A Good Way To Get Rid Of Muggles

38.2k · July 13, 2005

Saw this log on one of my caches today. I got a laugh out of it and thought I'd share it.

Has anybody else used a ruse to clear the area for their cache hunt?

Edited July 13, 2005 by briansnat

3.8k · July 13, 2005

That's a good one; I'll have to remember that! :mad:

I typically just wait, or skip the cache.

July 13, 2005

Well, I usually just put on one of these...

...and start 'taking readings' with my GPS. That clears the area quickly :mad:

This is in jest, but I have, breifly, considered adding the anti-contamination suit I've got to my caching bag for that reason

July 13, 2005

Saw this log on one of my caches today. I got a laugh out of it and thought I'd share it.

Has anybody else used a ruse to clear the area for their cache hunt?

Funny tale, but I can't decide whether that was a good way to "get rid of muggles" or an excellent way to encourage the fishermen to come back later and see what the stranger (emphasis on "strange") was really up to. I would wager that the fishermen didn't move because they were concerned about their personal safety because of snakes ... they probably kept that geocacher under close observation.

To answer your question, no, I have never used a ruse.

22k · July 13, 2005

I tried the ol' wildlife photographer ruse with a family of 8 and they walked the trail with me pointing out things they thought I should shoot.

5.3k · July 13, 2005

Seems like an excellent way to get the authorities called on you. See thread from yesterday.

4.8k · July 13, 2005

Hopefully Leprechaun will come in here and tell the rabid bat story.

July 13, 2005

:mad: That's funny!

So forgive me for asking as I am very new at this, but why would you try to pretend you are not doing anything wrong so nobody calls the police? You're NOT doing anything wrong.

If someone asks me what I am doing, I will tell them, "looking for something". If they press the issue, we have a foldout thingy to hand them that explains geocaching.

What's to hide? Yes, you want to keep caches away from those who might be tempted to pillage it, but why look guilty and try to "act natural"?

I suspect that most people would glaze over and tune out rather quickly when you try to explain it to them.

9.1k · July 13, 2005

Hopefully Leprechaun will come in here and tell the rabid bat story.

It was the July 4th holiday, and the downtown fireworks display had just finished. Tens of thousands of Pittsburghers were enjoying a perfect summer evening. Probably not the best day to be hunting urban micros, but that's what three of us were doing.

We arrived at ground zero and reasoned that the cache was beneath a pedestrian bridge over a fountain pool. One of us would need to take our shoes off, wade into the fountain, search for the cache and log the find. There were, however, several dozen muggle children splashing around in the pool, including five or so right under the bridge.

As geocachers, we were decked out with all sorts of electronics, backpacks, vests, etc. All very official-looking. A muggle parent asked what it was that we were doing:

Muggle: "Are you looking for something?"

Cacher 1 (loudly): "Yes ma'am. We've had a report of bats in the area."

Cacher 2 (loudly): "That's rabid bats. They're rabid. They have rabies."

Cacher 3 (loudly): "Ma'am, have you seen any bats flying around? They like to nest under the pedestrian bridge."

(Cacher 1 and Cacher 2 hold their GPS receivers as if they were bat detectors, and follow the arrow towards the bridge.)

Cacher 1: "Mike, I'm not liking these readings."

Muggle 1: "Jolene! You come out from under there this INSTANT! There are BATS!"

Muggle 2: "Are you guys with the Game Commission?"

Cacher 3: "Nope. The Health Department. The Game Commission doesn't have jurisdiction here."

Within a minute or two, the fountain and surrounding area was entirely free of muggles. Score one micro for the find count.

Edited July 13, 2005 by The Leprechauns

3.8k · July 13, 2005

Sounds to me like impersonation of a public official; you're lucky some suspicious, conspiracy-minded muggle didn't envision a plot to blow up the bridge and call LE! :mad:

4.8k · July 13, 2005

Recently I was with some friends looking for a micro in a bunch of rocks around a drain right beside a bike trail. We were basically removing all the rocks looking for it and people would just walk right by. One person told us "thank you, thank you" as she passed and we had no idea why. A bit later a little boy walking by with his parents asked "Daddy what are those people doing?" The father replied "they are fixing that drain so it won't clog up and flood anymore."

