By Susan Gamble, Brantford Expositor
Saturday, August 30, 2008 12:00:00 EDT AM
It started with an innocent birthday present. Mark Szczur's wife presented him with a metal detector as a gift -- not a high-end machine but a simple one that would find dropped coins or metal items buried just a few inches under the surface.
Szczur, a busy painter, and his stepson immediately got the detecting bug.
Armed with a little garden trowel and their new toy, they puttered around some parks and school grounds, thrilled to turn up a handful of older coins, some little toy cars and a bucket of iron bits and trash.
But on Aug. 19 it all went so wrong.
EXTRA!
Szczur's stepson wasn't feeling well, so Szczur went out alone, sweeping around Central School (where he found what looked like an old hinge), moving to the train station (where he turned up an old iron mirror off a car) and then shifting to Greenwood Cemetery.
"I looked at the sign, because I know one of the rules is that you should never go on private property," says Szczur, "but it said it's a public cemetery and all are welcome."
He says he cruised along the fence line and walkways -- not over graves -- stopping to investigate hits on items just under the soil. With the trowel, he says he carefully turned over sod, lifted the item, then replaced the grass so that it was almost impossible to see any kind of damage.
He found some small change and chatted with some passersby about detecting.
Then the police showed up.
"One of them said 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' and I explained and showed them the dimes and pennies but they couldn't understand why anyone would want that stuff."
Then one of the officers mentioned the phrase "digging up graves" and Szczur says he was shook.
"I said 'Whoa! I'm using a detector that only shows three inches underground. I thought it was public property. I didn't realize it was wrong' and they were going to let me go."
Szczur says he threw the coins he had found to the ground and was in his van, preparing to leave when the officers stopped him again.
They had apparently found a grave marker that someone had dug around (in an edging style, says Szczur) and blamed the damage on Szczur.
He was arrested and the metal detector, a few bits of iron and dirty coins -- 60 to 90 cents in total -- were seized as evidence.
From there, the story spun out of control.
With a news release from the police naming him, media outlets across Ontario picked up on the story.
"Graves Robbed: Brantford man caught," said one Internet site.
Hamilton television station CHCH called the incident "a crime that may even fall below the standards of the most hardened criminals" and said it was believed Szczur was robbing graves. That story also said police arrested him for stealing rings and other jewelry from burial sites.
Internet metal-detecting discussion forums across North America were abuzz with the story.
"I was up all night and freaked when I saw the headlines 'Grave robber arrested'. It's got blown out of freakin' proportion.
"People think I've been digging up graves and stealing rings."
While Szczur has been convicted of some minor thefts, he says they were from another life.
"I'm a born-again Christian. I'm married now and have kids. That stuff is all in the past."
City police Insp. Kent Pottruff makes it clear that police aren't accusing Szczur of digging up coffins. But Pottruff says the items found on Szczur were sentimental metallic things that "someone may have placed at the grave site."
"If someone put something on a plot they purchased, it's theirs and he doesn't have the colour of right to be digging there."
Paul Burbridge, the city's supervisor of cemeteries, was called to look at the damage and says Szczur just had bottle caps and tin bits discarded long ago, along with some coins.
But Burbridge says while Szczur was just scouting for surface items, it was still wrong.
"I don't know what would possess someone to go there with a metal detector and think that would be all right," Burbridge says.
"It's the first time I've ever heard about it anywhere, although maybe people are doing it and don't get caught."
Szczur was charged by police with more than just mischief.
He was also charged with theft under $5,000 and possession of stolen property under $5,000. He appears in court next month.
Szczur says he was mortified by the charges and resulting publicity, as was his family, but that wasn't all.
A few days later, Szczur, his wife and kids and a handful of other relatives headed to the U. S. to catch a plane for a dream vacation that had been in the works for months.
But at Buffalo, the cemetery charges appeared on a border crossing computer and Szczur was stopped, fingerprinted and turned back, with just a moment to say goodbye to his wife and distraught kids.
"You've no idea what this has done. It's been really, really shocking."
Family members, including Szczur's mother, have fielded calls and insults.
"He wasn't digging up graves," says Szczur's mom.
MISTAKE
"Yes, he made a mistake but I raised my kids to respect cemeteries and if he were really desecrating graves there'd be no worse judge for him to face than his family."
Even within the Internet metal-detecting community there is controversy when it comes to the topic of searching cemeteries.
One metal-detecting forum has gone so far as to ban the topic from discussion because comments get so heated.
Some say the practice is OK as long as the searcher has cleared it with a cemetery official, tidies up after himself and keeps to the lanes and walkways. Others say that searching in any burial area lowers the reputation of all metal detectors and is just plain "tacky."
