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Do You Feel Guilty "sneaking" Around...


Alan2

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I never feel guilty. But I sure do feel uncomfortable with playground caches. A lone middle-aged man poking around a children's playground is just wrong and we should be cognizant of non-cachers comfort level when we are around. I won't do anymore playground caches until I get a grandchild to accompany me and give me a reason to be there.

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Guilty? Hmm, no. But what's the difference when the cops come? So why would I bring up the cops when I've never had an encounter with them whilst geocaching? I guess because it's always a fear. Sneaking around in the dark, digging around in tree trunks, squatting in the bushes. Have I done anything wrong? Of course not. Is somebody going to call the cops? Of course they are, it's just a matter of time.

 

I really dislike residential caches, even if they're in a public park behind the houses. The Petunia Dursleys of the world are watching. Plus the cache might get muggled after I visit. It's happened several times to me. Mere coincidence? Maybe.

 

I even own a cache that I don't like visiting. I hid it near a construction site where I was working. Now there is an endless wall of windows where any number of eyes might be watching. I guess I must suffer from that spotlight syndrome. Funny thing, though. I never cared what people thought about me in high school. . .

 

Melrose

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I will tell you this from working over 8 years as a police officer. People are so intent on where they are going, they don't pay attention to where they are. In other words, unless you are drawing attention to yourself by thrashing around or slinking around, you become part of the background. Even when people look straight at you they are only looking to see if they know you. they don't really register you as anything but as a person.

Some of the previous posts are correct in that if you act like you belong, you will be ignored. Most people don't want the hassle of dealing will someone that is not perceived as a direct threat.

Now to looking for caches. I carry my camera with me everytime and pretend to take pictures. I also take photos as that is a benifit of caching, great photo opportunities. However, if someone approaches and questions you, BE HONEST. If you give them some lame story about looking for sunglasses or reading meters, and then you still keep looking, you may draw unwanted attention, plus alot of people can't lie worth a darn and you will sound like you are hiding something. Instead, give them the full story, show them the GPSr and your PDA and printed sheets. The swag you exchange and even ask them if they wanna help. You may convert them to caching and if they see someone else looking in the area, they will know what that person is doing there. They may even become a cache watchdog, keeping it from being Muggled.

Most of all TELL THE TRUTH.

Edited by Davispak
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I don't feel "guilty" but I do feel uncomfortable when the cache is a micro on the bottom of a MAIL BOX. Messing with the mail is considered a serious offense and I'm not at all sure the authorities will smile on me even if it is just a magnetic key case with a log inside.

Edited by Thrak
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Guilty? Hmm, no. But what's the difference when the cops come? So why would I bring up the cops when I've never had an encounter with them whilst geocaching? I guess because it's always a fear. Sneaking around in the dark, digging around in tree trunks, squatting in the bushes. Have I done anything wrong? Of course not. Is somebody going to call the cops? Of course they are, it's just a matter of time.

...

I have no reason to fear the cops being called while I am caching as I am not doing anything illegal.

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I try not to do the things that make me feel guilty. Geocaching is an amazing mix of experiences and my approach if anything would be ‘child like’. I use common sense and do my best to protect my pursuit and myself. Neither of which would be as much fun without the other. If a searching for a cache made me feel guilty, I would avoid it. I would never want this wondrous opportunity for discovery to be tainted with moment guilt.

Edited by Brendal
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Guilty?  Hmm, no.  But what's the difference when the cops come?  So why would I bring up the cops when I've never had an encounter with them whilst geocaching?  I guess because it's always a fear.  Sneaking around in the dark, digging around in tree trunks, squatting in the bushes.  Have I done anything wrong?  Of course not.  Is somebody going to call the cops?  Of course they are, it's just a matter of time.

...

I have no reason to fear the cops being called while I am caching as I am not doing anything illegal.

Absolutely true. But why would you want the hassle of explaining to the cops what you are doing if you don't have to? It's a stressor I can do without. And so far, knock on wood, I HAVE done without it.

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Once while exiting a wooded area, I found a police officer sitting in his car which was parked next to mine. He noticed that my car was in an abandon parking lot and was unattended, so he wondered if there was a problem. He asked me if everything was okay. I replied yes and talked to him for a few minutes. We talked about geocaching, which he knew about and it was quite a pleasant visit. No harm, no faul.