We found the cache, put the rocks back and noted that the drain didn't appear to go anywhere, so the person who thanked us will be disappointed to see it still flooded after the next rain.

July 13, 2005

Haven't had to use it yet, but if I'm looking in ivy I'll say I'm checking rat traps. Rats love ivy.

Edited July 13, 2005 by Wacka

July 13, 2005

My husband and I were recently looking for a well hidden cache in a wooded city park along a trail. It seems most of the people who use the parks in this area are they type who would never consider hiking in any real wilderness areas. I was a few feet off the trail with the GPSr and my husband was still on the trail. A woman walked by with a few other people and she asked my husband what we were looking for. He told her we were looking for spiders, she moved along at a faster pace.

2k · July 13, 2005

I generally just talk to myself, loudly, actually it's more like I'm arguing with myself, and maybe a couple of other people. A little grease from the undercarriage on my face, a bottle in a brown paper bag, and my old broken pair of glasses help to complete the affect. Wait that's what I look like all the time. At any rate I almost never have any trouble finding solitude.

38.2k · July 13, 2005

So forgive me for asking as I am very new at this, but why would you try to pretend you are not doing anything wrong so nobody calls the police? You're NOT doing anything wrong

You're not doing anything wrong, but once a cache location is revealed to non geocachers it significantly increases the chance of it going missing. Its done to protect the cache more than anything.

1.4k · July 13, 2005

That's a pretty good ruse!

I have no set method to get rid of muggles. It's always situational. I try to act like I belong there, and try to out-muggle the muggle. I study their faces before I take any action. I never initiate a conversation, I let the muggles do that. If a muggle asks me what I'm doing, my answer would depend on what kind of person I think he or she might be.

Whenever I've told them about Geocaching, their eyes would light up thinking there's something valuable involved. I ALWAYS tell them that it's more an intellectual exercise with only a log sheet to sign, then most would lose their interest and let me be. For the few that are still curious, I sometimes let them join in the search, since they are potential future members of Geocaching.

There are times where the muggle is more stubborn than expected and I feel the person shouldn't know about the cache. No big deal, I move on to the next.

July 13, 2005

From one of my recent logs:

.......Anyway, get to the site, drive in and see what I thought was the fire road right in front of me. It's 11am, the place is deserted as the rain just stopped, the gates are open and I got a 4wd Jeep. You do the math! :mad:

I figure, since the signs that say "Keep Out" are on the side of the gates that are swung open away from me and since nothing is blocking the trail, I'll drive in as far as I can then walk to the cache which was only about .25 miles away.

I drive straight up, crest a small hill and come out face to face with a city worker in an orange city T-shirt sitting in a work truck who looks like he's guarding the place. I roll down the window and say "Hmm, this looks like a good place to turn around." He tells me that this is actually the landfill for contractors and he is there to make sure nothing gets dumped that isn't supposed to. :mad:

We start to chatting and he notices the gov't placard and ID decal on my Jeep. So, I tell him I'm in the area looking for a survey marker which is supposed to be off some "Fire Road" as it says in the cache description and show him the screen on my laptop. He says "Cool, there are a whole bunch of markers up by the water tower on the access road, follow me! Sure you wanna get your Jeep muddy?" Now I'm thinking "Great, this guys gonna take me up to the tower and expect me to get out and start surveying these markers while he's watching. How the heck am I gonna get to the cache!"

So we go chargin down the hill, hang a left and go up this fire road which leads to a fenced off water tower. Then he gets out and he starts pointin out the survey markers around the tower area. I tell him that according to my computer we just passed the one I'm looking for and it's back in the woods a bit and he can head back and I'll go check it out as it may take a while to find.

Well, turns out he really just wanted to chat (guess it gets lonely guarding a landfill). So we spent some time BSin and while we're doin that a family of deer starts wanderin close to us. This guy is tellin me how the deer are used to him and not afraid except for when the coyotes come out (which he has seen).

Finally he goes back down the road to the landfill and tells me he has to lockup by 2pm. I assure him I'll be out by then. I hit the cache (not where I thought it would be but well hidden yet accessable). Before he left I asked him if the road we were on was public access. He said that it was. So, if anyone wants to drive to within about 50' of the cache and has a 4wd, go for it! Just say hello to the guy in the landfill, tell him you are checking out the survey marks like the other guy (me) or tell him about Geocaching. :mad:

Edited July 13, 2005 by Crusso

July 13, 2005

When people ask me what I'm doing I usually say "scavenger hunt". Sometimes you can get people to help you.