Almost everyone agrees that metal detectors should never be used over graves and searchers shouldn't carry shovels into cemeteries unless they want to spend the rest of their day with the police.
The avid detectors jealously guard the hobby's reputation.
They try to educate the public, highlighting the assistance detectors have given to hundreds of people who have lost items and the high code of ethics they try to follow.
Local detector Warren Shaver has been selling metal detectors to the community for 18 years from his store on Henry Street, Grand River Treasure Detectors.
Shaver has his own handout that he gives anyone who questions what he's doing. The sheet contains his own code of ethics and his business card.
It also offers property owners assurance that, if they allow Shaver to detect on their land, he will turn over any items of a personal nature and split 50/50 anything of value.
"We have to make sure nobody ruins the hobby for us," Shaver says.
For instance, Shaver would dearly love to do a full scan on downtown's Victoria Park with a machine he has that can "see" everything several feet underground, but he knows that area is a "no-go zone" for detectors.
Shaver has found plenty of other places to work and has recovered a long list of coins and rings. His favourite find, he says, is a gold ring with a diamond in it.
"You do your research, you ask for permission, you can't leave trash and if you find anything with a person's name on it you try to track down the person."
Desperate people often call on experienced metal detectors to find lost items.
"Especially folks who have a spat and fire their wedding ring out the window or lose a ring on the golf course," says Shaver.
While he wouldn't go detecting in a cemetery and would give someone "the worst look" for suggesting it, Shaver admits going along the outer borders or walkways of a cemetery wouldn't be a bad thing if you had permission.
"But if I saw anybody with a trowel where my mother was buried, he better be working for the cemetery."
For Szczur, the nightmare continues with him having to hire a lawyer and go to court next month.
And worse, he fears for the damage to his born-again reputation and that of his family.
"I just didn't realize it was wrong."
TREASURE HUNTER'S CODE OF ETHICS
(From a card handed out to clients of Grand River Treasure Detectors)
I will respect private property and do no treasure hunting without the owner's permission
I will fill all excavations
I will appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, and private property
I will use thoughtfulness, consideration and courtesy at all times.
I will build fires in designated or safe places only
I will leave gates as found
I will remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find
I will not litter
I will not destroy property, buildings, or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures
I will not tamper with signs, structural facilities or equipment
Saturday, August 30, 2008 12:00:00 EDT AM
It started with an innocent birthday present. Mark Szczur's wife presented him with a metal detector as a gift -- not a high-end machine but a simple one that would find dropped coins or metal items buried just a few inches under the surface.
Szczur, a busy painter, and his stepson immediately got the detecting bug.
Armed with a little garden trowel and their new toy, they puttered around some parks and school grounds, thrilled to turn up a handful of older coins, some little toy cars and a bucket of iron bits and trash.
But on Aug. 19 it all went so wrong.
EXTRA!
Szczur's stepson wasn't feeling well, so Szczur went out alone, sweeping around Central School (where he found what looked like an old hinge), moving to the train station (where he turned up an old iron mirror off a car) and then shifting to Greenwood Cemetery.
"I looked at the sign, because I know one of the rules is that you should never go on private property," says Szczur, "but it said it's a public cemetery and all are welcome."
He says he cruised along the fence line and walkways -- not over graves -- stopping to investigate hits on items just under the soil. With the trowel, he says he carefully turned over sod, lifted the item, then replaced the grass so that it was almost impossible to see any kind of damage.
He found some small change and chatted with some passersby about detecting.
Then the police showed up.
"One of them said 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' and I explained and showed them the dimes and pennies but they couldn't understand why anyone would want that stuff."
Then one of the officers mentioned the phrase "digging up graves" and Szczur says he was shook.
"I said 'Whoa! I'm using a detector that only shows three inches underground. I thought it was public property. I didn't realize it was wrong' and they were going to let me go."
Szczur says he threw the coins he had found to the ground and was in his van, preparing to leave when the officers stopped him again.
They had apparently found a grave marker that someone had dug around (in an edging style, says Szczur) and blamed the damage on Szczur.
He was arrested and the metal detector, a few bits of iron and dirty coins -- 60 to 90 cents in total -- were seized as evidence.
From there, the story spun out of control.
With a news release from the police naming him, media outlets across Ontario picked up on the story.
"Graves Robbed: Brantford man caught," said one Internet site.
Hamilton television station CHCH called the incident "a crime that may even fall below the standards of the most hardened criminals" and said it was believed Szczur was robbing graves. That story also said police arrested him for stealing rings and other jewelry from burial sites.
