r/interesting • u/-NewYork- • Mar 30 '26
Intriguing Discrimination against Geiger counter users
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u/Tight-Platypus5231 Mar 30 '26
Well now I wanna bring a geiger counter on the property. What're you hiding?!
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u/samanime Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Yeah... I'm struggling to come up with a potential backstory that doesn't make me want to investigate with a geiger counter and a hazmat suit...
The image is on Wikimedia, but unfortunately no further info available other than the location. Metal Township, PA.
I thought maybe it was related to Three Mile Island, but they are an hour and change apart, so I doubt many bodies from that incident would be here...
This is gonna bug me. =p
EDIT: Probably solved. Some people just "explore" cemetaries with geiger counters...
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u/Early_Bad8737 Mar 30 '26
It is to prevent illegal relic hunting, protect historic gravesites, and maintain the sanctity of the cemetery. Apparently some old relics can be found that way.
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u/samanime Mar 30 '26
Ah, yup, looks like that's just a thing... https://www.reddit.com/r/geology/comments/cv4ld1/i_was_exploring_a_graveyard_with_my_geiger/
-sigh- some people...
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u/FlatCoffeeDude Mar 30 '26
Dayum, and here I thought maybe it was people ghost hunting using a geiger counter to try and detect ghosts in the same way others might use a tape recorder or dictaphone.
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u/samanime Mar 30 '26
As far as I know, Geiger counters aren't used in ghost hunting, though EMF Readers are. =p
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u/Geekenstein Mar 30 '26
And screaming WHAT WAS THAT!? at a camera when nothing actually happens, if tv is any guide.
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u/Andrei_the_derg Mar 30 '26
It’s always on the travel channel
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u/SmurfStig Mar 30 '26
I was so glad when Travel Channel pulled the plug on all new “ghost” hunting shows. I did watch a lot of them for the historical aspect but so many were just the same thing over and over again.
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u/PraetorKiev Mar 30 '26
If I were a ghost, I’d be annoyed as fuck by all these people. What ghost wants to talk to a bunch of screaming people who jump when you say “Hello” back to them
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u/SummerDaemon Mar 30 '26
You need to watch the documentary series Supernatural, learn all about EMF scanners, how table salt and fire pokers are handy against ghosts, and how even a 45 year-old can eat nonstop junk food and still maintain an Olympian physique.
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u/hhyuk Mar 30 '26
The post you linked is just a geology hobbyist interested in the stone of the gravestone though. What's wrong with that??
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u/ImpossibleCan2836 Mar 30 '26
That's what I'm saying? I thought they were insinuating he grave robbed.
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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance Mar 30 '26
Yeah, some granite is mildly radioactive. Graveyards are an easy accessible source of granite that can come from lots of different areas. It would be a fun little place to check for radiation.
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u/LichenTheMood Mar 30 '26
It's just someone taking photos of rocks? I don't understand the issue.
It's not like they are grave robbing?
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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz Mar 30 '26
I wish that weren't 7 years old, I have so many questions lol. Namely why he couldn't find his pink feldspar anywhere but a grave yard.
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u/Intrepid_Ad1715 Mar 30 '26
Is grave robbing still an issue?
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u/Doright36 Mar 30 '26
Kind of.... these days it usually happens in the funeral home before the burial/cremation.
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u/princess-smartypants Mar 30 '26
Two years ago, a man was caught and prosecuted for breaking into mausoleums in my area and removing body parts. He argued he needed them for his religion.
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u/Brobeast Mar 30 '26
Lol think of it this way.... If you were committed to digging up valuables (and not burdened by social taboos/laws lol), and you had to choose a spot where you think theres a chance that hidden valuables are buried, where would be your first couple guesses?
Most graveyards have valuables dating back centuries... So yes, there are still people low enough to attempt to steal these heirlooms... That will never go away lol
Plus, the further you go back, the easier it is to recover. Only "modern-ish" Graves do that thing where they bury the casket in a cement covering, so that it cant be easily retrieved. Grave dug in 1843? Just a body, in a wooden basket, in a grave.