3.8k · July 13, 2005

When people ask me what I'm doing I usually say "scavenger hunt". Sometimes you can get people to help you.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose? :blink:

5.3k · July 13, 2005

You're not doing anything wrong, but once a cache location is revealed to non geocachers it significantly increases the chance of it going missing. Its done to protect the cache more than anything.

I'm sorry to do this to you, Brian, but:

Do you have any evidence that this is (generally) the case?

I can think of counter-examples in which a neighbor learned about a cache and took it under his or her wing.

I think if there were some older kids around I might be careful not to reveal the exact location of the cache, but if there are adults and I tell them what I am doing, they are not particularly likely to remove the cache unless they think there is some reason it should not be there.

But maybe I am too trusting.

3.9k · July 13, 2005

My experience is that exposing muggles to geocaching increases knowledge of, support for, and adds player to the sport.

6.5k · July 13, 2005

I have used the old "doing community service hours" line a few time to discourage any further interaction when I vant to be alone. :blink:

July 13, 2005

When I get approached by muggles I usually say "I'M doing research for a project, I'm a student at Central Michigan University". The research can be on animals, history of the place, trees, birds, or other things. If I get caught with the cache or looking incredibly suspicious I just admit what I'm doing and show them the cache and that it can be a fun family hobby.

My reason for not telling people I meet on the trail that I am a geocacher is because later in life they might become geocachers. I don't want to ruin the hunt for them on that particular cache! :blink:

July 13, 2005

My experience is that exposing muggles to geocaching increases knowledge of, support for, and adds player to the sport.

AMEN to that.

Gee I think I will start a why we should be nice to muggles thread.

July 14, 2005

We usually try to give some information and use our instincts from there. Most people really don't want to know what you are doing they just want to know that you are doing something that you are supposed to be doing.

We were out in the middle of nowhere Hoosier land, parked on the bridge over the creek, both GPS out, when we were suddenly swarmed by a group of good ol' cornbred teens who had come down to the creek to swim. No way out if it, we decided to tell them what was up.

When they asked what we were doing, we used our usual explanation---Its enough for most people---and we told them playing a game a lot like a scavenger hunt.

Of course, these were kids, we were in their neck of the woods, and we were strangers, so they wanted to know what those funny things in our hands were. So N1 went into instructor mode and gave them mini lessons on how to use the GPS. He told them that people hid things and posted the coords and other people went there to find what they hid and sign the paper in the container. One of them asked me if people hid drugs for other people to find (and he sounded a bit too enthusiastic about it--sigh--so much for that innocent little face he had!).

The end of the story was that they found the cache and signed the log--and learned something on a hot summer day (Makes this teacher proud!). I worried that they might move the cache after we left, but several people have been there since and everything seems to be fine. It might have helped that it was just a smaller container and only had a logbook in it at the time.

July 14, 2005

Simple cure for muggles: bring a child retriever with you. Then use the shock and awe technique. Agent K has been known to ask people to get up so she can look under a bench for a "logbook to sign". It always works, and no cache that she has gone for with this method has gone missing. I guess they assume it's a child's game, but this works out well in high-muggle scenarios (see Off your Rocker or anything hidden in Palatka, Fl.). They usually look at her like "What just happened" and go on their merry way, completely oblivious to the cache, and usually wanting to stay that way.

July 14, 2005

When I get approached by muggles I usually say "I'M doing research for a project, I'm a student at Central Michigan University".

I could try that. But, since I'm older than the University, it probably wouldn't work.

Usually, the tin foil hat, my orange vest on backwards, talking to someone who isn't there, wetting myself, is enough.. they move away quickly...

Actually, I have tried explaining geocaching, and some just give me a blank stare, so I settle on Scavenger hunt and if they show interest, then I explain more.

"When I'm feeling down, I like to whistle. It makes the neighbor's dog run to the end of his chain and gag himself."

2.2k · July 14, 2005

so where can i buy a cheap geiger counter...... :blink:

38.2k · July 14, 2005

You're not doing anything wrong, but once a cache location is revealed to non geocachers it significantly increases the chance of it going missing. Its done to protect the cache more than anything.

