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Geocaching Linked With Crime


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This link goes to a thread at the CourtTV forums where they are discussing all of the places on the internet where the kidnapper in Idaho had common user account names with other known aliases of his. It turns out that he likely was also a geocacher as some armchair investigators are starting to figure this out.

 

There is nothing about his activity as a geocacher that seems to be directly related to any of his criminal offenses or any crimes he's currently accused of.

 

EDIT: I doubt "geocaching" is going to take any "hit" in negative publicity. No more people other than those who are trying to sniff out all of this guy's internet activity will probably ever know about his account here. Since it's an unrelated part of his life to his crimes, it's just not newsworthy. For example, how many people knew that Jeffrey Dahmer was an amatuer radio operator? (Ok, I made that up, but it makes my point...who cares what a criminal did in his spare time when he wasn't doing crimes)

Edited by ju66l3r
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The conversations seem to go like this:

 

I heard some criminals watch a box called a teevee which they have to tune in to a particular channel at a particular time to watch. And there are things called commercials used to get money out of people. This sounds like a suspicious activity, and someone really should get to the bottom of this. Glad to be helpful to the police with this tip.

 

It's kinda funny that the people still don't get geocaching even after reading the faqs and everything. It's kinda sad that the CourtTV forums are filled with people with nothing better to do than... Oh wait, I could be out caching if it wasn't for this thunderstorm...

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Well, it looks like a lot of the people on that board, reading the travel bug and cache logs, are thinking that geocaching sounds sinister, some kind of creepy online game that lures people out into the woods. Someone sounds somewhat alarmed that you can find the names of schools and playgrounds on the site, and that some of the caches are a long walk for a five-year-old... I can imagine it getting blown out of proportion by a reporter who doesn't investigate carefully.

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I see no point in these sorts of threads. There is NO activity of any sort in the entire world which could not at some point in time be tied to a criminal element or criminal activity. Do a little research and you will quickly find numerous BAD PEOPLE who served in the military, were police officers, doctors, nurses and even respected religious leaders. It's a shame but a fact of life that it is always the bad people who get all the attention! Just let it go! LET IT GO I SAY!!!

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I think someone's been reading too much Serial Finder. :mad: After checking the profile in question, and hearing the news reports about the man charged with the kidnapping, I think this is a case of misidentification (or possibly identy theft).

 

The suspected username exists, and is located in ND, but somehow, I don't picture this guy and the arrested suspect as the same person.

 

This is what I call Nancy Grace, knee-jerk logic. :unsure::mad:

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I like how they call us ' the "group" ' as if 22,000 of us active weekly participants have no clue. It's them that have no clue. First of all, can they even prove that the username is actually associated with Mr. Duncan? Perhaps its just someone else being funny (OK, its not funny, but still..)

 

They need to go back to secret government cover-ups and soviet plots and leave us law-abiding citizens alone. Or maybe they should dig up the fact that Mr. Duncan played T-ball as a kid so therefor all T-ball players are criminals. :unsure:

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Well, my dad still thinks geocaching is a method of luring middle-aged women into the woods so serial killers can get at them. I tried to explain that there are easier methods of getting old broads into the woods than camping out at a cache site for weeks at a time, but I wasn't fooling HIM.

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Ya know, we sit around at home and work and blahblahblah in here about caching and semi-related topics all the time, but at least get out and find a cache once in a while. :mad:

 

I wonder how many or often the wannabe LEO's in that forum actually help solve a crime? :unsure::mad:

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Someone sounds somewhat alarmed that you can find the names of schools and playgrounds on the site,

Good thing geocaching.com shows those....cause we all know that Mapquest, Rand McNally, school district websites, and any number of local government entities don't show the location of schools and playgrounds!!!!

 

:unsure:

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Hello to the Court tv message board

 

Geocaching is a legitimate "treasure hunt" sort of game/hobby/sport enjoyed by thousands and thousands of people all across the US, Canada, and in countries around the world.

It is played by singles, families, grandparents, and some people bring their dogs caching, too!

 

Please visit the main page of the Geocaching website, www.geocaching.com,

or you can also visit the about geocaching page to read the Frequently Asked Questions and learn more about the facts and history of geocaching. I think most of the explanations you need are right there.