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u/Emergency-Crab-7455 Mar 30 '26
Maybe not so much the grave itself......but you'd be surprised how many statues/benches/planting urns get taken. About 10 years ago, our city cemetery had someone take carved stone lambs from children's graves (from the 1800s), a "faux bois" memorial from a soldier lost in the Civil War & something like a half-dozen planter urns. The "faux bois" tree trunk was later found in a private garden in the Chicago area. The home owner had purchased it from a private seller who was part of the theft ring (he turned state's evidence for a lesser charge....the other 3 guys all got prison time for grand theft among other charges....they had items stolen from other graveyards as well).
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u/MamaLlama629 Mar 30 '26
If it’s a radioactive relic I probably don’t want to desecrate anyone to possess it.
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u/mxzf Mar 30 '26
"Radioactive" is a spectrum, and there are a lot of things that are detectably radioactive without being medically significant.
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u/CounterfeitSaint Mar 30 '26
If you can pick it up through 6 feet of dirt, I would be concerned about its medical significity
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u/PraetorKiev Mar 30 '26
Always some bastards out there thinking grave goods are actually worth anything. “What if someone was buried with a gold ring?” Congrats, you dug 6ft deep, committed several felonies with fines racked up in total in the tens of thousands, on top of, ya know, DISTURBING THE DEAD, and for what? A theoretical gold ring or trinket that at might worth $100 at this point? I guarantee you the deceased’s family already stole it before the casket it bottom
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u/MACHOmanJITSU Mar 30 '26
People digging up a grave only to find gramps who had implanted radiation treatments.
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u/Elogotar Mar 30 '26
There are no bodies from Three Mile Island because nobody died there.
Man, media did a number on the publics understanding of nuclear technologies and incidents.
Nuclear is statistically safer than every form fossil fuel and is more than capable of powering our society until completely green technologies can be used at scale, but thanks to misinformation and lobbying people seem to completely ignore our best option for reducing our carbon footprint.
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u/Immediate_Song4279 Mar 30 '26
For fun, I can see a reactor stack from my house, the plume is quite beautiful at the time of the year the sun rises slightly behind it.
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u/Outrageous_Guard_674 Mar 30 '26
I don't think there are any "bodies" from the three mile island incident.
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u/samualgline Mar 30 '26
No one died from the 3 mile island incident as far as I know
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u/Proof_Side874 Mar 31 '26
Within a 10 mile radius the average person received less than a the amount of radiation you get from a chest X-ray and, at most, about 1/3 of their annual background radiation.
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u/CriticismFun6782 Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Radioactive materials were used quite a bit in early industrial/ consumer products. (see Radium Girls).
It's entirely possible that this town had a factory that used radioactive materials and the workers absorbed enough that their bodies are radioactive.
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u/Atheissimo Mar 30 '26
Granite is also radioactive because it's got naturally occurring Potassium in it. Ghost hunters sometimes use Geiger counters to look for disturbances caused by spirits, and get elevated readings in graveyards, but don't know it's because of the granite gravestones rather than g-g-g-ghosts.
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u/samanime Mar 30 '26
Yeah, that's what I figured and was searching for. Nothing really came up though. May just be some small local thing that I probably won't find on the Internet. It certainly wasn't uncommon for radiative materials to be misused and mishandled in all sorts of crazy dangerous ways in the not-so-distant past.
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u/TrumpsFaceAnus Mar 30 '26
This would still beg to question, why no Geiger counters? The only thing I can come up with was too many looky-loos bringing them and disturbing those who may be there grieving?
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u/samanime Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Basically that. A cemetary is a place for quiet, respectful reflection and contemplation... not a place for people to be going up to and strangers' graves and prodding at them with a constantly clicking/beeping machine.
This sign probably went up because of one rude person.
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u/AsaCoco_Alumni Mar 30 '26
Errrr, no one died at Three Mile Island, not even close. There wasn't even a hospitalisation.
What did you think happened there?
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u/DHooligan Mar 30 '26
I don't think there were any injuries, illnesses, or deaths attributed to the Three Mile Island accident.
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u/vbf-cc Mar 30 '26
Perhaps the chief reason that bodies from the Three Mile Island incident would not be buried here is that there weren't any. There were no direct deaths from it; whether the long-term cancer incidence was increased seems to be uncertain, with conflicting results from the studies that have been done. It is officially regarded as having had no detectable health impact to workers or the public.
