Finding Urban Caches Discreetly

[+damel]

I live in the Los Angeles area and like many cities (I'm guessing) there are lots of urban micros. I have found that many of these are in very high traffic areas. I was wondering if anyone had any good tips on being discreet. I have heard about having a friend stand in front of the cache to block the view, or a backpack to do the same thing, but many micros seem more out in the open than this simple fix can help. One that I have been looking at for the past week is next to a fast food restaurant that is right next the intersection of two streets (one a major street in the area). How do you not look suspicious in this kind of setting? Do you just come back at night when the muggle traffic is less? Any tips on being discreet or ways to distract the muggles would be much appreciated.

[+Thot]

Markwell http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=98614

[+briansnat]

In high traffic areas I just walk up and grab the cache. If you look like you know what you are doing, you are less likely to attract attention than if you are skulking around looking over your shoulder.

 

If I'm caught, I'm caught. If the owner chooses a spot like that, he knows the risk of the cache being discovered.

[+Renegade Knight]

I use one of two methods. Either I just find the dang thing and don't worry about it. Or I don't look at all since I really don't enjoy feeling exposed as I look for a cache.

[+sbell111]

It totally depends on the cache. Generally, Look for the cache from several feet away. If you spot it, you can generally pluck it without causing a scene. Otherwise, You have to search likely areas as unobtrusively as possible. Once you find it, you can typically extract it hidden by a 'normal' movement (such as tying your shoe).

[+AuntieWeasel]

I use one of two methods.  Either I just find the dang thing and don't worry about it. Or I don't look at all since I really don't enjoy feeling exposed as I look for a cache.

I'll take door number two!

 

I don't know what I'd do if I lived in a big city, but I'm so uncomfortable with espionage caching, I just don't do it any more. No matter what, I always feel like I look like I'm up to something bad. I think it comes from a lifetime of having little shifty eyes and overhearing kindergarten teachers say things to each other like, "watch the one with the little eyes. She's a sneak."

[+geodarts]

Clipboards can make you look official (and who would question an official). A coffee mug can help give you something to do while you are waiting for a chance to grab it. A cell phone or PDA can also make you look busy. But I have also found that it is remarkable what one can do without attracting too much attention.

[+Runaround]

In high traffic areas I just walk up and grab the cache. If you look like you know what you are doing, you are less likely to attract attention than if you are skulking around looking over your shoulder.

 

If I'm caught, I'm caught. If the owner chooses a spot like that, he knows the risk of the cache being discovered.

I agree. And if someone asks what I'm doing, I tell them.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I've done a number of urban micros. Some you can just snatch, others have to be searched for.

Tying shoelaces, talking on the GPS, dropping something to pick it up. these can work.

On the other fin, I get quite a chortle out of the antics cachers post for retrieval of some of the obvious, et not obvious, urban micros.

[+Hoppingcrow]

Like Auntie Weasel, I'm a backwoods cacher. Took a trip to the Big City a couple of weeks back and after twenty minutes of playing In-and-Out-the-Rhododendrons in a shopping mall parking lot, I suddenly remembered security cameras. Didn't help that I was dressed in my best logger's clothes and this just happened to be a corner where the homeless hang out. I skedaddled quick as spit.

 

Lemme tell ya, I'll take cougars any day to *that* kind of exposure!

[Twister65]

In high traffic areas I just walk up and grab the cache. If you look like you know what you are doing, you are less likely to attract attention than if you are skulking around looking over your shoulder.

 

If I'm caught, I'm caught.  If the owner chooses a spot like that, he knows the risk of the cache being discovered.

That's a good point. Try to put yourself in a muggle's shoes. What would you think if you saw someone walk straight up to something and pick it up? Probably wouldn't give it a second thought. But if you saw someone constantly looking over at something, hesitating to pick it up, you might get suspicious. Just try to do things that you yourself wouldn't think looks suspicious.

 

Scott

[ka8sHam]

hows about the old "tying your shoe" bit.....anyone try that? put your shoe right by it....act like your tying your shoe......

[+Team Dromomania]

I have a bright orange teeshirt I wear when I know I'll be searching along roads or around any other utilities (power transformers, light post, ditches, etc). I do service work and at times will wear my work shirt if I'm caching around bushes since it looks much like some of the grounds keepers outfits in this area.

 

In all cases I act like I know what I'm doing. I seldom get any second glances. Those rare times that a muggle ask what I'm up to, I usually tell the truth. I lie badly.

