expedition101

As the owner of the cache that started this whole thing, I am glad there was a happy ending. I have posted a note on the cache page summarizing the OP's experience as told in this string. I am hopeful this will never happen again. I just got back from a beautiful day in Riverside Park, where dozens of familes were enjoying Mothers' Day. The posters who trashed NY above clearly have not been here recently. The city has come a long way since the days of "Death Wish" and "Nighthawks." Riverside and Central Parks are the two best reasons to be here. This neighborhood is not just where I cache, it is where I live. It is a family neighborhood, more so than any other in Manhattan. There is no need to carry guns, knives or pepper spray.

To Greenbriel and all other reading this string: That's my cache and I am very upset that this happened. Nobody has logged any similar incidents with this cache. I walk with my 1 year old daughter past the cache all the time, and I've never seen anything like this, but now I'm a little worried. Generally, Riverside Park is very safe all the way up to 116th street during the daytime. There's even an outdoor restaurant nearby that stays open into the night without incident. What time did this happen? Also, if your GPS is "brand new" maybe your credit card has some sort of coverage for lost/damaged purchases?

I'm usually just a lurker here, but since I'm an attorney who specializes in insurance coverage, I thought I'd add my two cents. The OP's idea would never work because geocaching.com is not an organization, it's just a website-based community. No lawyer would provide legal advice to such an open-ended group; you don't even have to be a premium member to read the forums. Often, a non-profit association which exists as a legal entity will ask members who are lawyers to work on legal projects; I have done that for a local hiking group. In those cases, the advice is provided to the association itself (and its officers), and not to the individual members. It is never the type of advice that can be published for the members' use. I can't imagine that any lawyer would agree to be "on retainer" to answer individual cachers' questions. A lawyer's own malpractice policy would prohibit him/her from giving advice to any individual who is not a real client (New York, for example, requires formal retention agreements naming the client). As for the suggestion that a group of lawyers get together and assemble something that falls short of formal legal advice, this is also not likely to happen because of liability concerns. I believe that any lawyer who would agree to this suggestion, or any lawyer who would give advice anonymously, is not likely to give trustworthy advice. With respect to the comment about a "geocacher's insurance policy," I'm not sure what this means. Who is going to pay the premium? Once again, no insurance company is going to issue a policy to an open-ended group. Geocaching.com cannot purchase a policy that will cover individual geocachers. A local non-profit group might, but there are bound to be many restrictions and it might not make economic sense. If you really have a pressing legal issue related to proposed geocaching activities, your best bet is to join a local geocaching organization and ask them if they will sponsor the activity. At the very least, they are likely to have insurance in case everyone guesses wrong.

Administrator: please close this topic. I posted a similar topic on the Northeast board, and I did not realize until today that this was a violation of forum rules. Sorry.

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We are building the Hudson River Geotrail, which will be a string of challenging, actively-managed geocaches that will run up and down the banks of the Hudson River, from NYC to the Adirondacks. We need your help! Visit www.hudsonrivergeotrail.com for more details and contact information, and help us build the next great adventure in geocaching.