A sad story and embarassment on our hobby

[Bowie]

Been working on locating a spot with some Civil War activity for a bit of time. Upon,locating it, found out who owned it and began looking for a connecton to help get my foot in the door. It was on farm land and pasture land. Finally found a good connection and just so happened it was a neighbor of mine. But, (and I am glad it was my neighbor that told me the story) after my neighbor told me this story, I didnt pursue it any farther.
Around 10 years back, the owners had let a couple guys go in and hunt this area. The idiots left gates open after they left. Several horses got out and were up on a highway, a car hit them, two people were killed, the horses were killed and all sorts of legal actions were taken against the land owners.
Nothing happened to the two detectorist. I would have been speachless if I had talked to the owners. Oh, I would have appologized for the two idiots and told them how I felt about people like that. But.... now we have more fuel for the fire to ban detecting.
John

 

[Steve O]

Couldn't get much worse than that. That's bad, real bad.

 

[Critterhunter]

What a sad story. I wonder if those guys who left the gate open even feel guilty about what happened? I know I would, costing people lives. As a game and deer hunter, I can tell you that the first rule of hunting private property is close the gate. Second rule is "did you close the gate?" Third rule is "Check and make sure you closed the gate one more time." Nothing is a bigger sin to a farmer than leaving a gate open, and as we can see from your story, for very good reason...

 

[Roscue2]

Holy crap! That is a nightmare! I agree with you for not pursuing it any further. The people that own that land and the horses were probably sued for just about everything, not to mention having to pay for the cleanup! Those hunters should have been the one's paying, but as we all know the owner is the one who is ultimately responsible even if they had no control over what happened. :veryangry:

 

[tomtomnc]

That is one sad story. My heart goes out to the families that lost there love ones and the landowner.

 

[Dodqe]

That's terrible. Some people can't think. There's consequences to every mistake we make. That consequence cost several lives. Shame.

A couple days ago my boss had all his employees looking for his St. Bernard pup. He wound up being picked up by animal control and was returned later that day... My boss was having some rooms in his house painted. Turns out a couple workers at his house left the door wide open while they were painting. The dog just walked out and went gallivanting around the neighborhood.
They are clueless and don't think they did anything wrong. Could have turned out far worse... Idiot laborers. Lucky pup.

Any time I go to a site, be it public or private, for work or detecting, I make sure to leave the place exactly as it was, if not, better. As soon as I walk through a gate I close it behind me. I have permission to hunt one of the oldest farmsteads in Orange County (NY) and I really don't want to lose it for a stupid, careless mistake.

I hope you find another comparable place to hunt... HH and GL!

 

[JimmyCT]

John,
So sorry to hear of the situation and all that were affected by this tragedy. I feel you handled the situation with tact, sensitivity and certainly made the right call. I wish you the best in your search. - Jim

 

[kcdigit]

Idiots.:veryangry:

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[GoVidGo]

wow. that really sucks. I don't think I would have tridd to get access either to the property. After a tragecy like that, you really want to let it rest.