# Privy Full of Bottles but can't Dig.



## hemihampton (Apr 21, 2020)

After work I stopped by where they just tore down/Demolished a old house. As usual I go in back yard where they tore out Concrete Garage floor. This is where the old Privy's like to hide. I see a bottle in dirt & at first I think it's a Beer Bottle with broken off top. As I walk over to it I see a little sliver of what looks like a piece of crock slightly peeking out of the dirt, I start wiping the dirt away & see some Lettering & Automatically I know what it is, seen many before, I get excited & start wiping the dirt away but assume it's just a broken shard but as I wipe the more & more I see & I start thinking, COOL, Looks like it's whole & it is. Out comes a nice Matheson Ginger Beer Stoneware Pottery Bottle by Detroit Distilled Water Co. Then I walk over to the broken beer bottle to see what it is, But then I see, it's not broke, it's just short looking because it's a Hutch.  As I pick it up & wipe dirt off I say to myself what I always say, I hope it's not a Norris. And it is. The Most common Detroit Hutch. Anyways, in a nutshell I'm pretty sure the bulldozers dug into a Privy with all the White Ash & broken shards laying around. I wanted to pull out my Shovel & start digging & usually I would of, BUT, With Detroit being the 3rd worst City with the Corona Virus & in Total Lock Down with $1,000 fine if caught out doing non essentials I could see it now, Cop drives by & Stops & say's Hey, What you doing there, I say Digging old Bottles. Not sure what they'd say about that? Plus Neighbor came out back door so I grabbed the Bottles & headed for the Car. This spot could be filled in, in the next day or 2. hopefully it will be a few weeks before that happens. LEON.


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## woods_walker (Apr 21, 2020)

Nice story Leon. Common bottles are nice when all you have to do is walk up to them and pick them up.
I hope you can get back before the opportunity is gone! 


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## hemihampton (Apr 21, 2020)

Here they are cleaned up a little with water & sponge. LEON.


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## sandchip (Apr 21, 2020)

Maddening, I tell you, maddening!


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## hemihampton (Apr 21, 2020)

The Mathesons I dug or picked up today, I'm not sure if I should consider it different then the one in my personal Collection. All the ones I have or seen all have Black ink Transfer. This one is kinda dark bluish green maybe? Hard to see in this Pic. More noticeable in Person. LEON.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Apr 22, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> The Mathesons I dug or picked up today, I'm not sure if I should consider it different then the one in my personal Collection. All the ones I have or seen all have Black ink Transfer. This one is kinda dark bluish green maybe? Hard to see in this Pic. More noticeable in Person. LEON.
> View attachment 205910


Maybe oxidized? The colors might have changed slightly due to water and elements in the soil. I have seen black dyes and paints turn a greenish color before. Hope you can get back there again. Love your posts.


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## yacorie (Apr 22, 2020)

Nice job.  The hutch has a different shape than the ones we have out East - that one seems to have a more squat shape to it.

Are you nearby where this is? Perhaps you could monitor it or if there are still machines there maybe you could ask the excavator operator to take a scoop or two and let you look?


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## treeguyfred (Apr 22, 2020)

Sofa King cool Leon! I too love it when a cache just appears like this! A number of years the tree service I worked for were doing a land clearing project for a road widening project. After we pieced down a few trees near an embankment, a heavy equipment operator started to excavated the stumps and as the stumps were being pulled out, the roots revealed several local bottles including hutches and two ginger stone wares and a jug all from Paterson, NJ! I simply asked if I could take a quick break and collect the booty... so satisfying and exciting still have the treasure found that day ... even though they are common for our area they are in great shape!
Yours are damned nice Leon and I hope you can find more... you might get lucky with a scarce bottle or three!
~Fred


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## CanadianBottles (Apr 22, 2020)

Nice finds!  Hope the site stays open long enough for you to get a chance to dig it, looks like a good one.


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## RCO (Apr 22, 2020)

there aren't any restrictions on digging on private property here as long as there isn't enough people present it amount to a gathering of 5 or more 

all public parks have been closed although I've still seen people in many of them , there is a look out here and the town actually blocked the road to it by dumping a large pile of sand / gravel at the entrance . apparently a sign or chain blocking the road was not enough ?  

its been rather crazy lately to be honest


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## sandchip (Apr 22, 2020)

If you have a plain white pickup (all you see around here), a hardhat and a hi-viz vest might fool everybody.


