wondered about the "not" asking permission thing. Good to know there was a story behind it.
 
Yep, that's how it is, I probably would not crawl through a fence to get in, but if there wasn't I would have detected it.

When I was young and stupider,I asked permission from the city to detect some if their property, I got it too but they said I could only dig down two inches... I never really used the permission to detect there much and when I did I may have dug a bit deeper than allowed but I was very careful to make my plugs completely unnoticeable.

In the end I could have detected there without any restrictions in writing...

So, like Tom, I learned my lesson, we try to do the "right"thing, but asking permission when we shouldn't have to is something I won't do nowadays.
 
Great story, Tom. I had a similar experience, on a smaller scale. I saw a public area where I knew there had been picnic tables years before. The area was open to fishermen, dog walkers, etc., and the posted signs had a list of prohibited activities which didn't include detecting or digging (mainly no swimming, no campfires, etc.). I detected there over a two year period finding a few silver coins, including my first Barber coin. Maybe twenty times in all. One day a ranger drives up, comes over and tells me detecting is not allowed. He suggested I write to the government agency in charge of the property and request permission. I, not knowing any better, did so, and sure enough, in about a month got a reply. No, detecting can not be allowed, in order to protect archaeological resources.
 
It's very simple. When asking for express, written permission, cities will almost always say "no". Why? Because that opens them up to lawsuits if you get hurt because they authorized your activity. Especially when asking for access to a city property construction site!

No rules forbidding detecting, go for it and be clean with your holes. It is public property after all.
 
.... they said I could only dig down two inches... I never really used the permission to detect there much and when I did I may have dug a bit deeper than allowed .......

First, when you say you never really used the permission, do you mean that .... no one ever "carded" you (so to speak), such that .... whether or not you'd had it, would never have made a difference ?

And as for the "2 inches", I'm shocked that they didn't have a city representative following you around with a ruler :roll:

At least you're lucky you didn't get an out-right "no".
 
Great story, Tom. I had a similar experience, on a smaller scale. I saw a public area where I knew there had been picnic tables years before. The area was open to fishermen, dog walkers, etc., and the posted signs had a list of prohibited activities which didn't include detecting or digging (mainly no swimming, no campfires, etc.). I detected there over a two year period finding a few silver coins, including my first Barber coin. Maybe twenty times in all. One day a ranger drives up, comes over and tells me detecting is not allowed. He suggested I write to the government agency in charge of the property and request permission. I, not knowing any better, did so, and sure enough, in about a month got a reply. No, detecting can not be allowed, in order to protect archaeological resources.

Hmmm, then by logical deduction, you would not have been afforded those "20 times over 2 years", and the resulting silver coins, had you gone and asked first.

Reminds me of a similar thread I read, where the banter was about whether you could or couldn't detect at a certain beach on the east coast somewhere. A particular guy had the answer in writing, he'd saved, saying "no". Meanwhile, another guy was posting that he'd detected there for the last 5 yrs, and simply had no idea you couldn't. He'd never heard so much as "boo", and had found lots of rings, coins, etc... over the years. The first guy (who'd sleuthed out his "no") lamented: "you mean to tell me I could have been detecting all these last 5 yrs ??" Apparently he lived a mere mile from this beach, and was now miffed he hadn't simply gone, like the other guy.
 
Hi Tom
I thought I was going to detect there often.But in the end I found other more fruitful places, so even though I have "official" permission, I wish I had never even asked for it.



you are right about the two inches and a ruler!
 
I only ask permission if there is a sign up that states no detecting / no trespassing. Other than that I go for it until I'm told to leave; if I'm told.

If there are no signs, or if it's public property, I cant see anything worse than being told "you have to leave".

I believe if there is no sign that states that I should not be there, I should be there.
 
I don't think it is cool at all to trespass on property you know to be private just because there is no No Trespassing signs.. From what I understand from a Police Chief friend of mine... A person may not be able to be ticketed for trespassing on property if it isn't posted, but it is definitely morally wrong to do so.

I have a very nice site I detect, and one of the foundations is actually cut in half by the property boundary that I have permission to and the adjoining private property which I don't ... I have only detected half of the foundation... Yes, I take it to the extreme when it comes to private property rights.
 
"Yes officer I know it's tresspassing but this guy was getting all the silver before we could get a yes." "Next we are going to steal that guys motorcycle over there since I don't see any 'no stealing signs'

You knew better and knew what yoy were doing was wrong but since "he" did it you justified it in your mind. My neighbor beats his wife so I think I'll do it too...hey...he gets away with it!
 
"Yes officer I know it's tresspassing but this guy was getting all the silver before we could get a yes." "Next we are going to steal that guys motorcycle over there since I don't see any 'no stealing signs'

You knew better and knew what yoy were doing was wrong but since "he" did it you justified it in your mind. My neighbor beats his wife so I think I'll do it too...hey...he gets away with it!

Wow, ok, let's see if I understand this: metal detecting a public school fenced demolition site is akin and morally equivalent to a) stealing motorcycles, or b) wife-beating. Hmmm, ok. What if had been only some yellow ticker tape stretched between a few orange cones?
 
You knew when you had to squeeze through the fence that was there to keep you out that you weren't supposed to be there. Yiu justified it in your mind because someone else was doing it.

Justify it how you want but you KNEW through talking to them that you weren't supposed to be there. Hence the fence to keep you out...public or not. Just cause "he did it" doesn't mean you can. Hec my mama taught me that when I was 6 yrs old!

I know you like to argue.... but facts are facts and when you squeezed through the fence you knew it was wrong. Just cause its not postef doesn't mean its fair game is the point...

My examples are saying when does it stop? I mean he does it so I can too...right?
 
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