[+Deneye]

hows about the old "tying your shoe" bit.....anyone try that? put your shoe right by it....act like your tying your shoe......

This could be an interesting trick for when the cache is stuffed between marble facade stones 4-6 feet off the ground

 

...and by the bus stop.

[+reveritt]

Sometimes it is possible to be discreet...sometimes it is not. The best technique I have found is to cache with an eight-year-old. A kid doesn't look so suspicious while searching every nook and cranny for a micro (while I sit on a nearby bench).

 

And sometimes it just isn't worth the bother. If you're not into the numbers (and I'm not), then who cares about signing the log book in a magnetic Hide-A-Key?

[+Team Dromomania]

Oh yes. I forgot to say another deception I use is my camera. I don't have a dog or small children. But with a camera I can zoom in very close and it seems natural. And many times I'm taking real photos. In one case there was a cache hidden on a full size human statue made up of old rusted tools which was also a fountain. I couldn't locate the cache but I took several photos. When I got home and looked at the photos on the computer screen there was one item in that mess of tools that didn't seem quite right. I returned and bingo!

[+AtoZ]

Either don't look or "dadgum the torpedoes and full steam ahead." Just be descrite putting it back.

cheers

[+hukilaulau]

Hardhat and toolbelt works too, but I guess if you already feel uncomfortable in cities you wouldn't want to be MORE conspicuous...

I have actually done the clipboard with cache pages on it routine. Even openly followed my GPSr as I consult my clipboard. I've considered making chalkmarks on the sidewalk and asking people to stand back while I retrievve the cache but I haven't gone that far yet!

[+Team Perks]

Living in the middle of Los Angeles myself, I feel your pain. There is hardly anywhere where there aren't people.

 

I just go with the "look like you know what you're doing" approach. Act with a sense of purpose; move deliberately. If you act like you're trying to hide something, then yes, people will notice you. If you just go for it, people won't give you a second thought.

[+Doc-Dean]

Bring a bag and pick up some garbage. Nothing works like CITO to make people ignore you.

[+Sputnik 57]

Add to the clipboard and hard hat a yellow vest. Now you are someone really important and not to be trifled with.

 

Edit: I mean someone with whom one is not to trifle.

Edited June 28, 2005 by Sputnik 57

[+Tharagleb]

Add to the clipboard and hard hat a yellow vest. Now you are someone really important and not to be trifled with.

 

Edit: I mean someone with whom one is not to trifle.

This kind of pedantry is something up with which I wll not put.

[+robert]

Or I don't look at all since I really don't enjoy feeling exposed as I look for a cache.

Ditto.

 

Even if it's in the woods of a small park, if it's too close to property I get "finders block".

[+treasure_hunter]

This Link should be pretty helpful for you.

[+Kit Fox]

damel,

 

My advice is skip the inner city caches and head towards northern LA county. Much less muggle issues, and far more scenic areas.

 

Great spots to try are Angeles and San Bernardino National Forest, as well as any caches in the southern foothills of Angeles Forest.

 

You'll appreciate the "boonies" caches far more than the "inner city" ones.

 

Check my profile, 40 of my 43 active caches are in areas where you don't have to worry about muggles. I'm in the Antelope Valley, about 60 miles north of you.

[+VegasCacheHounds]

Just yesterday I was going after a brand new cache in an urban setting, with plenty of people around, so I just went for it. The coordinates were purposefully off, as the hider wanted to make it real tough, so I was poking around everywhere. No one questioned me or even gave me a second look, as far as I know, except one homeless guy who asked if I had lost something. I answered "nope, just looking", and he just nodded his head and walked away

There were other people doing odd things, including one guy wandering around looking at some sort of handheld device. oh, wait, he was also wearing a Geocaching t-shirt! So we teamed up and shared the FTF.

[+sbell111]

My advice is skip the inner city caches and head towards northern LA county. ...

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the urban micros in LA.

[+Team Perks]

Take my advice: Skip the Antelope Valley. Too many of those awful Team Perks hides are out there. Yecch!!

 

[+Lounging at Walden]

In Los Angeles, if asked, just say that you are scouting for a movie location. Act like you are taking a couple of pics and no one will bother you.

[+Kit Fox]

In Los Angeles, if asked, just say that you are scouting for a movie location. Act like you are taking a couple of pics and no one will bother you.

I don't think that will work when you get caught looking underneath newspaper racks, while standing next to a busy Winchells donut shop, in the San Fernando Valley.

