I would like to hunt him down and comfront him but if he's a "bad cop" or worse, if he's not even a cop and is impersonating a cop there's no telling what he might do or accuse me of. Anyway, if I am even able to find this cat, I seriously doubt he will just appologze and give my me gear back. I suspect that by now he has either sold the gear or otherwise disposed of it. Porbably even went metal detecting with it. Who knows what an evil mind might do.
Gregazar, KinTN was referring to prior forum discussions, on the subject of whether or not it's a good idea to check , ahead of time, at places we detect, to ask authorities if md'ing is ok. Such that, presumably, situations like yours would never have arisen. Ie.: You'd have your "permission slip" to whip out and show that cop.
But I have always pushed back on this, and told KinTN, that this notion of knocking on doors and asking "Can I ?" type questions, is not a good idea. Because it can lead to arbitrary "no's" (simply because they think you'll leave holes, or whatever). Or that, if there's no rule, it might put the idea in someone's brain to MAKE a rule, to "address the issue ". And so on, and so forth, this in-house-discussion goes.
And during the course of those said pro/con discussions, the risk/ramification of "confiscation" or "arrest" comes up. And again, Tom_in_CA pushes back and challenges anyone to show an example of an arrest or confiscation is any normal mundane routine park or beach , where there is no rule that forbids md'ing. And when I toss out that challenge, I am on record as acknowledging that, SURE : There *might* be a few random headlines in history, of someone getting roughed up for a place that, on the surface, seemed benign and innocuous. But so too is there fluke headlines from time to time of someone getting roughed up and arrested for nothing but a tail-light out.
Anyhow, that's the background of his & I's exchange.
But back to your particular situation : I am reading all the added material this morning, and see that there is now *many* questions on the validity of the confiscation, the probability that the ticket is not enforceable (signatures, times, etc....). And also, even back to the legitimacy of the jurisdiction (ownership vs management, etc....). So if all this is true, then that means this is not just a matter of "should we ask Can I ?" ahead of time, This just goes to show, that if there IS something corrupt in your case, then : This is not solved by having gone in ahead of time and groveling. Ie.: If a ranger wanted to be corrupt, he would just ignore your permission slip.
And here's a perfect example : Even if Gregazar had gone in ahead of time asking "Can I detect ?", notice that one of the two tickets is for destruction of plants. Ok, then does this mean that we should all waltz into city halls wherever we go, and ask "Hi, can I destroy plants ?" THUS I SAY THAT GREGAZAR'S situation was a fluke. We do the best we can to ascertain rules/laws ahead of time. Other times we figure something is *so* benign, that .... it's a non-issue. And sure : Now and then, an overzealous (or even corrupt) LEO *could* happen. And no amount of groveling ahead of time will solve every single potential thing in life. Sometimes we chalk it up to experience, and know to avoid that single spot, or that single person, etc.....
