A Bit Naive

I had been detecting on my own for several hours in what I already knew to be a good field and had found quite a few interesting things including a couple of good condition Roman coins. I knew that even the good days must come to a close and had decided to call it a day and had just returned to my car, which was parked near the gate but on the inside of the field. I had already started to pack away my gear when this chap pulled up in his car and parked on the road at the side and slightly behind me, he got out of his car greeted me warmly then sauntered over for a chat. He seemed very pleasant and interested in what I was doing and excitedly asked what treasures I had found. "Have a look" I said and gave him my pouch containing all my finds of the day to look at. I then sat down on the inside boot of my car and started to pull off my wellies and give my old feet a rub.

The bloke was to one side of me and was chatting away merrily and seemed very interested in getting into detecting and wondering what else you could find with a detector, and how much did they cost etc. Then keeping my stocking feet suspended above the damp earth, I leaned back and reached into the back of the car boot to get my driving shoes. Suddenly went quiet, I turned round with my shoes in my hand and thought where has he gone? Then I heard an engine start and a squeal of tyres and a car driving off at speed. Not wanting to believe my ears, I slipped on my shoes and looked around to the side of the car and then through the gate and the bloke had vanished and so had the pouch holding all my finds, plus I then realised, so had my my spade!

I suppose it was fortunate for me that I had already put my detector in the boot of the car before he arrived. He had seemed to me to be a very pleasant and decent looking bloke who was genuinely interested in metal detecting, but the glint of Roman silver was obviously to much for him. So, be careful out there and, as I think as they used to say on the X Files, "Trust No One."


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