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## hemihampton (Apr 22, 2020)

UPDATE: I got some sad depressing news. Devastating really. I go by the Demo'd house at lunch time, about 1 pm & nobody there, just as I left it the night before. But all the Bums in the house next door hanging out of front porch & back yard so back to work I go, lunch over. Can't wait till after work to retrieve some Gems. I get out at 6 pm & rush over to the Gold Mine & this is what I find.  OMG.


DANG SITE WONT LET ME POST ANY PICTURES, KEEPS FREEZING UP? SABOTAGE?


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## hemihampton (Apr 22, 2020)

PICS?


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## J.R. Collector (Apr 22, 2020)

F**k . That makes my heart sink.


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## hemihampton (Apr 22, 2020)

Sarasota941 said:


> F**k . That makes my heart sink.



Mine to. Wonder how many good bottles got ran over by the bulldozer & buried.


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## hemihampton (Apr 22, 2020)

Also what sucks is when they tear a house down, lots of times they don't come back to fill the hole in for 2 weeks or 2 months. sometimes 2 years. I've gone back to spots that had piles of dirt & hole not filled in for a year. Good thing about that is you might find nothing at first, but after months of it raining on it all that rain washes out bottles not seen before. got some good bottles that way. The Fastest they can do a Demo is 3 days. 1 day to tear it down. 2nd day to haul debris away. 3rd day to fill in hole. But they rarely move this fast, I've only seen that on a couple of rare occasion. BUT, This house. Was all done in 3 days. Almost a record for them. I'm just glade I got there last night to get what I got or would of missed out on those 2 fine gems. Norris not so fine. LEON.


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## woods_walker (Apr 22, 2020)

As a collector who still doesn’t own a hutch that Norris looks pretty fine to me 


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## hemihampton (Apr 22, 2020)

The Good News is that common Norris hutch was a slightly different variation then my others. I collect different Makers Marks or Bottle manufacturer  names & #'s on my Hutches. The other good news is I have a few others I've dug in some box's somewhere. If you want one you can have one, for free, just pay shipping. Also, did you ever get those Alpena Beer Labels I sent you? Let me know. THANKS, LEON.


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## woods_walker (Apr 22, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> The Good News is that common Norris hutch was a slightly different variation then my others. I collect different Makers Marks or Bottle manufacturer names & #'s on my Hutches. The other good news is I have a few others I've dug in some box's somewhere. If you want one you can have one, for free, just pay shipping. Also, did you ever get those Alpena Beer Labels I sent you? Let me know. THANKS, LEON.



I know what you mean.. with bottles of that age no two look the same and there’s always some variations to them. I would certainly be interested in a hutch and paying shipping is no problem, I don’t like taking something for nothing. I’ve been waiting on sending you something as well as a thank you for the beer labels. I Put one on a bottle right away and it looks great! I’ll send you a PM when I get home from work tonight or tomorrow morning. 


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## Warf rat (Apr 23, 2020)

F en Chinese. That stinks Leon, bet all you can think is what is down there.Rat


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## Nola.River.Rat (Apr 23, 2020)

Dang sounds like you were so close to hitting a mother load. Do you think the equipment crushed everything? Maybe you could go back and dig for some undamaged bottles? We are able to do recreation activities in Louisiana. 

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## Troutmaster08 (Apr 23, 2020)

That sucks.


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## Dewfus (Apr 23, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> After work I stopped by where they just tore down/Demolished a old house. As usual I go in back yard where they tore out Concrete Garage floor. This is where the old Privy's like to hide. I see a bottle in dirt & at first I think it's a Beer Bottle with broken off top. As I walk over to it I see a little sliver of what looks like a piece of crock slightly peeking out of the dirt, I start wiping the dirt away & see some Lettering & Automatically I know what it is, seen many before, I get excited & start wiping the dirt away but assume it's just a broken shard but as I wipe the more & more I see & I start thinking, COOL, Looks like it's whole & it is. Out comes a nice Matheson Ginger Beer Stoneware Pottery Bottle by Detroit Distilled Water Co. Then I walk over to the broken beer bottle to see what it is, But then I see, it's not broke, it's just short looking because it's a Hutch.  As I pick it up & wipe dirt off I say to myself what I always say, I hope it's not a Norris. And it is. The Most common Detroit Hutch. Anyways, in a nutshell I'm pretty sure the bulldozers dug into a Privy with all the White Ash & broken shards laying around. I wanted to pull out my Shovel & start digging & usually I would of, BUT, With Detroit being the 3rd worst City with the Corona Virus & in Total Lock Down with $1,000 fine if caught out doing non essentials I could see it now, Cop drives by & Stops & say's Hey, What you doing there, I say Digging old Bottles. Not sure what they'd say about that? Plus Neighbor came out back door so I grabbed the Bottles & headed for the Car. This spot could be filled in, in the next day or 2. hopefully it will be a few weeks before that happens. LEON.View attachment 205907


