BBCAs soon as darkness falls in one corner of Wales, police officers start their prey for the treasury thieves – a crime that would look like a fantasy if it was not for evidence.
In the Patch of the Guent Police, the hills are covered with ancient forts and Roman remains – and have become a regular goal for those expecting rare artifacts for the black market.
Often, investigators are left nothing but a hole in the ground – which is stolen or a little idea about its value – although some looted treasures are worth millions.
Knighthocking, as it is named, is now seen as a real threat to the country’s legacy.
Before calling in September 2019, PC Dan Consall had never heard of the word Nighthocking.
He was told that the locals of an ancient village near Chepsto woke up to find more than 50 holes dug in a mysterious manner among the gravstones of their church garden.
The residents were frightened and the newspaper headlines were talked about “serious robbers”.
PC Counsel harassed – his own family members, including grandparents, were buried there.
Really the robbers were not interested in the dead, but the artifacts that could be buried in front of them, deep in the earth.
Before it became a Christian church about 700 years ago, there were people from Rome.
Between holes, some people themselves were dug above the tombs, the old metal bits were abandoned – a mentioning indication that the people who practiced the metal detection “deep underbels” were here.
Known as Nighthockers in the archaeological community, they use dark cover to reach sites that have no legal right to harass in the hope of treasure.
Some people do it for the thrill of building their private collection, others are thought to smuggle items abroad in the hope of selling the highest bidder.
This is not uncommon to appear on online auction sites illegally.
Archaeologists and police say that this is a small number of people in a metal detector in a respected community.
British MuseumOne of the most recent high-profile cases, Two men from South Wales were found guilty Most of them have never been recovered from a £ 3m hearfordshire – a hoard of Viking Gold.
After the first case of PC Consall in the cemetery, he began looking for the incident.
Within two years, his team exposed 23 suspicious incidents in the force patch – 600 square miles (1,550 sq km) of South -East Wales, the palace, ancient hill forts and Roman ruins were implemented in the corner.
People’s reports and mysterious holes are being discovered in the fields at night, all have led the PC Consell team to highlight the cases of nighthocking.
He said that one of the most worrying things was that the most targeted monuments – a word in Britain describes archaeological regions of great national importance.
CADW was accused of protecting more than 4,000 protected ancient sites of Wales, stating that it was seen every year 10 to 20 nighthocking incidents, but it meant that it meant very low.
It often depends on an eagle-igne member of the public, which decides to report to the police rather than exempting it as an unusual hole in the ground and as a unusual or rabbit work.
Dr. Jonathan Berry, ancient monuments of CADW and senior inspector of archeology, said that there were sometimes innocent explanations, such as hobistists do not understand the rules.
Other, however, were inspired by “greed” with elements of organized crime.
He said, “In the context of these things, it is a chicken in a way, but many often suggests that online auctions are sold on houses, centers of antiques, such things like things like this.”
“It can only be private networks, social media. You can find items of significant rarity and value and can be very quick in the country and other collections.”
According to the police, often targeted sites are remote, treacherous, and reminiscent of an Indiana jones campaign – Minus the Booby Trap.
A site PC concell takes us, a series of standing stones, through the dense woodland, above a steep mountain track – even in 4×4 with a trained police driver it is a hairy climb.
To think that Treasure Hunters can travel in pitch-black sounds and yet this site has become a victim of nighthock many times.
“Clearly their foresight is attractive to potential criminals. They consider these sites safe in case of harassing or not being arrested.”
Even in an attempt for obstacles, the rural crime team is using the thermal imaging cameras associated with drones and binoculars, which are capable of choosing suspected treasury thieves towards a pitch-black mountain.
Recently, it helped him catch a suspected nighthocker, which was hidden behind a pile of manure after his footprints on a pile of fresh dung.
“This is really a tough crime,” said PC Consol.
“However, on at least six to eight occasions we have discovered people illegally detecting metal.”
None of the people caught so far have been to reach the legally preserved ancient sites of Wales, but the Guent Police hopes that the night patrolling and new technology will get results.
PC Consol said, “The sorrow around it is that it has been determined for ancient monuments for a reason – because they are recognized as national historical importance.”
“If something is removed that we are unknown, it can be really important, we do not know now.
“Once this item has gone, it has gone forever. It is making a big impact on the country’s legacy.”
When someone gets something that can be a treasure, there is a legal responsibility to declare them.
They are not allowed to keep it, but if they follow the rules and detect it from the land, they were allowed to be – then they will be paid a portion of its value after being purchased by a museum.
It looks at experts such as a curator in the National Museum of Wales to give its decision to give a threshold to the threshold for the treasure.
There are several stages, but it should be “chronic and gold” to speak loosely.
The general limit in Wales is more than 300 years old and is made of at least 10% precious metal.
“Every treasure helps us to create a picture about the decisions that people in Wales were doing that time, about their fashion or their beliefs,” said Ms. Ils.
The medieval and later senior curator of archeology said that the number of declared in the National Museum was coming from 2019 from 2019.
Ms. Ils and her colleagues assess the treasures of about 70 potential treasures every year and believe that most metal detectors are doing the right thing and wanted them to be used to help historians.
He recently helped to assess a silver thimbal found by metal detectorists in an area in Flintshire, which was then declared a treasure.
He said: “Even the smallest object can actually bring important information about people in the past.”
