Did anyone else here notice the shift ? The whole article was about stolen grave head-stones, right ? Ok, think REAL hard : Is a metal detector needed to find a grave-stone ? No. Of course not. Anyone with normal vision can walk out into a graveyard and see and read and select a headstone to steal. Right ?? No metal detector needed. Right ?
So why the mention of "metal detectors " ? Because ....... upon the discovery of the missing head-stones, the persons then looked around and said they saw "holes".
I think, and have personal knowledge of how this is possibly a mistaken connection/notion. Because if/when someone goes to "scour a place" (after "missing headstones"), they can envision and think they see ALL SORTS OF NEFARIOUS STUFF . Normal ground disturbances (gophers, cleat divots, etc...) that no one would ever have noticed before, nor given a moment's thought to. But given the other stuff, will mentally chalk up anything they see to "dastardly md'rs".
This happened at a certain federal historic sensitive monument near me. Which has a museum that I docent at. And one day, ... an md'r was booted. And the word put out to us docents (and the powers-that-be there) to "B.O.L.". And within a week or two, reports of "holes" and "markers" came through the email chain, as supposed "proof of more md'ing".
Lo & behold, the mystery was solved later. Boyscouts who were practicing their GPS geocaching, and planted targets, put down markers, etc.... NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH MD'ing . But as you can see, when imaginations run wild, and everyone starts "looking for smoking guns", you can imagine that any disturbed turf is "dastardly md'rs".
I'm not saying that there wasn't necessarily md'rs there. But .... I have a sneaking suspicion that the theft of headstones merely started a few persons "looking for assassins under rocks" and seeing "smoking guns" in anything they subsequently saw.