Not Easily Spooked

[+KKTH3]

So yesterday my family and I take a caching trip and started working on THIS multi-cache. Just after we found the first waypoint, the wierd stuff began to happen. I posted a pretty long story about it in our log, and it would have been longer had it not been for the 4000 character limit. What I edited out was more of the odd things going on when I ran into the drunk. That encounter by itself would have been nothing - he was pretty harmless - but my wife did watch him making an "exchange" with some other person that drove up to the park while I was resetting a new waypoint for the final cache location.

 

We may have overracted a bit, but all in all considering the circumstances and that no one else would have known we were there and how quiet it was in this town on a sunday afternoon we just felt it better to play it safe than to be polite with some older person that probably just wanted a bit of company. I still get a shiver thinking about that safe though.

[+Sue Gremlin]

How creepy.

Something I have learned to rely on are my instincts. I always trust them. I don't think you overreacted at all. I am glad you listened to that inner voice. I would have done so much earlier, and beat feet outta there!

[+EKYHunter]

Creepy indeed!!!

 

He probably had a couple of buddies waiting for you to go down in the basement . You did the right thing , he could have been on the up-n-up but if he wasn't !!! Good thing you didnt wait to find out.

[PyroDave]

Good thing that didnt happen to me I prob would have done the same thing. But the next day Id be back to see what was down those stairs. God only knows what I would find.

[+dkwolf]

These are the reasons I like to carry my hunting knife or my Ruger .357 with me while caching, hiking, or really doing anything outdoors. Kinta tough to carry the knife in town, and even tougher with the Ruger. I'm a pretty big guy (6', 300 lbs) and a HS football lineman and wrestler, so one-on-one hand to hand combat doesn't really worry me much, I know how to handle myself. It's when you get into multiple freaks or freaks with knives or guns. Whenever I get into a situation like that, I find myself constantly sizing the 'stranger' up, sub-consciously (sp?) figuring what my first defensive move would be and what items nearby I could use as defensive weapons if he flips out on me; and the other part of my mind is working on escape routes. It's a good idea to always be aware of your surroundings and have at least one flight path ready in case it hits the fan.

 

I think you did right by beating heck outta there and taking an alternate route back to the vehicle, however it may have been a good idea to get back to the truck ASAP and get the motor running in case you had to make a post haste exit-at least in the truck you have some form of solid protection completely surrounding you, as well as the benefit of a 3,000-5,000 lb defensive weapon should the need arise.

[+mrmnjewel]

yikes...yeah, i would have definitely beaten feet out of there too...Have you thought about talking to the police about this guy and the mysterious "walk-in safe" in the basement of the building? Something is up with that. Like the previous poster said, god only knows what or who is in that basement

[+wimseyguy]

Ack creepy. Good thing he didn't offer to share a nice chianti

Not only would I contact the police, but the cache owner as well. If this is indeed the mural he intended cachers to see, he might want to adjust the cache a bit.

 

There is no such thing as being too safe when your family is involved.

[+KKTH3]

The cache owner knows about it and no, this was not a mural that was part of the multi-cache. The mural in the building had just been finished being painted and will probably be erected later this year. According to the guy it will be going on the outside west wall of the building it was being stored in. My wife said we just happen to be freak magnets and fully radiating that aura that day.

 

Reading the other logs, it seems cachers that did this cache a week before also ran into what was probably the same guy - also on a Sunday afternoon when the downtown was quiet as a mouse. I'm thinking now that it might actually be a better idea to do this cache during a busier time - more witnesses makes for more security in this case.

 

I actually have a hard time believing I was really in any danger, but at the time I had a real bad feeling about the situation and the risk was just too high to find out whether or not the gut feeling was justified.

 

Maybe it was a wierd karma thing but the other odd occurance that happened that caching trip is that the cache owner was caching that day in OUR home town doing some of our caches. They ended up finding only 1 of the 7 caches of ours they did that day, and on the one they found, they cut up their hands bad. On the last cache of ours they attempted they twisted an ankle stepping in a hole. It was very odd that we were in each other's home town at the same time doing each other's caches and both having a bit of a negative experience.