Here Is What I Told A "nosey Karen"

[George Kinsey]

Karen: Your disturbing the peace. What gives you the right to dig here? What do you think you will find?

Tex: Worms

Karen: Worms?

Tex: "Disturbed" worms with a metal plate in their Head!

KMA Karen.

[Steve Herschbach]

Most people don't like metal detecting permits. Here in Reno we have a free one good for several years. All it does is say you are good to go, just don't dig in ballfield infields and a certain garden park. A little card I keep in my wallet.

So I get a karen approach me a couple years ago in a park and challenge me. Typical "you can't do that here" stuff like she actually knows what she is talking about. I pull out my card and say "Well mam, actually the city is just fine with this and here is my permit saying so." The look on her face made that permit worth gold to me. She actually ended up apologizing to me for disturbing me. It's not always bad having a piece of paper saying what you do is ok.

[abenson]

About 2 years ago I got permission to hunt a site in a small town where some military activity took place. The 4 acre parcel was right on the main road in town and had NO TRESPASSING signs every 30 feet down the fence. So I'm metal detecting this site and a guy drives up and calls me over from about 100 yards away, so I go over and he lays into me about metal detecting on private property. I asked him if he owns the property and he says I'm stealing the artifacts. So I repeat do you own the property. He avoids the question and says I'm calling the Sherriff. I said go ahead and started detecting again. 30 minutes later the Sherriff shows up but doesn't approach me or call me over to his vehicle. I can see he's on the phone for a few minutes and drives off. My guess is he knew the property owner and called him to confirm I was ok to metal detect. Some people just can't mind their own business.

[Bill (S. CA)]

A few years ago a guy walking his dog in a park without a leash homed in on me.  You know the feeling, right?  Another unofficial guardian of all spaces public was going to give me a lecture.  Well he did.  After he explained to me that what i was doing was illegal and dangerous because of the holes I was digging (and filling, by the way), I looked at him and asked "Do you want to let your dog know as well?"  The bonehead looked at me, puzzled, as I nodded in the direction of his dog, who was digging a huge hole at the base of a tree.  The I told him to "F off." and resumed detecting.  

Never saw him again.

[Doc Bach]

3 hours ago, George Kinsey said:

Karen: Your disturbing the peace. What gives you the right to dig here? What do you think you will find?

Tex: Worms

Karen: Worms?

Tex: "Disturbed" worms with a metal plate in their Head!

KMA Karen.

You should have whipped out your trusty old DEEPSEEKER George and asked the old biddy if she would like to give it a go? GARRETT that is.                                                                                                                                  

[Daniel Tn]

Some people can be control freaks.  They think it's THEIR world, and we are just privileged to live in it.  It was such a Karen that single handedly took out gold prospecting in the national forests here in TN.  We used to be able to get a free permit and where good to dredge, pan, etc.  Nobody ever had an issue until Karen and her entourage were visiting the river and didn't like the noise from some guys that were dredging.  This actually happened to a couple of guys that were in a local GPAA claim that I was on.  She confronted them and they told her they had the right to be there. They got into it prettt bad from what I understand. She just happened to be a control freak Karen that knew some people and didn't stop climbing ladders until she got her way. 

When I am detecting in public and on public ground, I wear a bright florescent safety vest.  Don't ask me why...but for some reason this seems to satisfy the Karens and Kens that you must be a worker.  I used to have some approach me and or call the police on me for detecting a park that has a popular walking sidewalk route on it.  The Karen walkers would see me and not like me there.  Once I started wearing the vest, I never had another issue.  

 

[F350Platinum]

Last year I went to a campground I had detected the year before, I had called the office and they said "yes you can detect this year too".

I was out there digging away, and saw this woman with her dog watching me from behind trees, and walking through where I detected shaking her head. I knew what was coming. 😀

Next morning I was in another part of the park, and a staff member rolled up on me like SWAT, and told me the "new" park manager didn't want me to detect there, despite my previous permission.

No problem, I jumped in my golf cart and rode up to the main office, met "Angie", the new manager. I talked to her for a while, and she said she got a complaint that I was leaving holes that someone's dog could get hurt in.

I showed her my expensive digging gear, said with a smile: "believe me, if you can find a single hole I dug, I'll take you to dinner on me, anywhere you choose". "And by the way, I just dug 5 live rounds of Remington 35 (BAR ammo) next to one of your fire pits. It was only a couple inches deep, imagine if they moved it?" Her eyes widened, and she smiled and said, "You can search the entire camp if you want, just not in occupied campsites. I just go with complaints, but thanks for asking again!" 🤣

The campground was built on an old hunting camp, it had firing ranges. I've dug more than a pocketful of live ammo there.  😀 9mm, 45, and long gun.

Moral: if you detect campgrounds, talk to the manager every year, don't just assume you can do it again. At another the General Manager stopped me, and I told him pretty much the same (no ammo), and that his assistant told me it was ok two years in a row. He thanked me for cleaning the place up, and let me go on my way. The next day I found a gold ring. 🙂

[Digalicious]

32 minutes ago, Daniel Tn said:

 

When I am detecting in public and on public ground, I wear a bright florescent safety vest.  Don't ask me why...but for some reason this seems to satisfy the Karens and Kens that you must be a worker.  I used to have some approach me and or call the police on me for detecting a park that has a popular walking sidewalk route on it.  The Karen walkers would see me and not like me there.  Once I started wearing the vest, I never had another issue.  

 

Near the end of last summer, I started to wear a worker's safety vest, and now I almost always wear it. Not just because of the busy bodies, but for sites like this:

A park dating back to the late 1800's that has had constant events including sport's events and fairs. Unfortunately, the park is full of addicts but does have two security guards there from dawn to dusk, 7 days a week. It's not exactly safe to go in that park during the day, and life threatening to go in there at night.

Anyway, I really wanted to hunt that park, but always avoided it because of the danger. Then I thought of using the vest, did so, and it was awesome! The finds were excellent (including surface finds), never did an addict come close to me, and the security guards just gave me a wave as they passed by. I ended up talking to the security guards, and they thought I was some sort of city worker looking for water pipes or sprinklers 🙂 I told them what I was doing, and all they did was wish me luck. 

EDIT: I forgot to add the most important part lol. That is, the security guards told me the addicts won't go near me as long as I wear the vest. Yep, that was my plan 🙂

[cudamark]

My buddies and I were detecting an old park, when a police car roared up to us and the officer started reading us the riot act about damaging the grass (although he couldn't see any evidence of it, as we were very careful). When we pointed that out to him that we didn't do any damage since he couldn't even tell where we had been, he calmed down a bit and explained that he had to respond to a complaint. We then asked if we could also file a complaint, seeing as he left 6" deep ruts in the grass from the tires on his police car. He grumbled a bit and drove away with a rather sheepish look on his face.

[oneguy]

22 minutes ago, Daniel Tn said:

 

When I am detecting in public and on public ground, I wear a bright florescent safety vest.  Don't ask me why...but for some reason this seems to satisfy the Karens and Kens that you must be a worker.  I used to have some approach me and or call the police on me for detecting a park that has a popular walking sidewalk route on it.  The Karen walkers would see me and not like me there.  Once I started wearing the vest, I never had another issue.  

 

Exactly...!!!!  One little old $10 safety vest does indeed slow the whiners down a bunch!!!  Back in my coin shooting days I'd wear that vest when I went to the big city to detect.  A few whiners might ask "what are you looking for?"... I'd reply "City asked me to come out and look for a set of keys they think they may have lost on this street".....shuts em right up.  The vest also stopped most from questioning anything.