Edited by Brendal
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I have not felt guilty but I have been strongly aware of my locations and that what others might think and question. Hanging around the cedar hedge of a church yard in early am hours in mid fog does not look good in hind sight. GC1Q7QK Luckly that cache was located near a local landmark and I always make it a habit to carry a camera with me when caching, so I already had some great sunrise in fog shots. New to geocaching and have yet to purchase a GPS device so explaining the truth (which I would do) becomes a little bit harder. With the second cache of my recent trip it would have been easier to explain my being there since it was located in the cemetery where my grandparents are buried. The wandering about would simply be looking for the headstones of other relatives/ancestors to pay my respects to. GC1WARO.

 

So guilty no.

 

I guess the best emotion to put on it -- and more so after reading this thread --- would be a feeling of being very wary of the potenial problems that could be cause by someone noticing a single 40 ish male wandering about bushes.

 

Great thread. Food for thought!

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I don't really worry too much about what people think of me, more than if they see what I'm doing, come back later and take the cache, which would be an obvious bummer. So I just do that. I grew up riding BMX in the streets and have had so many run ins with cops pissed about grinding on handrails, doing this or that, that I don't really worry about that. Like the previous poster mentioned, if you're honest with whoever, no one cares.

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For my first few caches, I was nervous that people were watching, but not anymore.

 

The only times I do is when the cache is at a residence. Found two like that so far. One in Salt Lake City (drove up and down the street about 10 times, but in the end, decided not to stop), and the other in Syracuse, NY (the homeowners were just coming home as I was pulling up, so they invited me to stop.. otherwise I probably would not have!). Something about lurking in someone elses yard, even when they say it's ok on the cache page!

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I never feel guilty. But I sure do feel uncomfortable with playground caches. A lone middle-aged man poking around a children's playground is just wrong and we should be cognizant of non-cachers comfort level when we are around. I won't do anymore playground caches until I get a grandchild to accompany me and give me a reason to be there.

Make that an older man and you have made my post for me. My solution has been to do playground caches on foul weather days whenever possible. It may be a little rough on the log pages but I feel more comfortable. I don't have any problem when caching with others.

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I've been at this for a number of years. I still often feel like I'm doing something wrong especially in urban areas. Even in the woods. I guess it's part of the nature of what we do. Unlike thowing a ball around in a park in an open way, we sneak around furtively watching over our shoulders for muggles - even in the woods I look especialy when I have the cache. :laughing:

 

No wonder I have this feeling like I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing. ;)

 

Anyone else feel this way?

 

The Team has the same issue and that is why long ago we began filtering out micros from our pocket queries. We only hunt micros when we are out with our caching bud who is a geohoe and will hunt for a micro any where any time. I'm quite convinced that he'd hunt for a mano even if it were up a camel's butt.

 

We find most all micros hidden in an urban setting to be a gross embarrassment and that they reflect poorly upon the game of geocaching and its participants.

 

Prime examples of this are magnetics hidden on, under or around utility boxes or behind businesses in things such as the valves and piping used for fire detection and suppression.

 

Another real embarrassment for The Team are exposed nanos under park benches.

 

So it's not exactly "guilt" but embarrassment that is the bane of The Team.

 

You'll always hear the popular refrain of: "If you don't like 'em don't hunt for 'em".

 

While that sounds really neat and cool, it does nothing to address the image that geocaching in the aforementioned settings is projecting to the public at large and property owners and managers specifically.

 

The theory that such comments proffer is in our opinion at odds with reality.

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There is an important difference between a behavior being illegal and being suspicious to the poing of attracting the attention of the cops or other security personnel.

 

Further, I'd make a fair wager that in fact lots of the activities conducted by geocachers behind strip malls across this country are in fact illegal.

 

Believe it or not, there are simply places where geocachers nor anyone else has any business nosing and poking around.

 

A lot of them can be detected with a small amount of common sense.

Edited by Team Cotati
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Guilty? Never. Seeing it as the neighbours see what it might be - uncomfortable. (They thought it was a drug pick up/drop off point.) Explanation followed. Generally, a simple "We are looking for something, I thought I dropped it here," suffices. Usually, one of us is a lookout on the trail...and we become studiers of bugs if we hear muggles approaching.