There beautiful good stuff


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## treeguyfred (Apr 29, 2020)

Nola.River.Rat said:


> Dang sounds like you were so close to hitting a mother load. Do you think the equipment crushed everything? Maybe you could go back and dig for some undamaged bottles? We are able to do recreation activities in Louisiana.
> 
> Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk


I'm with Nola and Sandchip if you present an authoritative presence you could at least probe around in grids and pop up a few or several bottles. I have placed a non-descript hardhat and hyvee vest on and did some "official" land examining work. 
~Fred


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## hemihampton (Apr 29, 2020)

I've got a plan, have had a plan. my plan is to wait a little while, fall, next spring, maybe 5 years from now. But I'll be back with a probe & maybe my digging buddy Tom to find it once again. What sucks is I had the perfect marker or X Marks the spot. there was a big tree, slanted on a angle because it was half nocked over by the Bulldozer or some heavy equipment. I knew exactly where this Privy was from the tree. BUT, when I came back the next day they tore that big tree out & removed it, probably because they already had it half knocked over & figured best to now just remove all together. Making my job much more difficult to relocate. But I got a rough Idea where it's at. Another problem is I'm digging in Detroit, many people don't want to dig in Detroit for fear of getting carjacked, robbed, murdered or killed. SO, Sometimes  gotta dig by myself & I do all the time but I prefer not to considering there are homeless bums, vagrants, low life scumbags coming out of the bush's, alleys, abandoned burnt down crack houses all the time. There is only one house left standing on this block & it's right next to this empty lot as can be seen in pics. Unfortunately this house is full of many shady looking characters constantly hanging out on porch, back yard & just roaming around & hanging out. I like to keep a low profile & away from prying eyes when digging privy's on empty abandoned lots. Hard to do with all the Bums hanging out next door being nosy. Anybody in Detroit area wanta come dig this spot with me your welcome to come along. LEON.


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Apr 29, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> I've got a plan, have had a plan. my plan is to wait a little while, fall, next spring, maybe 5 years from now. But I'll be back with a probe & maybe my digging buddy Tom to find it once again. What sucks is I had the perfect marker or X Marks the spot. there was a big tree, slanted on a angle because it was half nocked over by the Bulldozer or some heavy equipment. I knew exactly where this Privy was from the tree. BUT, when I came back the next day they tore that big tree out & removed it, probably because they already had it half knocked over & figured best to now just remove all together. Making my job much more difficult to relocate. But I got a rough Idea where it's at. Another problem is I'm digging in Detroit, many people don't want to dig in Detroit for fear of getting carjacked, robbed, murdered or killed. SO, Sometimes  gotta dig by myself & I do all the time but I prefer not to considering there are homeless bums, vagrants, low life scumbags coming out of the bush's, alleys, abandoned burnt down crack houses all the time. There is only one house left standing on this block & it's right next to this empty lot as can be seen in pics. Unfortunately this house is full of many shady looking characters constantly hanging out on porch, back yard & just roaming around & hanging out. I like to keep a low profile & away from prying eyes when digging privy's on empty abandoned lots. Hard to do with all the Bums hanging out next door being nosy. Anybody in Detroit area wanta come dig this spot with me your welcome to come along. LEON.



Ya that whole thing sux Leon, but at least you grabbed a few nice souvenirs anyway. That place gives me the willies, is that Detroit? What a great historical place but oh so hard to dig at, especially with the "audience". I've read some bad stories about inner-city digging.


