Were the Turtles hidden from society or publicly known?

[neatoman]

So about the Fred Wolf cartoon, were the Turtles trying to hide from society or did they just not care? They still lived in the sewers and made use of disguises, sure, but they they didn't seem to mind fighting in broad daylight (they even discarded their disguises in a restuarant once) and everyday people still seemed to know about them.

To confuse matters even further, remember at the start of season 1? The Turtles beg April not to report on them as they needed to remain secret, yet the season ends with April reporting on them anyway. What happened? Did she just decide to be a bitch?

Another thing on this subject that confuses me, there's an episode where Mikey pretends to be a toy, a rich man does not recognise him and takes him to his son, who does recognise Mikey. That so weird, it made it seem inconsistant within the episode itself wheter or people knew who the Turtles were.

So what was it? Urban legend or common knowledge?