Seriously at night? I would think that at night it would seem all the more suspicious.
Well, maybe this wouldn't apply to parking strips in front of homes. But it certainly applies to nicely manicured turf in parks , haha
I've actually spent quite a bit of time curb stripping at night this summer - mostly in the older residential areas. With young kids out of school all summer, I often can't get out until after they're in bed, which is 9:30pm for my oldest. For me, hitting the curb strips at night has several benefits besides fitting my schedule better: it's generally cooler, no need for sunblock, very close to home, and fewer busybodies. But, yes, the major drawback is that you do look more suspicious to some folks. And the reality is that I'm only trading sunblock for bug spray...but the sun and I aren't friends, so I'll make that trade!
Anyway, I've typically been hitting these curb strips between 10pm and 1am. It's a college town, so there's always some car traffic or the occasional pedestrian at these hours, but for the most part I'm just swinging in peace. I always stay aware of my surroundings to the best of my ability and avoid strips that look like they might cause problems: I don't dig by parked cars, I skip houses if a dog starts to bark, etc. I've been noticed countless times of course, but I'm sort of surprised that I've only been "confronted" 3 times...regardless, I'm sure if I was curb stripping during the day, the confrontation rate would probably quadruple.
In all three encounters, the folks started out very suspicious and with fairly confrontational tones - and understandably so...from their perspective they've found an individual digging "in their front yard" in the middle of the night! In the first two encounters, the folks questioned me directly, which allowed me to defuse the situation pretty quickly. I quickly explained what I was doing, why I was there at that time of night, and that I was careful to remain in the public right of way between the street and sidewalk - not in their yard. Both encounters ended on peaceful, friendly terms, and I continued detecting the same strip - I didn't have to "move on".
The third encounter was much more interesting - he never physically approached me. I noticed him watching me from his porch across the street and several houses down while I was getting my gear out of my car and setting up to detect. It was about 10:45pm - I briefly considered moving along to a different spot, but I decided to continue. My first signal went fine, but on my second dig I hear "Hey...what the f--- do you think you're doing?" shouted at me from down the street. I shifted my position so that I could see him (still on his porch several doors down), but continued securing the find and covering the plug. When I stood, I could see the light of a cell phone in his hand, so I knew what was coming next. I could have left, but I figured that just looks more suspicious, and I knew I was perfectly legal. So I kept hunting, but never turned my back on my new "friend".
Sure enough, within about 5-10 minutes a police cruiser rolls up the street from the other direction, coming to a stop several houses down. Once the officer stepped out of the car, I stopped detecting, leaned the detector against a tree and walked toward him, greeting him with a smile in the process: "Good evening, officer...I knew you were getting a call about me!" I explained that I was metal detecting the right of way, when the gentleman down the street shouted at me with some profanity - I mentioned that ordinarily if folks ask me what I'm doing, I'm happy to explain, but with behavior like that, I felt it was best to just ignore him. The officer was extremely polite, and seemed amused that he was called about a metal detectorist. His backup arrived while I was still explaining what I was doing - Officer #1 says "he was just metal detecting", and Officer #2 shakes his head and says "it's amazing what some folks will call about"!! Turns out Officer #2 used to do a little detecting also! Long story short, they checked my ID of course, but otherwise I ended up giving them a short demonstration of the detector, and answering the standard questions from Officer #1 about the kinds of stuff I find and other places I detect. The Shift Supervisor even rolled up by then...I was quite the curiosity, apparently! The end result...they said "You're just fine doing what your doing - carry on, and good luck finding something good". The whole interaction was maybe 10-15 minutes, tops - and extremely friendly throughout. I continued to detect the strip for another hour without any more issues.
I did ask whether it would be better if I called the non-emergency line and gave the dispatcher a heads up that I would be detecting on a particular street. They said I could if I wanted to, but it really wasn't necessary - they would have to come and investigate if someone called either way.
So, what started out as a potentially dangerous encounter with a resident turned into an excellent, confidence building interaction with local law enforcement. I'm now on their radar in a good way, and it's given me even more confidence about continuing to detect in my home town at night. Obviously, your mileage may vary in other places.