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## hemihampton (Apr 29, 2020)

Nola.River.Rat said:


> Dang sounds like you were so close to hitting a mother load. Do you think the equipment crushed everything? Maybe you could go back and dig for some undamaged bottles? We are able to do recreation activities in Louisiana.
> 
> Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk



NO, I don't think the equipment crushed much. mainly because what they usually do is tear out the garages concrete floor located in back corner of lot. Before this Garage was built or most garages were built what resided there was the Privy. After they get indoor plumbing they fill in the Privy, no need for it. Then a few years later this new invention called the Automobile is getting popular & everybody is buying one & then everybody is building a garage for it. In Detroit all the old houses have the garage at very back at alley & usually only accesible by the alley. Coincedently this is where they usually put the Privy in the old days before the Garage. Fast forward 100 years. when they tear this garage floor out they only dig down enough to get the concrete out which is usually 2 feet, sometimes 3 feet along walls . 2 or 3 feet only scratches the surface of any privy. Privy's here range from 4-6 feet but trash pit more shallow 1-3 feet. When I dig 6 feet down to the bottom of this privy it will be far away from where the bulldozers reached. LEON.


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## hemihampton (Apr 29, 2020)

GLASSHOPPER55 said:


> Ya that whole thing sux Leon, but at least you grabbed a few nice souvenirs anyway. That place gives me the willies, is that Detroit? What a great historical place but oh so hard to dig at, especially with the "audience". I've read some bad stories about inner-city digging.



Yes, That's Detroit. You've read some bad stories on inner city digging. I can tell you same bad stories, Like the time I was digging in Latin Counts Mexican Gang Territory by myself when what looked like 2 mexican gang members tried to smash out my window with a big rock & brick to either steal my car or steal radio or what ever, I chased them off after yelling & waving my shovel & pointed speared Probe at them. Fun Times. LOL. LEON.


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## Nola.River.Rat (Apr 29, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> NO, I don't think the equipment crushed much. mainly because what they usually do is tear out the garages concrete floor located in back corner of lot. Before this Garage was built or most garages were built what resided there was the Privy. After they get indoor plumbing they fill in the Privy, no need for it. Then a few years later this new invention called the Automobile is getting popular & everybody is buying one & then everybody is building a garage for it. In Detroit all the old houses have the garage at very back at alley & usually only accesible by the alley. Coincedently this is where they usually put the Privy in the old days before the Garage. Fast forward 100 years. when they tear this garage floor out they only dig down enough to get the concrete out which is usually 2 feet, sometimes 3 feet along walls . 2 or 3 feet only scratches the surface of any privy. Privy's here range from 4-6 feet but trash pit more shallow 1-3 feet. When I dig 6 feet down to the bottom of this privy it will be far away from where the bulldozers reached. LEON.


Nice! Interesting info. We pretty much have the same conditions here. I just rarely find the site before it is fenced off and concrete poured for the next structure. Gentrification is big here unfortunately. You should get a good guard dog, I used to have a 45 lb dog that loved going out with me. The thugs will stay clear but you could get caught up in a dog fight. Lots of pitbulls here. Be safe and don't fall for the "ya got a light bro" trick!

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## hemihampton (Apr 29, 2020)

What is Gentrification? That's a new word for me, never heard of it? you don't want anything that will attract attention like a big dog would, your trying to keep a low profile, sneak in & out quietly unnoticeable if possible, why? Already had the cops called on me more then once due to nosy neighbors. Cops always say the same thing, Are you Bury a dead Body? Once they see the bottles & shards & you explain it to them they pretty much walk off laughing. Even had the Cops sneak up behind us & pull Guns on us & say Freeze, Drop your weapons, so I drop my little hand rake. Seems the Cops got a call 2 guys were burying a dead body down by the river bank at end of the dead end road. Detroit is full of nothing but Pitbulls, almost everybody has one. LEON.


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## Nola.River.Rat (Apr 29, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> What is Gentrification? That's a new word for me, never heard of it? you don't want anything that will attract attention like a big dog would, your trying to keep a low profile, sneak in & out quietly unnoticeable if possible, why? Already had the cops called on me more then once due to nosy neighbors. Cops always say the same thing, Are you Bury a dead Body? Once they see the bottles & shards & you explain it to them they pretty much walk off laughing. Even had the Cops sneak up behind us & pull Guns on us & say Freeze, Drop your weapons, so I drop my little hand rake. Seems the Cops got a call 2 guys were burying a dead body down by the river bank at end of the dead end road. Detroit is full of nothing but Pitbulls, almost everybody has one. LEON.


Haha! It's basically conversion of the ghetto to neighborhoods for rich people from California. I would dress like a local and they just assume you are stretching your legs walking your dog. Gotta blend in with your surroundings. Only thing that would confuse them would be the shovel. 