 

Hopefully reading those links will help clear up some of the questions the Court tv'ers are having about our wonderful hobby - it is something many of them would probably enjoy participating in, too!

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    quote:Originally posted by NancynNC

    This needs to be sent to police. IMO

 

 

I agree.

 

I hate to tell them the police know exactly about this hobby and what it is for i remmber them getting a national bulliten atleast once a year explaining it.

 

Further more i can understand what they are trying to do, but they need to understand we have many many many many member's that are active Police, Firefighter and Military.

 

Not to mention we get our Kid's out of the house and enjoy the outside and nature and teach them skill's such as Map reading GPS use and Tracking and about nature. Did your Kid's watch TV this weekend? Mine didn't they where out in nature with me.

 

Im not doing this to flame im doing this to inform you.

 

Thank you

 

Fellow Geocacher.

 

:unsure:

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tiny paw-prints

Senior Member:

 

Hey! Cache this: our "group" out-numbers your active weekly participants! 

 

User jetd63 posted his pic on your site! That photo looks to be the same as the arrest pic of Mr. Joseph E. Duncan!

 

Ya'll seem to be real good at "clues" -- what's wrong?

 

Why do people have to be such turds about things sometimes. Oh and BTW it's not about the numbers. :unsure:

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Dear CTV'ers:

 

The idea that Duncan may have an account here is not why your forum is being so ruthlessly mocked here; it's because of the tin-foil-hat paranoia that, for example, sees something sinister in the phrase "kid-friendly". I shudder to imagine your interpretation of other common phrases here, like "picking up trash", "scenic view", or "handicapped accessible". While I find the misunderstanding displayed amusing, it's also somewhat offensive to have something I love to do with my kids (by which I mean children whom I sired; I want that to be clear since someone there wasn't sure what "my five-year-old" meant) cast in such a disgusting light.

 

I understand wanting to save these kids and put the bad guy away forever, but when you start saying things like that about innocent people, you've become an out-of-control mob, a witch-hunt.

 

That said, please see the more-restrained and informational post above if you'd like to learn more about this fun outdoor activity. Newcomers are always welcome.

 

My prayers are with Shasta and Dylan.

Edited by Dinoprophet
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someone post a few links to duncans blogs.

 

see how hard they laugh then. is this about gps?

 

those people seem legit. what is scary is they could have been in contact with a pedophile.

 

by the way people over there are you aware he jumped bail after he approached 2 young boys at a middle school playground and pulled the younger boys pants down ?

 

after he was done with that he ended up in dennys with a missing girl. real funny.

it could have been anyones child.

 

i fail to see how this man's actions in any way involve geocaching. what does geocaching have to do with jumping bail? :unsure:

 

what i find scary is that most of them could have been in contact with a pedophile and never known it. they are everywhere. the man working at the local home depot could be a pedophile. a (gasp) teacher at their school could be a pedophile. a (gasp) minister could be a pedophile.

 

sheesh!

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Listen, if you folks meet in real life for camping ventures in the woods, this ought to tell ya. Be careful who you're hiking in the boonies with. I hope none of you had contact with Duncan.

 

if the court tv people really want to know what geocaching is all about, they should show up at the geobash. there should be anywhere from 400 to 600 people there on saturday. let them judge for themselves.

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You have got to be kiding me.

Are you really taking these people seriously.

They write stuff like this

 

quote:Originally posted by Mrbillfrog

Thank you much! By the time I figured out how to email I could have snail mailed it to them and it would have gotten there sooner.

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Hahahaha...some of their posts are priceless.

 

It's like watching an archaeologist puzzle through a brand new set of hieroglyphs.

 

Except the archaeologist is played by Christopher Lloyd as Jim Ignatowski from the TV show Taxi...and he's drunk.

 

"I've found something! I just don't know what it is! ... Are these the symbols for G P and S? Great scott!"

 

...and occasionally slips into Doc Brown from "Back to the Future".

 

:unsure::mad::mad:

 

EDIT: Seriously though, the people on that board are supposed to be "helping police", etc... by trying to put together internet forensic clues on where this guy had accounts and kept information...but they can't figure out how our hobby works by visiting the main page and reading some of the information there? Talk about wandering aimlessly blind but with good intentions...either that or Jeremy, you *really* need to do a better job at web design... :D

Edited by ju66l3r
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Listen, if you folks meet in real life for camping ventures in the woods, this ought to tell ya. Be careful who you're hiking in the boonies with. I hope none of you had contact with Duncan.

