I had one very unpleasant encounter with the police which I have shared with the staff but not in the public area of the forum. This happened to me in January of 2015 and really upset me at the time. Copied and pasted from my original post to the staff:
(Sorry this is so long, but it's hard to tell it in abbreviated form.)
A cautionary tale for myself, I guess, although maybe we can all learn something from it. I didn't want to post this in the public area of the forum, because I always try to be a positive ambassador for the hobby and not post anything negative or controversial.
So anyway, I went detecting yesterday at two different parks. The second park was in a very small town that I had never been to before. (Population 300.) When I arrived at this second park it was deserted except for three young girls who were swinging on the swings. As always, I stayed as far away from them as possible. I don't want to make anyone nervous with my activities, plus the kids often approach me and become a distraction. The swings are on the north side of the park so I kept to the south side.
I would guess the ages of the three girls at about 7, 10 and 12. After a while I noticed that they had moved to a tot lot play area on the east side of the park, so I ventured up the west edge of the park to the northwest corner. As I was digging a target (a worthless metal button) I looked up and saw that the three girls were running towards me. They sat on a park bench about 10 feet away from me, and one of them asked me what I was looking for. I answered that I was mostly looking for old coins.
They asked if they could watch and I said that's fine. They followed me around for about an hour, each taking turns stomping on the plugs after I had retrieved the target. They were friendly and polite, so I didn't mind them hanging around too much.
When I found an 1893 Indian Head I got out my video camera so I could film it. I kept the camera aimed at the coin in my hand, taking great care to NOT get the girls in the video. When I was done filming the oldest girl asked me if I had a YouTube channel, and I answered yes. She asked me the name of my channel and I told her Tony Two-Cent. She asked my how many subscribers I had and I answered about 1200. She seemed to be very familiar with YouTube.
They watched me for another 15 minutes or so and then lost interest and ran off to play. After a while a vehicle pulled up and a woman got out and told them they had to go home now. They all got in the car and left.
About 30 minutes later I noticed that a vehicle had pulled up and parked in front of my car. I didn't think anything of it, but after a while I noticed that there was a man standing beside that vehicle and he seemed to be watching me. It was a white SUV and he was standing on the other side of it, but he was peeking over the top of it. No matter where I went in the park, when I looked over there it seemed that he was staring at me. I thought it was strange but I just kept detecting.
That's when I looked up and noticed a sheriff's squad car approaching me. The officer stopped near me and motioned for me to come over. I took off my headphones and he said, "How's it going?" I simply answered "good".
He said, "We had a complaint from a parent who told us you were videoing their girls and you said you were going to put them on YouTube". I told him that was absolutely not true, I never said I was going to put them on YouTube. He asked if I was video taping and I said yes I had been, but I had been very careful NOT to get the girls in the video. He asked me why I had approached the girls and I told him that I had not approached them, they approached me, and in fact before they ran up to me I was taking care to keep my distance from them. I stressed again that I had been extremely careful NOT to get the girls in the video, and I had definitely NOT told them I was going to put them on YouTube, and that I would NEVER do that.
He took my name, date of birth, address, etc. and ran it through his computer. He asked me what I was doing in Woodson if I was from Monticello. I explained to him that I go metal detecting all over central Illinois.
He asked if I had the camera on me and could he see the video I had taken.
I told him yes, I have the camera right here. I cued up the videos I had taken that day (there were only 5 short ones) and we watched them together. He saw that I was telling the truth, the girls were not visible in the video at all. He saw the footage of the 1893 Indian Head and he said, "Wow, you found a coin from 1893 here?" At that point I could tell that his demeanor had changed. I told him yes, it was an 1893 Indian Head cent.
He then explained that it is a small town and people are wary of strangers, and the parents were just concerned. I told him that I understood perfectly. He then wished me good luck and drove away.
I don't really handle confrontation too well and I was pretty shaken by this encounter. However, I decided to stay and keep detecting because I thought it might make me look guilty if I immediately went slinking off. I honestly felt that I had done nothing wrong and I felt that if I stayed and continued detecting it would emphasize that fact.
Even though I felt that I had done nothing wrong, and the officer eventually agreed, I will definitely handle things differently in the future. It is not in my nature to tell the kids that they have to stay away from me, it's a public park and they have just as much of a right to be there as I do. However, from now on when there are kids are around the video camera will stay in my pocket.
Thanks for enduring this long tale, but I needed to get it out of my system and I thought we could all learn to be more cautious.
to be on the radar the law a few times :lol:.
