Busted!

This morning, I was driving into Phoenix to conduct a brief (< 1 acre) survey of a small parcel we are working on. On my way, I passed by the site of a huge (more than 1,000 burial) Hohokam Village we had excavated the previous year. As I was stopped at a traffic light, I noticed two guys out in the middle of the site fooling around with shovels. The site had been hit by professional looters while we were still in the field, and I immediately called our PI for further instructions.

He called the Phoenix PD, who responded with 4 cars and a helicopter unit. The bosses raced over to the site to survey the damage. Turns out, these were just two members of the Phoenix Symphony (Bassoon and 1st Violin) who were poking around in the backdirt. They had run into a former employee of our company on the site a few weeks back who had told them that it would probably be ok.

While I didn't hook a big fish, and while these dudes are probably not going to be getting into any trouble, I still count this as the first looter bust of my career.