[+AuntieWeasel]

In Los Angeles, if asked, just say that you are scouting for a movie location.  Act like you are taking a couple of pics and no one will bother you.

I don't think that will work when you get caught looking underneath newspaper racks, while standing next to a busy Winchells donut shop, in the San Fernando Valley.

Then you say it's an independent film.

[+BDstarcachers]

Some real good replies here.

 

I use the 'pretend to be on the cell phone' and scope out the situation

from about 3 or 4 ft away. When I spy the most likely area or areas

I casually look, grab it and casually keep talking.

 

If you look around like you are doing something wrong, everyone

else will think that too.

 

I am not always comfortable doing urban muggle ridden caches, but

the more I did regular ones, the urbans are no big deal anymore.

Just more of a challenge.

[+Team Dromomania]

I had this muggle encounter recently. For obvious reasons I couldn't post this story in my log.

 

A new micro appeared near where I work. Before starting work I drove to the parking lot and pretty much figured out that the cache would be located under the skirt of a light pole. However, there was a white van with a man sitting in it facing the hide. BUT, I am an electrician. I was wearing an electrician's uniform. I was in a van with electrician's logo's. I was going to look at a light - I WAS OUTFITTED PERFECTLY FOR THIS FIND.

 

So I got out of the van, looked over the light, made the grab and returned to the van to sign the log.

 

"HEY! What ARE you doing around these lights?!!" It was a mad looking man from the white van. As it turned out, he was the head honcho in charge of the care of the lighting in this shopping center. I quickly told him what I was up to and that our company had no orders to work on his lighting. I showed him the container and log book. A big smile came over his face and we chatted a bit before we both went to work.

 

So much for my perfect outfit!

[70mmkrypto]

i go full camo/ghillie suit, and crawl forward two inches an hour, slowly moving across the field, living on bugs and sipping water from the base of weeds.

[+Yellow ants]

talking on the GPS

 

Glad to hear I'm not the only one doing that. But that's the one time I'd wish my GPSr was another colour than SCREAMING BRIGHT YELLOW which doesn't look all that much like a cell phone

 

Normally, we do the "my bike is broken" trick in front of the cache, but I guess that might not work too well in LA ... a bike would probably attract even more attention

[+niraD]

Bring a bag and pick up some garbage. Nothing works like CITO to make people ignore you.

Yep. I pick up some trash, pick up the cache, pick up some more trash, and then go sit down to sign the log. When I'm done, I pick up some more trash, return the cache, pick up some more trash, and then find a garbage can to drop the bag of trash into.

[+Team Cotati]

Why not simply 'shine them on'?

[+Team JSAM]

Kids work great I have them look lots of times and if someone come close I will say dont worry hunny we will find you toy, they think it funny. Also a clipboard and a hard hat are great uban cammo.

[+Wild Thing 73]

I use one of two methods.  Either I just find the dang thing and don't worry about it. Or I don't look at all since I really don't enjoy feeling exposed as I look for a cache.

I'll take door number two!

 

I don't know what I'd do if I lived in a big city, but I'm so uncomfortable with espionage caching, I just don't do it any more. No matter what, I always feel like I look like I'm up to something bad. I think it comes from a lifetime of having little shifty eyes and overhearing kindergarten teachers say things to each other like, "watch the one with the little eyes. She's a sneak."

Ahhhh, but you do it... It is part of the game we play, or choose not to play... Good luck and Good Caching

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

There are some urban caches which I choose to skip if I decide that the stealth factor and the attendant social anxienty factor may be too high, or if it apepars that the felony-arrest factor may be too high. For the rest, I either simply act like I belong there and that I know what I am doing, or I wear a reflective safety vest, hardhat, a few tools on my belt, and carry a clipboard with a giant sign on the back which reads "Geo Search and Retrieval".

[+baloo&bd]

...felony-arrest factor may be too high.

 

How is GC listed, as a "Class G felony"?

 

It is probably different for someone who works regularly or lives in the city or metro area. You come to realize that you are pretty much invisible to begin with. People may look, however rarely will they do anything or ask.

 

I found if I just go and look and don't linger, I am pretty much safe. If I try to look inconspicuous, usually I am more so.

 

However a friend of mine uses a device that causes him to be invisible in cities that is relatively in expensive.

[+Big Max]

I have a cache I am trying to get that is at the entrance to our main mall. I am thinking of using the clipboard method and throwing in a tape measure. That way I can make it look like I am measuring something while I am bent over trying to look under things.