I recently read the social media comment "Easier to ask forgiveness than permission. I have a great one that I would try!" The dishonest detectorist then went on to describe how he would explain to anyone questioning him (i.e. why he was hunting in a park that was clearly marked NO METAL DETECTING) that he was looking for his dear old granny's precious wedding ring she lost while playing football for the 49ers last week. Indeed, as Andy Sabisch posted on his face book page "Is this what the hobby has become in 2018?" He makes commentary on the sad fact metal detecting, the hobby, has become essentially a number's game nowadays.
Not to put too fine a point on it, metal detecting has become a competition to see how much "stuff" you can vacuum up without regard to where it was found, what it was, or of what significance it is. Sad to say, I've seen this problem grow in the last few years, with social media throwing down the gauntlet to "...get out there and metal detect, boys and girls!!" with thousands of items tossed in a box and dumped in finds competition...along with confrontations, arguments between people about the legitimacy of the finds, accusations of cheating and et al. I've actually seen metal detecting addicts hunting with their eyes glazed over, digging relentlessly, like someone vacuuming a dammed rug or carpet! I went to the beach one weekend, which I don't usually do, just to spend an hour walking the beach without a detector, and I counted 21 people with metal detectors in the first quarter mile, most digging illegally in the dunes, or waving the machine 3-feet in the air, while carrying a full-sized shovel and glaring at anyone else swinging a machine.
I know of folks who trespass brazenly onto a private property and then, in their own words "I metal detect until someone throws me out!" Others use illicit means to access off-limits properties pretending to be city workers checking for pipes, or power pole markers with the fake ID to go along with it. Or any number of other ruses you or I would never dream of attempting...and they get awards for fantastic finds that the majority of us will never dig because we respect the NO TRESPASSING signs. I've seen people at metal detecting hunts seeding the field with tokens, then when the hunt starts, they turn and follow the line they walked and pick up most of the tokens THEY had just seeded! Perhaps, as the United States slowly dies and becomes a third world enclave, this is the new normal...civility, pride in achievement, work and honesty are things of the past. Criminality, lies, deceit, theft and an anything-goes mentality among our destroyed middle-class society is what rules nowadays.
Digging up a person's yard, leaving trash, uncovered holes...same thing in city and county parks. Digging coins by the truckload 8 to 10 hours a day by younger people (in the 20 to 30 to 40 year old range) who should be at work or at least someplace doing something constructive, seems also to be the norm. When I was a kid, maybe 9 or 10, you very rarely saw men in large numbers wandering around during a weekday...it was mostly mothers with small kids shopping, kids just off school, or a few retired folks with their grand-kids. The men were at work...not wandering the community. Nowadays you see masses of apparently jobless young to middle-aged people wandering shopping centers, sitting on picnic tables in parks, standing in doorways, or using metal detectors 10-14 hours a day. The end is near...or is already here and we don't know it yet.
We've had discussions about how to protect yourself at the beach, with a few people calling everyone "pricks" who legally carry weapons to defend themselves and family from the "people," if you can even call em' that, the ones who laugh at gun laws, no matter how many laws...how many tons of paper...are written, and do what they want, whenever they want, and to whomever they want...unless they are the whomever's who legally carry a means of defense. Several folks were talking about quietly detecting a local beach in the cool of the evening only to be attacked by ragged people from out of the darkness, a Hollywood horror movie become reality. Unfortunately for the attackers, the detectorists were legally armed. Their comment was "...pulling out the Glock put a halt to their shenanigans real quick." What would have happened otherwise? You figure it out. It's a tough world now.
Myself, I would not be caught on any beach at night anymore, the homeless, the criminals, rapists, thieves, and ne'er-do-wells, even though we carry pepper spray and tasers, even carry them during the day, we'd just as soon stay away. Genuine nut cases are everywhere here in the states nowadays, people approach you in broad daylight asking "...do you have any gold?" We were legally metal detecting during a weekday in a deserted section of a county park. Out of nowhere, a 30-something, came up to me and said he'd been bitten by red ants on the legs and it was very painful. His girlfriend, who also appeared from nowhere, nodded. He then says to me "We've decided to contact a state legislator with a request they change the name of the red ant to "Spicy Boy." His girlfriend nodded vigorously. "We really think it's a good idea...how about you?" I saw Patti walking toward us, her detecting shovel, long-handle steel with a sharp, trowel-sized blade, over her shoulder, looking at the couple with caution. They did not see her. I had my hand on the taser at my belt, felt for the activation switch, and flicked it on.
Just at that moment, one of the park rangers, a friend of mine, pulled up in his electric cart. "Hi, Joe," I say. Ranger Joe looks at us, and says to me and Patti "...find anything?" He looked curiously at the "red ant" couple. They looked back, suddenly uneasy with Joe's presence and for some reason, seemed even more uneasy that we personally knew the park ranger. "Want a ride back to your car? I'm heading that way anyway." We were happy to get a ride back, almost a mile walk. Joe looks at me on the ride back and says "Friends of yours?" I looked back and said "Never saw them before...no car, no bicycles...just showed up outa' nowhere." After I mentioned their conversation topic, he keyed his mike on his radio. "Erma, call the police and direct them to the far side of the park...suspicious characters." A short time later a police car, tossing dust, passed us heading for the outer reaches of the park with two officers aboard. They came back toward us a short time later and Joe said to them, "What's the story?" The officers said they didn't see anyone...there was a 6-foot barbed wire topped fence around the park proper that would not have been easy to climb, even with a ladder. Joe looked at us and said "That was strange...even kinda weird." We had to agree.
Ruminations on metal detecting, life and attitude...in that order
