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Time For A Return To Virtuals?


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A quote from the BBC web site this morning:

 

"As on 7 July, the bombs are believed to have been carried in rucksacks. Three are thought to have been of a similar size to the previous bombs, while the fourth was smaller and appeared to have been contained in a plastic box."

 

How long before our urban caches and caching activity are seen as suspicious I wonder?

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One of my caches is overlooked by a CCTV cam. I went into the local police station and explained to the desk seargent all about caching and gave them my phone number and the website address. I explained that anybody geeky hanging around the spot could well be a geocacher and to my knowledge this was not a drugs drop! They seem more amused than anything.

 

It did spark one of the geomuggle other halfs "little rants" on the subject. he did say that he thought that geocachers should report the location of any of their caches that may be mistaken for a dodgy device to the local police, so that they were aware of where they all were. He may have a point, it may not be a complete waste of time to have a chat to the local community policeman and at least make him aware of the concept of geocaching, if not all the specifics, so if a problem arose then the hapless cacher on the spot would not have to explain the whole thing from scratch.

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He may have a point, it may not be a complete waste of time to have a chat to the local community policeman and at least make him aware of the concept of geocaching, if not all the specifics, so if a problem arose then the hapless cacher on the spot would not have to explain the whole thing from scratch.

He does indeed have a point, and I could see myself doing this with a young, educated, urbane bobby in one of Britain's major city.

 

... but when I think of my local county policemen, I'd pass. :rolleyes:

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A quote from the BBC web site this morning:

 

"As on 7 July, the bombs are believed to have been carried in rucksacks. Three are thought to have been of a similar size to the previous bombs, while the fourth was smaller and appeared to have been contained in a plastic box."

 

How long before our urban caches and caching activity are seen as suspicious I wonder?

Your answer is here. This is a subscriber only cache for those of you who can't see it.

 

This is local to us, it is now on our ignore list. We don't want to arouse suspiscion or end up in the local nick. Now is the time to think carefully about where you place caches and not only get permission from the landowner but let anyone who has CCTV covering your cache spot know what you are doing else unsuspecting cachers will end up in difficult positions.

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How long before our urban caches and caching activity are seen as suspicious I wonder?

That's precisely why ourtwo caches in Birmingham city center are virtuals. The one would be impossible otherwise, but you could probably hide a micro at 'Venice West Midlands"- but sommehow it didn't seem a responsible thing to do. I don't understand what the problem is with virtuals anyway, myself.

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The problem of suspicion should not arise. We all, well should, have a card in the cache explaining what the package is, and in my case my email and telephone number is included. However, of course, not a lot of use after the bomb squad has blown it up as a suspicious package. lol. <_<

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However, of course, not a lot of use after the bomb squad has blown it up as a suspicious package. lol. <_<

Exactly! If I was the bomb squad bloke, I'd hardly be in a hurry to open the hidden metal box in case it was harmelss and had identifying info inside. I think really that conventional caches in cities or potentially sensitive areas (eg: near a Police Station) could be very risky.

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I expect that many caches have been looked at by the police in the past. A shady looking charactor hanging about, and we can all look like that while waiting for a muggle to go away, may then be watched from a hidden vantage point. The person watching may then conclude you are not up to any good, and then phone the police reporting what could be a drug hide. Or worse in this day and age, something worse. Most caches are hidden in countryside, but a good point has been made about caches in cities. Personally I would not hide a cache overlooked by a ctv camera. Common sense is all that is needed.

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Personally  I would not hide a cache overlooked by a ctv camera. Common sense is all that is needed.

But you can not always clock a good well hidden cctv.. <_<

 

So with whats going on in the world today i do beleive that city centres should not be used for regular caches..

 

Just my 2p worth..

 

 

B.

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So with whats going on in the world today i do beleive that city centres should not be used for regular caches..

 

Just my 2p worth..

I agree but with the situation on virtuals being almost impossible to get approved at the moment people might feel that they have no choice if its a really good spot.

 

We wouldn't at the moment go out to find city centre caches and we certainly wouldn't go placing one. Our choice and maybe we are missing out on some great caches but at the moment we are more comfortable in the non-conspicuous locations.

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Not placing caches in City centres is giving into the terrorists, although it would only be one small piece of a jigsaw, it is still giving in.

 

You should have permission for hiding your cache from the landowner or local authority, so that solves the CCTV question, and the police will generally leave you to go your own way, once you have explained what you are doing, or shown them the container. If the bomb disposal get involved you can guarantee that the landowner or local authority are involved before any controlled explosion happens. Which then reverts back to why you have to get permission.

 

Myself and 2 others were stopped in Perth just after midnight by the police, as soon as we told them what we were doing we were left alone, we could also hear them laughing all the way down the road.

 

So to sum up, obide by the rules, get permission, and there is no problem and also we have not gave into the terrorist in the slightest way.

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Myself and 2 others were stopped in Perth just after midnight by the police, as soon as we told them what we were doing we were left alone, we could also hear them laughing all the way down the road.

At least I took the headtorch off my head; you two must have looked mighty suspicious.

 

And we were laughing all the way back to the car, as we kept a close eye out for the curtain twitchers.

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