 

if the court tv people really want to know what geocaching is all about, they should show up at the geobash. there should be anywhere from 400 to 600 people there on saturday. let them judge for themselves.

Do you know what the odds are that there's a sex criminal in a group that large!?!

 

(Just a reminder, I'm not making fun of the crime at hand but the crippling paranoia being displayed. You're no safer from a psycho in a parking lot than in the boonies).

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there should be anywhere from 400 to 600 people there on saturday.  let them judge for themselves.

Do you know what the odds are that there's a sex criminal in a group that large!?!

Especially since "sex criminal" also means "the drunk guy who got caught taking a whiz in an alley one night" in quite a few states.

 

Not defending "sex criminals" just pointing out it's a lot easier to get on that list than most think (and then you get the same prejudices and stigmata from "the public" as a murderous pedophile).

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Listen, if you folks meet in real life for camping ventures in the woods, this ought to tell ya. Be careful who you're hiking in the boonies with. I hope none of you had contact with Duncan.

 

if the court tv people really want to know what geocaching is all about, they should show up at the geobash. there should be anywhere from 400 to 600 people there on saturday. let them judge for themselves.

Do you know what the odds are that there's a sex criminal in a group that large!?!

 

(Just a reminder, I'm not making fun of the crime at hand but the crippling paranoia being displayed. You're no safer from a psycho in a parking lot than in the boonies).

there very well could be. i bet they wouldn't be able to point one out though. it just might show them that this is not some secret society playing an evil and nefarious game though.

 

sometimes i'm safer in a parking lot than i am at home.

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Seriously though, the people on that board are supposed to be "helping police", etc... by trying to put together internet forensic clues on where this guy had accounts and kept information...but they can't figure out how our hobby works by visiting the main page and reading some of the information there?  Talk about wandering aimlessly blind but with good intentions...either that or Jeremy, you *really* need to do a better job at web design... :unsure:

 

Maybe CYBret's excellent Geocaching brochure from Geocacher U would help them understand it.

 

It's got pictures.

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okay, not to sound like a court tv forum idiot or something, but

tiny paw-prints

Senior Member

 

User jetd63 posted his pic on your site! That photo looks to be the same as the arrest pic of Mr. Joseph E. Duncan!

 

Ya'll seem to be real good at "clues" -- what's wrong?

 

where's this pic?? that user doesn't have any pics in his gallery... am i like a court tv person trying to understand the geocaching FAQ??

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Someone sounds somewhat alarmed that you can find the names of schools and playgrounds on the site,

Good thing geocaching.com shows those....cause we all know that Mapquest, Rand McNally, school district websites, and any number of local government entities don't show the location of schools and playgrounds!!!!

 

:unsure:

My kids wish the locations of schools were so secret they weren't allowed to go.

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I just went over and read all of the crap on the CourtTV forum. All I can see is that it definitely disproves the theory that natural evolution always advances the species!

They seem like most people. Some bright, some not so bright, but all of them trying to figure out something that doesn't make a lot of sence. I was glad to hear one of the kids was found alive. However it doesn't look good for her brother.

 

I don't think this is going to come down hard on geocaching any more than hiking as been banned because bodies are always found in the woods. This is an activity, and as an activity it's harmless. We are however out in the world more than most and do have a chance to see things and report things more than most. It would not hurt for the police to work with geocachers for that very reason. I've been working with a local officer on modifying a class to cover geocachers that covers that topic.

 

If we are lucky a geocacher will have seen something and can report it. Especially now that there is a suspect.

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Ya'll seem to be real good at "clues" -- what's wrong?

 

I'm no armchair detective like some of those geniuses on the other site, but I'll take a stab at this.

 

Apparently, someone has pieced together that Jetd63 is some person of interest and that the Geocaching website can help them solve a crime. I hope you are right, otherwise you are going to owe this fellow a really big apology and I wouldn't blame him if he didn't accept it. Ok, I'll give you the information that is not available to you. I hope this helps.

