A sign of the times, perhaps. Or of the unequal distribution of wealth in our city.
Today I drove by one of Palo Alto High School's sports fields and saw a man prospecting across it with a metal detector.
Maybe he'd lost a ring there playing with his kids on the weekend. But my guess is he knows the field as a good place to find loose change.
A local man with no better prospects for income than trolling across a school field. A school where children are wealthy enough not to notice or care what they've lost. Unfortunately, I find that the most believable explanation.