I'm back, but still pissed.

Why not go to the Ranger station and ask about him, they should know who and where he was sent to be on duty.....

Craig : You and KOB are advocating this ^ ^ To not simply "chalk it up to experience" and not simply to "chalk it up to a single place to avoid from now on" and not to simply "kiss your gear goodbye".

And while this is Gregazor's decision, it reminds me of an incident I had, where I had a gun pointed at me by a military police, and was berated and hassled for 30 minutes. Finally, the MP let me go with only a warning. (long long story). Although it didn't result in any confiscation or ticket, yet .... you can bet I was *very* frazzled.

So I did exactly as you say : The next day, I went to the MP office-station . At a shift purposefully 12 hrs. removed from the time of the incident, so that I could be certain that that cop wouldn't be on-duty. And I notified the desk clerk that I'd like to make a complaint. I was led to the chief of operations there, who heard my gripe/lament.

The bottom line was, it resulted in that MP being demoted. He was stripped of any ability to carry a firearm, and was relegated to a desk job from then on out !

But this decision is Gregazors. In my case, it was questionable whether I was doing something wrong (no rules forbidding md'ing, the cop was merely p*ssed that I had parked off the pavement, supposedly). And in my case, it involved guns being pointed at me. Not the same for Gregazor. Although, it's no-less-unsettling to be the victim of a confiscation. But this revolves around whether or not a law was actually really broken on Gregazor's part. Like in my case, I was told by the head of MP's, that they would pursue an investigation against this MP, as long as I agreed to get a ticket for parking off the pavement. Doh !

So: There's a lot to un-pack here :(
 
Craig : You and KOB are advocating this ^ ^ To not simply "chalk it up to experience" and not simply to "chalk it up to a single place to avoid from now on" and not to simply "kiss your gear goodbye".

And while this is Gregazor's decision, it reminds me of an incident I had, where I had a gun pointed at me by a military police, and was berated and hassled for 30 minutes. Finally, the MP let me go with only a warning. (long long story). Although it didn't result in any confiscation or ticket, yet .... you can bet I was *very* frazzled.

So I did exactly as you say : The next day, I went to the MP office-station (at a shift purposefully 12 hrs. removed from the time I got the ticket, so that I could be certain that that cop wouldn't be on-duty). And I notified the desk clerk that I'd like to make a complaint. I was led to the chief of operations there, who heard my gripe/lament.

The bottom line was, it resulted in that MP being demoted. He was stripped of any ability to carry a firearm, and was relegated to a desk job from then on out !

But this decision is Gregazors. In my case, it was questionable whether I was doing something wrong (no rules forbidding md'ing, the cop was merely p*ssed that I had parked off the pavement, supposedly). And in my case, it involved guns being pointed at me. Not the same for Gregazor. Although, it's no-less-unsettling to be the victim of a confiscation. But this revolves around whether or not a law was actually really broken on Gregazor's part. Like in my case, I was told by the head of MP's, that they would pursue an investigation against this MP, as long as I agreed to get a ticket for parking off the pavement. Doh !

So: There's a lot to un-pack here :(

Craig : You and KOB are advocating this ^ ^ To not simply "chalk it up to experience" and not simply to "chalk it up to a single place to avoid from now on" and not to simply "kiss your gear goodbye".

And while this is Gregazor's decision, it reminds me of an incident I had, where I had a gun pointed at me by a military police, and was berated and hassled for 30 minutes. Finally, the MP let me go with only a warning. (long long story). Although it didn't result in any confiscation or ticket, yet .... you can bet I was *very* frazzled.

So I did exactly as you say : The next day, I went to the MP office-station . At a shift purposefully 12 hrs. removed from the time of the incident, so that I could be certain that that cop wouldn't be on-duty. And I notified the desk clerk that I'd like to make a complaint. I was led to the chief of operations there, who heard my gripe/lament.

The bottom line was, it resulted in that MP being demoted. He was stripped of any ability to carry a firearm, and was relegated to a desk job from then on out !

But this decision is Gregazors. In my case, it was questionable whether I was doing something wrong (no rules forbidding md'ing, the cop was merely p*ssed that I had parked off the pavement, supposedly). And in my case, it involved guns being pointed at me. Not the same for Gregazor. Although, it's no-less-unsettling to be the victim of a confiscation. But this revolves around whether or not a law was actually really broken on Gregazor's part. Like in my case, I was told by the head of MP's, that they would pursue an investigation against this MP, as long as I agreed to get a ticket for parking off the pavement. Doh !

So: There's a lot to un-pack here :(
His fines are over $800 dollars I would fight it and yes go after his equipment I don't roll over for anyone...
 