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I've been at this for a number of years. I still often feel like I'm doing something wrong especially in urban areas. Even in the woods. I guess it's part of the nature of what we do. Unlike thowing a ball around in a park in an open way, we sneak around furtively watching over our shoulders for muggles - even in the woods I look especialy when I have the cache. :laughing:

 

No wonder I have this feeling like I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing. ;)

 

Anyone else feel this way?

yeah i do there are alot of caches that seem as if they shouldnt be where they are at there is one by my house just put at a sportsman park and yet it says private property so should this be a legal cache it says no tresspassing and i didnt see where it says permission was granted yeah some i just wont look for anymore

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The Team has the same issue and that is why long ago we began filtering out micros from our pocket queries. We only hunt micros when we are out with our caching bud who is a geohoe and will hunt for a micro any where any time. I'm quite convinced that he'd hunt for a mano even if it were up a camel's butt.

 

I once found a cache hidden in a metal sculpture of a black bear, and, yes, it was hidden in it's butt. Sick person that I am, it was the first spot I checked.

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The Team has the same issue and that is why long ago we began filtering out micros from our pocket queries. We only hunt micros when we are out with our caching bud who is a geohoe and will hunt for a micro any where any time. I'm quite convinced that he'd hunt for a mano even if it were up a camel's butt.

 

I once found a cache hidden in a metal sculpture of a black bear, and, yes, it was hidden in it's butt. Sick person that I am, it was the first spot I checked.

 

I suppose that I ought to have been a bit more clear.

 

"Up a non-metal real live camel's butt". In any event, we'd not search for one because we find such hides exceedingly embarrassing and a poor reflection upon the game.

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I did my first parking lot lampost cache a few days ago. I'm afraid that in my attempt to be discreet, I can imagine that I must of looked very suspicious. As I was leaving the spot, a police car pulled in close to where I was. I'm not sure if he was there for me or not, as I didn't stick around to find out, but it did put a little scare into me. Too much stress to be fun for me.

 

I have to agree with some of the others about finds in playgrounds and school areas too. I'll avoid those unless my kids are with me. And, I think i'm going to avoid the parking lot micros altogether.

 

B2K

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Sometimes near residential housing, but otherwise not anymore.

 

I think it stems from having to hide the cache from the eyes of muggles pushes it's way into feeling that we have to hide the fact that we are geocaching.

 

Forget about trying to blend in and trying to make digging through a bush look normal, you can't do it. Just cache with a prupose and people won't give you a second look.

 

And if they do...

 

"What are you doing?"

 

"I'm looking for a film canister in this bush. You wanna help me?"

 

"Ah, no thanks"

 

Hey look! an old response that I'm not ashamed to have posted. hmmm. :laughing:

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Guilty?  Hmm, no.  But what's the difference when the cops come?  So why would I bring up the cops when I've never had an encounter with them whilst geocaching?  I guess because it's always a fear.  Sneaking around in the dark, digging around in tree trunks, squatting in the bushes.  Have I done anything wrong?  Of course not.  Is somebody going to call the cops?  Of course they are, it's just a matter of time.

...

I have no reason to fear the cops being called while I am caching as I am not doing anything illegal.

Absolutely true. But why would you want the hassle of explaining to the cops what you are doing if you don't have to? It's a stressor I can do without. And so far, knock on wood, I HAVE done without it.

 

Exactly.

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Being an old veteran geocacher of 3 days now, I was on my 2nd find yesterday. I was standing there, logging in, when when a giant police officer walked up and asked me what I was doing. "geocaching, sir."I replied. "huh?" says he. There I briefly explained this whacky sport and he was truly amazed. I told him there are many families that play the game and really enjoy it. I wrote down the website for him and he thanked me and walked off. So maybe we have another one of the boys in blue on our side.

I have no feelins of guilt or self conciousness, heck, I'm just an old codger out having a little fun.

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Being an old veteran geocacher of 3 days now, I was on my 2nd find yesterday. I was standing there, logging in, when when a giant police officer walked up and asked me what I was doing. "geocaching, sir."I replied. "huh?" says he. There I briefly explained this whacky sport and he was truly amazed. I told him there are many families that play the game and really enjoy it. I wrote down the website for him and he thanked me and walked off. So maybe we have another one of the boys in blue on our side.

I have no feelins of guilt or self conciousness, heck, I'm just an old codger out having a little fun.

 

Do you use the iPhone App?