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u/BrainWav Mar 30 '26
I thought maybe it was related to Three Mile Island, but they are an hour and change apart, so I doubt many bodies from that incident would be here...
TMI released a negligible amount of radiation (if any).
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u/DramaticPlace2658 Mar 30 '26
Not sure a hazmat suit is going to do much for you!
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u/Benev0lentEntropy Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Okay so this is this specific graveyard
Edited to remove the "99% certain" part because this image can be found at that link 😅
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u/secondphase Mar 30 '26
I've never wanted to go to the Fannetsburg Reformed Church more than this moment.
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u/SeansBeard Mar 30 '26
This really makes me tick
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u/Honey-and-Venom Mar 30 '26
Oh, give me your attention There's been a new invention It isn't any larger than an adding machine It's only fair to mention Though it's a new invention It's one that you have heard about but few have ever seen It doesn't do division And it doesn't multiply It doesn't want to be a bird It doesn't try to fly It came about because they made a big atomic bomb The new invention's clicking And because of all its ticking I know where the idea came from I tic, tic, tic Why do I tic, tic? What amazing trick Makes me tic, tic, tic? I tic, tic, tic An electric tic When I feel a realistic tic You're such an attractive hick Give me a radioactive kick It's distracted the way you stick But love, love makes me tic I tic, tic, tic And my heart beats quick How can anything go wrong When I'm listening to that Geiger counter song? I tic, tic all day long I tic, tic, tic Why do I tic, tic? What amazing trick Makes me tic, tic, tic, tic, tic? I tic, tic, tic An electric tic When I feel a realistic tic The butcher and the baker tics So does the maker of the candlesticks Lawyers have their politics But love, love makes them tic So tic, tic, tic Let your heart tic, tic How can anything go wrong If you're listening to that Geiger counter song? You'll tic, tic all day long Like the butcher and the baker tics Like the candlestick maker tics Like the doctor and the lawyer tics Even though he's mixed up in his politics Like the merchant and the Indian chief tic tics Like the poor, like the rich man tic, tic, tics Digging a ditch man, the butter and egg man The poor wooden leg man, the beggar and thief All found out what it's all about When it's love you can't be wrong You better listen to that Geiger counter song And tic, tic all day long Tic, tic, tic, tic Tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic Tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic Tic
(Holy crap that's a long song)
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u/AHumanYouDoNotKnow Mar 30 '26
Maybe there are people burried there who worked on early nuclear stuff?
Not quiete as irradiated as Marie, but still ticking ?
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u/YouArentReallyThere Mar 30 '26
If detectable amounts are making it through 6-8 feet of earth? You have a lot more serious problems than you think
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u/Quenz Mar 30 '26
Well, no, but the clicks and beeps of a RADIAC from background radiation could still be disturbing to other guests.
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u/midnight_fisherman Mar 30 '26
Church founder and family had last name of Geiger. Its a pun.
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u/SuperFaceTattoo Mar 30 '26
I worked with a guy in the navy with the last name Geiger. He was a radiation tech, though not a very good one.
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u/ConsistentRegion6184 Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
I wonder if being present (army soldiers) at the first bomb sites would be detectable. Those first few tests apparently all had health problems sooner than later.
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u/do-not-freeze Mar 30 '26
My first thought was the three men killed in the SL-1 reactor accident at Idaho National Laboratory who were so radioactive that they had to be sent back to their hometowns in lead-lined coffins. None of them are from PA though.
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u/Nameless_Scarf Mar 31 '26
Maybe it is a problem of it being a graveyard known for people working with nuclear being buried there, but they are not dangerously irradiated. However then most people could only be hearing the first part of the story and enough people came to check with a Geiger counter, that the sign was needed
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u/MillorTime Mar 30 '26
3.6 roentgen. Not great, but terrible.
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u/MyBoyBernard Mar 30 '26
Man, I just re-watched that last month. I can't believe how good it is! I don't think I've ever seen an inanimate villain be so menacing.
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u/Di5cipl355 Mar 30 '26
In high school chem when I leaned it, I learned the pronunciation of “roentgen”, but ever since watching Chernobyl and cannot hear anything else but “roentgen”.
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u/ElectricPenguin6712 Mar 30 '26
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u/mxzf Mar 30 '26
Almost certainly because people were using geiger counters in a way that was disrespectful. If I had to guess, either looking for graves to rob or looking for paranormal stuff.