Internet metal-detecting discussion forums across North America were abuzz with the story.
"I was up all night and freaked when I saw the headlines 'Grave robber arrested'. It's got blown out of freakin' proportion.
"People think I've been digging up graves and stealing rings."
While Szczur has been convicted of some minor thefts, he says they were from another life.
"I'm a born-again Christian. I'm married now and have kids. That stuff is all in the past."
City police Insp. Kent Pottruff makes it clear that police aren't accusing Szczur of digging up coffins. But Pottruff says the items found on Szczur were sentimental metallic things that "someone may have placed at the grave site."
"If someone put something on a plot they purchased, it's theirs and he doesn't have the colour of right to be digging there."
Paul Burbridge, the city's supervisor of cemeteries, was called to look at the damage and says Szczur just had bottle caps and tin bits discarded long ago, along with some coins.
But Burbridge says while Szczur was just scouting for surface items, it was still wrong.
"I don't know what would possess someone to go there with a metal detector and think that would be all right," Burbridge says.
"It's the first time I've ever heard about it anywhere, although maybe people are doing it and don't get caught."
Szczur was charged by police with more than just mischief.
He was also charged with theft under $5,000 and possession of stolen property under $5,000. He appears in court next month.
Szczur says he was mortified by the charges and resulting publicity, as was his family, but that wasn't all.
A few days later, Szczur, his wife and kids and a handful of other relatives headed to the U. S. to catch a plane for a dream vacation that had been in the works for months.
But at Buffalo, the cemetery charges appeared on a border crossing computer and Szczur was stopped, fingerprinted and turned back, with just a moment to say goodbye to his wife and distraught kids.
"You've no idea what this has done. It's been really, really shocking."
Family members, including Szczur's mother, have fielded calls and insults.
"He wasn't digging up graves," says Szczur's mom.
MISTAKE
"Yes, he made a mistake but I raised my kids to respect cemeteries and if he were really desecrating graves there'd be no worse judge for him to face than his family."
Even within the Internet metal-detecting community there is controversy when it comes to the topic of searching cemeteries.
One metal-detecting forum has gone so far as to ban the topic from discussion because comments get so heated.
Some say the practice is OK as long as the searcher has cleared it with a cemetery official, tidies up after himself and keeps to the lanes and walkways. Others say that searching in any burial area lowers the reputation of all metal detectors and is just plain "tacky."
Almost everyone agrees that metal detectors should never be used over graves and searchers shouldn't carry shovels into cemeteries unless they want to spend the rest of their day with the police.
The avid detectors jealously guard the hobby's reputation.
They try to educate the public, highlighting the assistance detectors have given to hundreds of people who have lost items and the high code of ethics they try to follow.
Local detector Warren Shaver has been selling metal detectors to the community for 18 years from his store on Henry Street, Grand River Treasure Detectors.
Shaver has his own handout that he gives anyone who questions what he's doing. The sheet contains his own code of ethics and his business card.
It also offers property owners assurance that, if they allow Shaver to detect on their land, he will turn over any items of a personal nature and split 50/50 anything of value.
"We have to make sure nobody ruins the hobby for us," Shaver says.
For instance, Shaver would dearly love to do a full scan on downtown's Victoria Park with a machine he has that can "see" everything several feet underground, but he knows that area is a "no-go zone" for detectors.
Shaver has found plenty of other places to work and has recovered a long list of coins and rings. His favourite find, he says, is a gold ring with a diamond in it.
"You do your research, you ask for permission, you can't leave trash and if you find anything with a person's name on it you try to track down the person."
Desperate people often call on experienced metal detectors to find lost items.
"Especially folks who have a spat and fire their wedding ring out the window or lose a ring on the golf course," says Shaver.
While he wouldn't go detecting in a cemetery and would give someone "the worst look" for suggesting it, Shaver admits going along the outer borders or walkways of a cemetery wouldn't be a bad thing if you had permission.
"But if I saw anybody with a trowel where my mother was buried, he better be working for the cemetery."
For Szczur, the nightmare continues with him having to hire a lawyer and go to court next month.
And worse, he fears for the damage to his born-again reputation and that of his family.
"I just didn't realize it was wrong."
TREASURE HUNTER'S CODE OF ETHICS
(From a card handed out to clients of Grand River Treasure Detectors)
I will respect private property and do no treasure hunting without the owner's permission
I will fill all excavations
I will appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, and private property
I will use thoughtfulness, consideration and courtesy at all times.
I will build fires in designated or safe places only
I will leave gates as found
I will remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find
I will not litter
I will not destroy property, buildings, or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures
I will not tamper with signs, structural facilities or equipment