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Do you have his name at all? Any way to identify him? Do you know what agency he works for? I'd be looking to speak to his superior. There are always other legal options other than paying an attorney to cause him grief. Make waves don't just let him steal your gear. If you can find him start with asking to speak with his supervisor and explain the interaction with them , he obviously didn't follow normal seizure laws. If you don't get anywhere with that then file a claim in small claims court against the individual. Looks like a case of a crook working for the government and throwing his weight around. Drag his ass to court. make HIM explain himself in front of a judge. Put the power shoe on the other foot.
 
I'm thinking he wasn't a real officer. I would take those citations to the court and ask if they're legit. If not, file a police report. Maybe file a report anyway? I dunno, moving on maybe best solution. Taking your phone seems very odd to me too.

Maybe try looking up the officer:

https://www.police1.com/law-enforcement-directory/search/

See if your citation shows up:

Same website under FAQ says they'll mail you w/in 30 days information about court date:

Good luck OP.
 
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I don't even have a court date. As far as I know, I can't just show up at the court and get heard. Without a scheduled court date, I would have to have an attorney file something to get me in court. Right? I have no idea how that works.
You set up a court date and represent your case yourself. When that dude doesn't show up if he was legit, you just won your case. If the tickets aren't real you really have nothing to worry about. I do know a couple career traffic violator's who get off the hook for street racing. But where you are located may matter? If your metal detector wasn't on "wink wink" the ticketing officer will need to be there to dispute your claim. As far as confiscated items the way it used to work here was they auction that stuff off and it goes into the police retirement fund. So it can be hard getting stuff back. You should have seen the stolen bikes i used to watch them auction off at the local FOP lodge.
 
So, I have been away from the forum for a while. My brother, who lives in Atlanta Country Club Estates, took me to detect a new spot where he frequently rides his mountain bike. This place is not far from his house and he goes there several times per week. I have never been there but I did look it up on Google Maps and it's a really big wooded area. It's a wooded area with bike trials all throughout. I wasn't planning on doing much detecting. I just wanted to see the area and would plan to come back when I could spend the day there. Anyway, after about an hour, we started to leave and he said there was a better way out which was a short trek through the woods to a dirt road that would lead back to where we were parked. Once we got on the road and were walking back towards the car, we were approached by a Park Ranger. Yep, it turns out this area was NPA land and they do not allow detecting. Google Maps did not list this as NPA land. I know better and would not have gone there if I knew that. Actually, it's not NPA land, it's just managed by the NPA. I did a web search and found it listed as NRA land and the website said it was open to everyone for recreational use. There was no mention of Metal Detecting being forbidden. I guess my brother knew it was NPA/NRA land but he didn't now detecting was not allowed and he has never seen a park Ranger there before. Not only did I get $860.00 in citations for "Possession of a Metal Detector" and "Destroying Plants" which I did not do. I dug one hole in a dirt area and properly filled it back in. He never even saw me digging. I was just walking with the detector turned off. But this jerk took my AT Pro, 2 Pro-Pointers, a Lesche Samson Pro, my edge digger and Garrett digger's bag, rechargeable batteries, gloves and everything else I had with the exception of my phone and my clothes. The odd thing about this is that so far, the U.S. District Court has no record of the citation or my gear being confiscated. It's been nearly 6 weeks since this happened. It looks like I got robbed by a Federal Cop. He did make the comment "This is MY metal detector now" when he confiscated it but I took that as a smart remark rather than his true intentions of keeping my gear. He was also careful to tell me brother to go ahead and walk back to the car, obviously so he wouldn't be a witness to the theft of my gear.

Well, I have an AT Gold but rarely use it and without a pin-pointer, shovel and edge digger I just wasn't interested in doing any detecting. I bought a new AT MAX and Pro-Pointer AT which I got Sunday and the new Lesche Samson Pro is scheduled to arrive today. I am going to go buy an edge digger and some gloves tomorrow morning the head out to do some detecting.

View attachment 510747View attachment 510748
I am a big supporter of Law Enforcement Officials BUT...

It truly does sound like you were robbed, either by a dirty cop or a very good impersonator. Either way, someone should have a record of this event by now. I think I might have to hire legal counsel in your case, were it me...
 
First of all, :welcomeback:

Why not go to the Ranger station and ask about him, they should know who and where he was sent to be on duty... if he did this on his own then you may be able to get your gear back.... I would not pay those tickets... if I had to go to court I would do it without a lawyer... just don't roll over fight it...
Now that is the one thing I do know. It happened on December 17th. 2022, it was a Saturday around 1:00 PM. They should be able to figure out who was working that area at the time. Good lead. Thanks.
I also think that would be a good idea, especially since you know about when it happened.
 
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.
Sorry to hear of your unjust misfortune. I believe this individual has certainly crossed the line of corruption enough to warrant being fired, losing his pension and being banned from any type of law enforcement activity. Unfortunately, justice does not always prevail. I would tend to believe he still has the equipment and is using it.
 