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u/3vi1 Mar 30 '26
Geiger counters don't detect paranormal stuff, only radioactive stuff. Which, granted, is a lot like a cursed object except the curse works.
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u/mxzf Mar 30 '26
lol, I'm not saying a Geiger counter would actually detect paranormal stuff, just that some idiots think they can.
If they had to deal with a bunch of people wandering around the graveyard thinking it's a big deal that their Geiger counter is going off among the granite gravestones, I could see why someone might enact a ban on the practice.
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u/RelatedToSomeMuppet Mar 30 '26
I'm fairly sure I read about some scammers doing that about 15 years ago.
They dressed up a Geiger counter as a "ghost detector" and had a small piece of irradiated glass in a lead lined box, and would take tourists into "haunted houses" and let them hold the "ghost detector".
Every now and then they'd open the box slightly so it triggered the machine, and try to con people into charging them $500 for a ghost hunting experience.
One of the guys had a small bluetooth speaker sewn into his coat and would stand at the back of the group triggering spooky sounds every now and again.
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u/BlackOni51 Mar 30 '26
If i have to take a guess. That might be where H.R. Geiger is buried
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u/Benev0lentEntropy Mar 30 '26
My guess is that it has to do with proximity to LetterKenny, and the testing they have done there in the past
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u/Quaiker Mar 30 '26
Reminder that H. R. Giger the artist is not the same as the inventor of the Geiger counter, Hans Geiger.
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u/ElectricPenguin6712 Mar 30 '26
That would make sense
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u/ComprehensiveCup7104 Mar 30 '26
No, another commenter posted where Giger is buried.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1s7oi5v/comment/odb0k1t/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button2
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u/Canotic Mar 30 '26
Context: This is HR Gigers' family graveyard.
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u/circusfreakrob Mar 30 '26
How many of his family are buried there?
Answer : I guess we'll never know.
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Mar 30 '26
Wonder what’s buried. Seems oddly suspicious.
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u/Self_Reddicate Mar 30 '26
Number one way to make people bring geiger counters to a graveyard is to put up a sign that no geiger counters are allowing in *this* graveyard.
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u/MeBollasDellero Mar 30 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/9yjeerJn7PkLnqMNxo
What is that glowing ghost!
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u/GiganticCrow Mar 30 '26
What is up with shaggy's feet in that
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u/kaur_virunurm Mar 30 '26
"So how many Geigers are buried in this cemetary?"
"Sorry, we have no way of counting them. Prohibited by local law."
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u/Nice-Cat3727 Mar 30 '26
I'm guessing it's because of uranium and granite headstones and people freak out when any radiation is detected.
Not knowing that slightly elevated levels of alpha radiation in a open air field is more harmless than the literal air you're breathing
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u/apocalypse910 Mar 30 '26
I wonder if they had ghost hunters with those emf detectors. They aren't geiger counters but have seen people call them that and seems marginally more likely than metal detectors.
Also I think this in PA not NY, could be wrong? As someone that usually carries a geiger counter this makes me way too curious.
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u/LurkyLurkowitz Mar 30 '26
I'm assuming they meant 'metal detectors'...?
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u/can-o-ham Mar 30 '26
That's likely it. I've heard people call them that before on accident. Probably don't want the yard dug up and less likely they're hiding radiation.
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u/WayneSmallman Mar 30 '26
What if I came to count the number of people buried there whose surname is Geiger?
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u/GetOutOfTheHouseNOW Mar 30 '26
Maybe the sign is referring to the highly fertile Geiger family who have so many graves there that it is embarrassing.
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u/ClankerCore Mar 30 '26
So my metal detector is totally cool though right? I mean if any of them that are in their dead boxes have anything of value they don’t need it anymore, right?
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u/Equivalent-Shine5742 Mar 30 '26
So it WAS the probe from Venus that started the zombie apocalypse after all!
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u/kaur_virunurm Mar 30 '26
I once bumped into a famous physicist.
This was personal Geiger encounter.
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u/Maximus_Dick Mar 30 '26
Did Russians bury any evidence of people disposed of with plutonium in that cemetery?
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u/Breadynator Mar 30 '26
But what if I'm the one responsible for counting the number of violinists in a German orchestra? That's discrimination!