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## hemihampton (Apr 29, 2020)

If you seen the pics, just being back there, in the back of that lot would make anybody look out of place since nobody should be there. unless your a neighbor that lives in the area & where everybody knows all the neighbors, which I'm not. Plus most of the people living in Detroit or those older rougher Neighborhoods are Black/African Americans. I'm white, just being white I stick out like I don't belong.  What works best for me is the middle of Summer when everything is overgrown like a Jungle, then you can hide Camouflaged in the Foliage. There has been a few times I've worn my work uniform while looking around a recent Demo & the Neighbors thought I worked for the Construction/Demo Company.


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## hemihampton (Apr 29, 2020)

Me & Tom has tried the old Hard Hat & pretend like you belong there trick before.  And It worked. a cop car with 4 cops in it pulled up along the curb right next to us. I said to Tom uh ohhhhh, were in trouble. the cops crossed the street to play put put miniture golf & left us alone. And we were right in front of the Historical Famous Train Station. LOL.


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Apr 30, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> Me & Tom has tried the old Hard Hat & pretend like you belong there trick before.  And It worked. a cop car with 4 cops in it pulled up along the curb right next to us. I said to Tom uh ohhhhh, were in trouble. the cops crossed the street to play put put miniture golf & left us alone. And we were right in front of the Historical Famous Train Station. LOL.View attachment 206436



Great pic!


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## treeguyfred (Apr 30, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> Even had the Cops sneak up behind us & pull Guns on us & say Freeze, Drop your weapons, so I drop my little hand rake. Seems the Cops got a call 2 guys were burying a dead body down by the river bank at end of the dead end road. Detroit is full of nothing but Pitbulls, almost everybody has one. LEON.


Leon! Man am I glad to hear it has happened to others besides me and my old digging crew. We were in Downstate NY just north of Manhattan in a dump near an exit off the Sawmill River Pkwy when I stick my head up out of my trench and my closest digging buddy says to me "hey look at Mike, gesturing with his elbow" I look and I see him excitedly holding his arms up in the "Hands above your head!" command. So, I laugh and shrug it off as Mike just being the clown that he usually is.... but ...... noooo.... its now happening to me and Greg two more law officers are now coming out of the low grow, weeds and vines with pistols drawn and pointing at us hollering "Law enforcement do not move! drop weapons and hands over your heads!" another guy in white shirt shows a minute or two later and 2 K9 units show up almost simultaneously! Unreal!.... after a few minutes they settle down, their white shirt says some official mumbo jumbo and splits and we get to real talking and they essentially give us all verbal warnings after running our IDs and hearing our defense. A couple of cops ask for our private contact info so to have us come a try to probe out their backyards...;o)


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## treeguyfred (Apr 30, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> Me & Tom has tried the old Hard Hat & pretend like you belong there trick before.  And It worked. a cop car with 4 cops in it pulled up along the curb right next to us. I said to Tom uh ohhhhh, were in trouble. the cops crossed the street to play put put miniture golf & left us alone. And we were right in front of the Historical Famous Train Station. LOL.View attachment 206436


Love this!! sofa king funny! 
~Fred


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## Nola.River.Rat (Apr 30, 2020)

Haha! I love it Leon! Goes to show you the appearance of confidence will get you far in life. 

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## hemihampton (Apr 30, 2020)

treeguyfred said:


> Leon! Man am I glad to hear it has happened to others besides me and my old digging crew. We were in Downstate NY just north of Manhattan in a dump near an exit off the Sawmill River Pkwy when I stick my head up out of my trench and my closest digging buddy says to me "hey look at Mike, gesturing with his elbow" I look and I see him excitedly holding his arms up in the "Hands above your head!" command. So, I laugh and shrug it off as Mike just being the clown that he usually is.... but ...... noooo.... its now happening to me and Greg two more law officers are now coming out of the low grow, weeds and vines with pistols drawn and pointing at us hollering "Law enforcement do not move! drop weapons and hands over your heads!" another guy in white shirt shows a minute or two later and 2 K9 units show up almost simultaneously! Unreal!.... after a few minutes they settle down, their white shirt says some official mumbo jumbo and splits and we get to real talking and they essentially give us all verbal warnings after running our IDs and hearing our defense. A couple of cops ask for our private contact info so to have us come a try to probe out their backyards...;o)




Glad to hear I'm not the only one. LOL


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