I'm sorry to do this to you, Brian, but:

Do you have any evidence that this is (generally) the case?

Sorry, my evidence is solely empirical. If it wasn't an issue we would't be camoflaging caches and concealing them.

Edited July 14, 2005 by briansnat

July 14, 2005

I usually don't hide the fact I'm geocaching. I will explain it to them and if they seem interested I invite them along for the hunt. Maybe I'm lucky no caches I've taken a possible muggle to has gone missing. I started fessing up after a trip to a neighboring city. We were looking for an urban micro near an intersection. We kept trying to be sly about the hunt but we caught a fellow's attention. He kept walking from the street corner to the building while flashing what looked like a log baggie with a white powder inside it. We went back to the car and he left the area. We went back out for the hunt and finally nabbed the pesky micro after some more searching. When we got back to the car we were talking about the potential conversation that could have been had. Muggle "Are you looking for something?" Cachers "yeah, we hope to find something nearby" Muggle "I can help you with a fix" cachers "No, our gps's are working fine." etc. . . . .

3.8k · July 14, 2005

For the DoC.A.R?T moving cache cache, here's my log:

Used my Handspring treo 300 to hook into gc.com (which was as painfully slow this morning as it is right now) and get the coords for the cache. Conned some kids into thinking we were park people checking the safety of the merry-go-round and we looked under. JPatton made the grab while TrevRnR and I checked our sides. Hid the cache in a new spot and lo-and-behold, the Blazer browser on the Treo doesn't like the "log your visit" page. So humbly replaced it back where we found it for the next group. TFTC! because of the equipment flubs and punching in the wrong coords (and looking on the wrong side of the pavilion), this was one of the harder ones of the day

This was some time ago before the newer WAP site was up. Those kids were happy to let us check the safety of their merry-go-round!

July 14, 2005

For solo suburban caching, the one that hasn’t failed me yet nor precipitated any follow-up questions…”I’m checking this neighborhood for satellite reception.” There is something about the truth that baffles them. I usually get a silent nod of approval as they move on.

For solo urban caching, I just whip out a tape measure and start measuring everything in site. Not sure why, but it works for me.

If another cacher is along, I start a full volume rant about the wastefulness of the idiots at the home office for wanting to make so many changes to the structure and the landscaping as we thoroughly prod and poke the area with utter contempt.

When I am deep in the woods, patience and silence always works.

If I am somewhere I am obviously not wanted and the person approaching looks official, I am always looking for my extra key to the van that I lost yesterday.

And always, I reserve the right to speak in imaginary foreign languages.

22k · July 14, 2005

You're not doing anything wrong, but once a cache location is revealed to non geocachers it significantly increases the chance of it going missing. Its done to protect the cache more than anything.

I'm sorry to do this to you, Brian, but:

Do you have any evidence that this is (generally) the case?

Sorry, my evidence is solely empirical. If it wasn't an issue we would't be camoflaging caches and concealing them.

Really? I figured that most cache go missing because geocachers are taking them.

I mean it's obvious that there are more geocachers than muggles who know of and can find the exact location.

2.5k · July 14, 2005

I was caching next to the canal with my sister. A muggle was sitting on the target bench. We politely asked her if she minded that we sat donw and joined her. After a while, she was showing no signs of going, so we started having a conversation about what we could see around us. After a while my sister spotted a brown rat running along the opposite bank. This naturally lead to a discussion on the habits of rats and on Weils disease, etc... and then for some reason the muggle looked alarmed, jumped up and departed rapidly. That was handy!

I have 'outed' myself as a geocacher when I have been disovered backing out of a bush with cries of "found it" and a tupperware in my hand, but I have generally found most muggles seem most postive (and those caches are still there). One cache had a good spoooky story asscoiated with it, so I was telling this muggle how geocaching took you to all sorts of interesting places and taught you all sorts of stuff... it turns out, she lived in the house of the highwayman who's ghost reputedly haunted the lane, and was able to add some extra stories to those that were on the cache page. Cool. Didn't find that pesky cache that day, that took another trip.

July 15, 2005

I spent a few hours laying down in a thick bush do some muggles wouldnt see me coming out of it.

July 15, 2005

so where can i buy a cheap geiger counter......

Look in your local army surplus store. I have seen them in mine.

A Good Way To Get Rid Of Muggles

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