Good news!

May 21, 2002 1:30 AM

Good news! It's ok to "steal" golf balls again.
posted by kingmissile (12 comments total)

"Collinson had spent 10 years in the so-called 'lake ball' business, donning diving gear to scour the ponds and lakes of Britain's golf clubs for balls to re-sell."

Can this be his only source of income? If 1,158 balls were worth between 50 and 500 pounds, how many balls would this guy have to recover and resell each week to make a living and afford to travel from course to course with his diving gear?
posted by pracowity at 2:41 AM on May 21, 2002

Probably more of a weekend hobby thing.
Sucks to have to do jail time over something so trivial.
At least the judge saw the light and overturned it.
Imagine the jokes he had to hear in the clink, golf balls and garden hoses..... HAHAHAHA
posted by a3matrix at 4:41 AM on May 21, 2002

I used to do this in Mississauga as a teen. One inner tube, a large garbage bag, and a friend and down the Credit River we would go. There were two golf courses in the valley where we went and we would scoop out hundreds of balls which we would then sell to golfers for anywhere from 10-50 cents each.

It was legal because it was a river and thus nobody's private property. However, it was tresspassing if we stepped onto the course.

This guy pulled the balls from a pond so he is probably at least a tresspasser.
posted by srboisvert at 5:53 AM on May 21, 2002

A golf club official told Reuters the street value of the two sacks of balls could be anything between 50 and 500 pounds ($70 to $700), depending on their condition.

Is there a large golf ball black market in England that nobody's talking about?
posted by UnReality at 6:02 AM on May 21, 2002

There is a large golf ball black market in the US also.

This seems like a bad decision - if it were fish this guy were pulling out of a pond on private property without permission, I don't think the judge would have thought it was so insignificant.
posted by schlyer at 6:11 AM on May 21, 2002

I don't understand at all how this could be "stealing," as kingmissle describes. Who owns these balls? The lake? The golf club? If so, the article does not state it. I surely can see trespassing, but stealing? Guys like this are doing a service to the golfing community and the environment. Sheesh.
posted by cowboy at 7:08 AM on May 21, 2002

Every time you buy a black market golf ball, you're helping the terrorists.
posted by ClydeCrashcup at 8:50 AM on May 21, 2002

Cowboy-

"bottom of a lake on the Whetstone Golf Club"

If a man lost his wedding ring [for instance] in a pond on his private property, would then that ring be "up for grabs"? Could anyone come onto that property, recover and take the ring, and merely be guilty of trespassing?

Granted, this is not a case for a harsh sentence... but it *is* theft.
posted by dissent at 9:25 AM on May 21, 2002

dissent - Could anyone come onto that property, recover and take the ring, and merely be guilty of trespassing?

Except for the fact (?) that the lake is also private property, that sounds like the same principle as maritime salvage.
posted by NortonDC at 9:31 AM on May 21, 2002

Well, in maritime salvage, there's no trespass involved. And the private property element pretty much destroys the comparison.

What's the law on returning lost property on public *land*, I wonder? Would failure to search for the owner of found property consitute theft? The moral aspect is clear, but I have no idea of the legalities concerning this matter.
posted by dissent at 9:38 AM on May 21, 2002

Every time you buy a black market golf ball, you're helping the terrorists.

Hahaha classic!
posted by kingmissile at 12:28 PM on May 21, 2002

Do the country clubs or the golfers try to recover the golf balls themselves, or are they simply pissed that someone took something they no longer wanted?
posted by UnReality at 4:37 PM on May 22, 2002