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Team Cotati,

I don't have a clue what that is! Think of yourself trying to have an intelligent conversation with Davy Crockett! I just got a 60CSx last Tuesday. I'm 62 and trying to catch up with you young folks. It's frustrating to say the least!

 

It could possibly be a percieved difference between 'logging in' and 'logging'. :D

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I feel strange sneaking around.

I do feel slightly guilty, but I like that feeling. Life can be dull sometimes and any activity that makes you feel these unusual emotions is a good thing :D

I feel guilty but at the same time I know im not doing anyhting wrong, but Im still aware of what people think of me if they are watching.

I cache alone so maybe that adds to the feeling. I sometimes worry about freaking other people out. The other day I was caching along a very lonely pathway. I was in the bushes off the side of the path and a woman came along with a small dog. I remained hidden because I didnt want the woman to be scared of the strange man emerging from the bushes in the middle of nowhere. Then I noticed that the bushes I was hiding in were right next to a school playground on the other side, and began to worry even more.

 

There is one strange feeling I get it when Im deep in the woods alone. (okay its not exactly a jungle but the small wooded areas by my home feel quite secluded.

I feel like im hyper-aware of every sound and movement. if I hear anyone coming I stand still and listen, maybe even duck out of view. I start scanning the landscape for the smallest movement. Its strange I dont know why I do it, maybe im afraid of coming across someone weirder than me...

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As others have said, I occasionally feel a bit conspicuous when caching, but never guilty. I do prefer caches that involve a degree of hillwalking as a general rule.

 

Also, I look for Flush Brackets quite a bit, and as they are often on farmhouses etc it involves much more regular explanation of what I'm doing to curious householders. I've never had a bad reaction of any sort, generally people are mildly interested and helpful, though a fair proportion find it hard to hide the fact that they think I'm a bit crazy.

 

Even so, I tend to avoid people whenever possible. :)

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No, we never feel guilty. We have run into situations where there were trespessing signs posted near a cache, and opted out of following through with it, so none of the caches we have found have we felt guilty about since they were all on property we felt comfortable being on. If the area is full of muggles, we just try to come back at another time. We are trying to teach our girls about being stealthy..lol Discreet they are not!

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No, we never feel guilty. We have run into situations where there were trespessing signs posted near a cache, and opted out of following through with it, so none of the caches we have found have we felt guilty about since they were all on property we felt comfortable being on. If the area is full of muggles, we just try to come back at another time. We are trying to teach our girls about being stealthy..lol Discreet they are not!

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I think I'd feel a little uneasy in a high traffic area ... not because I feel I'm doing anything wrong, but because that's just the way I'm wired. For one, I don't like crowds and two, I don't like people watching me for any reason. I will comfortably search along a rural or semi-rural road, but in an urban or suburban environment ... it would be unlikely unless I had my geo buddies with me.

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Conspicuous? Guilty? Depends. In the city, you can do almost anything, and no one notices. (In the suburbs, it can be tougher.)

Used the 'tying the shoelace' trick for the first time yesterday. In NYC. I was checking out the Muni-Meter, when a cacher from out of state walked up and asked if we were geocaching. He found the cache, but couldn't get to it because some lady was leaning against the pole it was on. Bold as brass, I walked up behind her, put my foot on the curb, bent down and started retying my shoelace. Halfway through, I handed off the cache to my compadre, and finished tying the lace. We all signed the log. I went back, and dropped my backpack against the pole and started rummaging through it. Put the nano back on the pole. Finished rummaging. Twenty people standing on that sidewalk waiting to get into a restaurant, and nobody saw a thing!

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Tritto. :D
Heh... I like that.

 

Only gripe I have regarding urban caches is they often result in some time wasting while muggles are nearby or watching.
There is a cache near me that I've looked for a couple times (DNF'ed it once) but I refuse to go back. GZ is INSIDE a major grocery store (maybe only 10 feet or so, but still, inside the automatic doors). This is not some Mom & Pop cash and carry sorta store either, this is one the Big Places. Freaking Muggle-Central for one thing, morning noon and night and too really top things off one quick glance around GZ and I count not one, not two but THREE high-tech looking security cameras. That sort of thing just makes me feel uneasy. I'll take the DNF and move along tyvm. I don't care to explain GC'ing to security officers or law enforcement. Oh, and we're talking about a micro, of course. <rolls eye's>
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