 

I'm posting a snapshot of his profile below. You can see from the profile that the last time he logged in to the geocaching.com website was on April 3, 2005. Here is the history of his movements while geocaching. You will see that the last cache he found was on December 26, 2004..

 

So, his last found cache was in December and the last time he logged in here was in April. Hope that helps you Perry Mason types, let us know what you come up with.

 

Profile:

fb4eff24-70c7-4083-8e7b-6fec83a1b389.jpg

Edited by cachew nut
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Especially since "sex criminal" also means "the drunk guy who got caught taking a whiz in an alley one night" in quite a few states.

 

Not defending "sex criminals" just pointing out it's a lot easier to get on that list than most think (and then you get the same prejudices and stigmata from "the public" as a murderous pedophile).

 

In Milwaukee a 12 year old boy was arrested for some thing, I can't remember what. But it was said in the past he was arrested for "exposing himself" to a bunch of people in an athletic club. It turns out he mooned them.

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Ok, why did I bother trying to help? These people are real dimwits. Now they are having panic attacks thinking about perverts who might hide cameras in the woods. Seems a locker room would be an easier target, but then again, I haven't really hung around with these court tv people. They may know something! Hey, what if somebody put a camera on my street, then they would be able to take pictures! Oh my! Where's my foil?

Edited by cachew nut
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ROFLMAO

 

roflmao.gif

 

<sarcasm on>

I'm so glad I read that thread about all you "cachers". Apparently I had no idea what I was getting into. And to think! I could have been walking out on the same trails with people who "would have been happy to meet me". *shudder* Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go turn off all the lights in the house and peer out from behind the blinds with binoculars. Someone could be trying to watch me RIGHT NOW!

<sarcasm off>

 

But seriously, if anyone learns that someone has set up a camera near one of my caches, let me know immediately! I'm still looking for a good Webcam cache for the left hand side of my stats page.

 

(If I don't stop laughing I'm gonna wake up the fam.... )

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The contents of this message are directed at the CourtTV folks checking up to see what we have to say about them

 

HELLO ALL YOU COURT TV'ERS

 

I've read through your thread regarding this case, and while I understand your concern (sorta, almost) you ALL need to realize something. Us Geocachers in general are not criminals, we tend to be very family oriented people-and families for that matter. We hate crime & criminals just as much as you do, maybe more because the bad guys are doing it in our playground-the great outdoors and invariably we occassionally (and wrongly) catch the rap for it.

 

Poke around our forums a while and pay attention. Notice how many meth labs or crime scenes have been found and reported by a geocacher wandering through the woods where no one else would think to go.

 

For a bunch of people fascinated with our Justice system and the Law Enforcement aspect of it, many of you are committing a cardinal SIN of investigation--making assumptions or drawing conclusions before you understand the subject. Heck, some of you didn't even try--it's spelled out pretty clearly on our homepage. A few minutes of clicking through links here will give you MORE than enough evidence to realize that we are NOT a criminal group, that there is nothing illicit going on here, and we are all well-meaning people. Instead, you jump to the conclusion that we're all pedophiles and rush off and notify your local PD's; who hopefully already knew about us or think of the man-hours they may have wasted tracking down your 'tip' to find a bunch of outdoors loving folks holding GPS devices. I realize that every good tip helps, but a few minutes of simple reasearch and an attempt to understand what you're looking at before you mail/call away reduces time police have to waste chasing down bad leads.

 

I do sincerely hope that the brother is found alive and okay, I heard they found the girl on the radio tonight, and I hope there is a special place in hell for people that do this crap to children.

Edited by dkwolf
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The link in the opening post is now busted. Their moderator either deleted or merged the thread...not totally sure. So, I read a few of their other threads on this topic.

 

This forum is just the online equivalent of a bunch of neighborhood wives sitting around gossiping about the latest news...but with some sort of self-satisfying activism. They don't know much about what their talking about no matter the topic. For example, one discussion turned to PGP/encryption (based on something in the accused's web log).

 

They claim to know people at the NSA who can "crack" PGP in only hours by brute force. This is of course absurd if the person encrypting something did even a half-arsed job at encoding their information. You'd do better and faster by sending the encryptor to Gitmo and beating their passphrase out of them.

 

It was fun for a day, but I think I'm going to let them go back to saying whatever they want in that mudpit they call a sandbox.

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