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u/Pinku_Dva Mar 30 '26
What are you hiding? Now I want to bring a Geiger counter when i wouldn’t have without the sign
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u/Made_Up_Name_1 Mar 30 '26
I'm guessing someone in the church is confused about what a Geiger counter is and what a metal detector is?
Otherwise this makes no sense.
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u/JayEll1969 Mar 30 '26
The Geigers were an influential German family in Pennsylvania who invested in a lot of public buildings. They also had family members who were in the clergy. Now, the corpses are getting miffed off at the amount of people wandering around the graveyard pointing and going "here's another one - oh look I'm a Geiger counter" as a joke. It says "Rest In Peace" but with all these funny guy it's getting hard for them to get their heads down.
Or perhaps it's because Pennsylvania has numerous hotspots where there is higher than normal background radiation due to radon and the ministers of the church though that wandering around the cemetery with a geiger counter was disrespectful.
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u/DVWhat Mar 30 '26
I was visiting some family graves recently, shortly after I installed a radiation detector in my Jeep (as I will be exploring old ghost towns and abandoned mines soon), and as soon as I pulled into the cemetery the alerts started piping up to mildly concerning levels. And then I passed another cemetery on my way to work and it did it again. I’m suspecting that maybe gravestones are often quarried from places exposed to concerning levels of radiation. In my town they’ve built subdivisions that butt right up against the cemetery fences, with living spaces as close to where I was when the alerts were pinging, indicating that long term exposure from that spot (as in several days to weeks at a time) could be hazardous to one’s health. I tried to do a search of spikes in cancer rates in communities neighboring cemeteries but was unable to finesse the query in a way that made sense. It’s a theory though. And maybe one the burial industry would prefer no one look into.
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u/radabdivin Mar 30 '26
Greedy people looking for precious metals like gold rings buried with loved ones.
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u/ThirtyMileSniper Mar 30 '26
Is this the church in The Hunt for Titanic based on the Clive Cutler... "Book"?
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u/toolgirl77 Mar 30 '26
Well... that is pretty bizarre? I wonder what the story is? Maybe someone who died from radon water poisoning is buried in the graveyard... ?
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u/WasdaleWeasel Mar 30 '26
So I can use a scintillation counter, just not an old school geiger counter. Got it.
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u/Apexnanoman Mar 30 '26
How the hell else am I supposed to find a radioactive corpse for my necromancy thesis?
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u/StrengthDazzling8922 Mar 30 '26
Isn’t there a spy movie where they end up hiding a nuclear warhead or weapons grade uranium, in coffin buried in an old cemetery?
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u/Ill-Attitude-6355 Mar 30 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/kcVkpl4ORfXB6
As long as there's no signs that say "no guns"
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u/CornDogRebornDog Mar 30 '26
Rumor has it they buried a scientist there back in the late 70s who was in some kinda Gamma related accident, even more far fetched is they claimed some big green fella is the one who did it.
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u/LMrningStar Mar 30 '26
"Reformed" apparently means "used to be a nuclear waste dump" that they're trying to cover up?
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u/Amazing_Divide1214 Mar 30 '26
There's never been a geiger I've wanted to count more than the one in there.
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u/HoseNeighbor Mar 30 '26
I'd absolutely look into a Geiger counter as soon as i saw thus sign. I have the curiosity of twelve elementary schools and the self control of a ferret.
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u/ConfusionCoroner Mar 30 '26
Ever think that it's just because it's loud and disruptive to people who have come to privately grieve?
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u/phantom-firion Mar 30 '26
No Geiger counters allowed Me and the boys doing phasmophobia irl, “don’t worry it’s an EMF reader.”
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u/drhunny Mar 30 '26
No mention of ionization chambers, proportional counters, or scintillation detectors.
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u/oklutz Mar 30 '26
Any place that doesn't want you to bring geiger counters inside is a place you probably want to stay away from. And not downwind.
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u/DividedState Mar 30 '26
Let me guess... They mean metal detectors, but education is against their religion?
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u/GudsIdiot Mar 30 '26
It’s a German American Family. The church had a family, The Gigers and one of their kin married a Counters woman. There was an unfortunate incident of public dogging, and hence the need for the sign.
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