Do you have his name at all? Any way to identify him? Do you know what agency he works for? I'd be looking to speak to his superior. There are always other legal options other than paying an attorney to cause him grief. Make waves don't just let him steal your gear. If you can find him start with asking to speak with his supervisor and explain the interaction with them , he obviously didn't follow normal seizure laws. If you don't get anywhere with that then file a claim in small claims court against the individual. Looks like a case of a crook working for the government and throwing his weight around. Drag his ass to court. make HIM explain himself in front of a judge. Put the power shoe on the other foot.
I second this!
 
Whole situation sounds strange. Hopefully you can get the gear back at court. Be one expensive Garrett!
 
Seems like a lot of people here ready to be judge, jury and executioner. It will be interesting if we ever know the entire story. I'll wait until then to make my decision.
 
Again, I'm very skeptical of this whole situation, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt here and offer a few suggestions for what they're worth from an internet stranger.

In the original picture of the citations posted at the beginning of the thread, the OP intentionally (and understandably for privacy) greyed out several key and sensitive items - one of them is the violation number. The violation number is the unique individual number issued for the citation, which is how the particular violation gets tracked and identified within the USDC Central Violations Bureau system along with the location code. I'll assume that the violation number is legible since the OP took the time to grey out that information block for privacy reasons. Using that violation number, it should be a simple process to verify several things by either using the https://www.cvb.uscourts.gov/ website, going to a ranger station or barracks nearest to the violation location, or both:
  1. Does the violation number bring up a valid violation?
  2. If so, does the violation in the system match what has been cited on the ticket (ie, "possession of a metal detector")? Does the defendant name match? Who is recorded as the issuing officer, etc.
  3. If #1 or #2 above aren't valid, then you're clearly not liable for the fines, and a crime has been committed against you (someone issued a bogus citation, and allegedly confiscated property). The local law enforcement agencies should all be very interested in the fact that false violations have been issued and theft committed by either an active duty officer or an impersonator. A "rogue" cop is bad enough...an impersonator with all of the trimmings is a veritable community crisis.
Again, I am extremely suspicious of the citations pictured in the original post because the handwritten “Offense Description: Factual Basis for Charge” boxes and dollar amounts are so prominent and easy to read, while the rest of the handwritten sections (all presumably written by the ranger) are so faint. My point is, all of the handwritten boxes should be faint - the pictured citations are the defendant copy, which is just a carbon copy of the original CVB top copy. The ranger fills out the original top copy, and the writing transfers through, slightly fainter but hopefully readable, to the defendant copy. It is extremely odd that only the words "Possessing a metal detector", "Destroying/[something illegible] Plants" and the dollar amounts are so prominent on the carbon copy while the remaining boxes are fainter as they should be. The only explanation is that those words were written directly on the defendant copy, not transferred through from the original. No legit officer would do that - having the top copy not match the defendant copy would potentially invalidate the citation.

Assuming everything transpired as the OP has described, if it were me, I'd press the local agencies harder for more information regarding the legitimacy of the citations. If the citations are not legitimate, I'd press those same agencies about how it can be that bogus citations are being issued by uniformed "officers" in their jurisdiction. Local media outlets would likely be very interested in the story as well, especially since there is a witness - the brother.
 
Having grown up in the area (The Branches) and actually MD ‘d in the area along the Hooch several decades ago I can only assume were this incident happened. I no longer MD in this area now because of the regulations, put still mountain bike and kayak. I know first hand the these Rangers are bad news, my mountain bike was almost confiscated because it was unregistered (which there is no requirement btw). Luckily I had a hiker nearby and I put up a loud argument and the ranger backed off taking my bike. I just generally stay away from this area nowexcept to kayak. I feel your anger all to well. Go to the ranger station off Island Ford and seek justice.
 
You have to be real careful in Atlanta along the Chattahoochee river. Lots of Federal property and some of it unmarked.
As an example off of Holcomb Bridge road near the east side of the river of holcomb bridge road is a City of Roswell park which you can metal detect. But as you go closer to the river along the trail you run into US Federal Park land with absolutely no signs on the trail indicating you are going from City property to US Federal property. I metal detected that Federal Park land one afternoon several month ago and could have encountered a park ranger just like the OP. If I know a piece of property is Federal, it is of course a no go in terms of metal detecting. Not sure why the federal gov has such a strong stance on no metal detecting when most parks around Atlanta have no metal detecting restrictions.

But anywhere along the Chattahoochee river, when using Google earth you large tree filled area of land you can almost bet it is owned by the Feds or else it would be full of homes or condo's.
 
It sounds more like a ploy to rob anybody he is interested in for whatever the victim is carrying, you should go to the local police and describe the incident. The guy made sure you were isolated by sending your brother away and by holding your phone, what legit ranger would do that? You got scammed by a scam artist!
 
My brother-in-law and I once got stopped by a DNR person while detecting, we were already back to his truck, and he wanted to know what we found, we didn't tell him much, not his business ! Broke no laws, and he knew that.
too_
 
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