Edgewater Park, the beach

by David
(Brook Park, Ohio, Cuyahoga)

I am sorry I can't remember the date this happened. I had bought a inexpensive metal detector and contacted the odnr for a permit which was required at that time, I don't know if it still is for Metal Detecting. I was looking around the sand and near the grassy parts where most people go to enjoy the beach, it was very early in the morning around 6AM. As I searched I stopped because I heard a ping, I didn't know how to adjust the MD to filter these out. I stuped down and picked up a can tab, you know the old fashioned kind that came off the can. I put it in my pocket to keep for sentimental reasons, after all, it was my first find in Ohio. Well no sooner did I have it in my pocket than a young man came up to me and demanded it, saying it was his lost ring. I pulled out the aluminum tab and he brushed it off my hand onto the sand. He then wanted to know what was in my pockets. I refused to give him anything of mine. A police officer then came up to us and inquired what I had found. I told him, and told him about this young guy who was still standing there. The police officer told him to leave and as he left he threatened me. Then the police officer demanded to know what I was doing, despite my having the MD in my hand, obvious to anyone. Then he told me to leave. That was the last time I tried to do any MD'ing in Ohio.
The first time I went MD'ing was in California while I was in the US Navy. I brought my wife to Coronado park, near the hotel there, in hopes of making a big find. I found 20 pennies none very old. Then someone came up to me with the "I lost my ring" story "and I think you found it!" I told that person to get away from me. While I was standing there a woman came along, some real lunatic female, in a formal white dress and she said that she had lost a tennis bracelet. The rest of her story was just too goofy to repeat.
But here is what I am saying. Go out MD'ing and every oportunistic nut in these United States or where ever you are doing it, will come up to you and demand whatever you found. Also, I have had no luck with the police helping me. Usually they behave like I am some kind of felon and are looking to run me in. Talking back to these people and letting them know that I have the appropriate permits and permissions won't work. They don't want to hear it. I don't feel like going to jail.

But yes. I want to MD and have a newer MD now. But in all the sites that I have ever read about this hobby nobody has mentioned what I have here. That there are people who will come up to you and demand whatever you have found. That the police will chase you away and don't want to hear you explain anything to them, especially that you have the appropriate permissions or permits. I went to a desert area run by the BLM and found a button I was sure was civil war button. I wrote a story and sent it in to a MD mag. I was told I was lying. That told me something. It sent the message to me that all these people do are to write stories to lure people into buying MD equipment and detectors. Because surely if you do find something, even something as inconsequential as a button, they won't believe it, because they think they know, nobody can find anything. And these were people who sold a MD Magazine!
I plan on using my new MD in my own yard, on my own property. Then, if I can get the appropriate permits, I will look elsewhere. Knowing that people will come up to me and try to obtain whatever I may find, even can tabs. (Oh and as to the button, my wife took it and I don't know where it is today. We are divorced too.)
So if you are new to this hobby, as I am, because despite the years, I haven't gone out that much, and lunatics and police have caused me to abandon this hobby time after time; just know that what I have stated here is true. People will come up to you, the police will chase you away. You won't find a lot of things. Just pop tabs maybe, and some pennies. That's all for now.