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Had 2 Run Ins With The Police In One Day


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My brother has been caching for over 2 years with ovealmost 1400 finds and has had 2 cases of dealing with the police over caching, and had one of his caches blown up by the bomb squad, but anyway I have been caching for about 2 weeks, and on saturday during a day of caching, I had a run in with the police in 2 different cache locations, Go figure!! :) Guess I need to be sneakier!!

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On my third attempt, at a very close to home cache, I looked up to see a woman and child in a nearby park, the woman was on her mobile phone, looking at me, ignoring the child. To better paint the scene, the cache is on a pedestrian bridge in a municipal park behind the town library and police station. So I think, I should just get the heck out of here, the woman is following my every move from about 100 yards, but this is my third visit, and the cache must be in one of two places, I try the first, and come up with the cache, quickly sign the log, replace the cache, and think, should I make a dash for the car, or walk out as I normally would? Thinking that a mad dash would only make the woman more certain I was up to no good, I walked off at a normal pace, and about a hundred feet from my car I hear the footsteps of a local officer running over the bridge, followed by the request "may I have a word with you?" I suppose I could have said no, but I walked towards him and asked if he knew what a GPS unit was, and pulled mine out of my pocket. He said he had seen one before, one of his friend's uses one while hunting. Over the next fifteen minutes, after he has radioed in my identifying information to the station, we have quite a discussion about geocaching, I told him about some nearby parks he is unaware of and I learned about a few that I am unaware of...things seem to be going well...except the local P.D's computer is running slow...I am who I claim to be...but they are having a hard time determining if any agency wants to talk to me for any reason...so as this takes longer than either of us would like...the officer's superior officer comes running out of the police station and across the bridge...seems he was wondering if the officer needed assistance since he had not returned as quickly as anticipated. Now the older commanding officer does not grasp the idea of the GPS as quickly, and like the younger officer, quickly asks if money is involved in this game...but in the end after repeating much of what I had told the patrol officer and talking about nearby parks, the voice on the other end of the radio cleared my name. Well before I was told I was free to go, I was told I could continue my search, as I was not violating any local ordinance...I think they would have in all probability helped...but earlier, the younger officer after hearing my explanation of geocaching, asked if I had logged the find, and I said no...since I had yet to log it online. So I thought it might be hard to explain after pulling the cache out how it was that I had not logged the cache if I had in fact just signed it.

 

In the end though, I felt completly respected, told that it was OK to continue searching, and I got the cache...so it was a good day after all.

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The cops I've dealt with were really cool about it all. In fact after everything checked out I gave one of the cops my GPS and we set out on the cache hunt. When we found the cache I made sure to point out entries in the log book that dated back 2 or 3 years so they would know the cache had been out there for quite a while.

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When I first got my GPS I was at work and my wife and her freind wanted to try this GEOcaching thing that I was telling them about. I had a bogus coordinate in the GPS that I had put in when learning how to use it. Well turns out that they went looking for that spot which was not too far away. Weirdly enough the waypoint lead them to a undeveloped peice of property inbetween two house's. They were looking alover the place for this hidden treasure until the police showed up. One of the neighbours seen them and called them in. It wasnt too long after that they called me at work all upset cause the police had no idea what they were talking about. hehe

 

It took a few miniutes for me to clue in that they were looking for this bogus test plot that I made. The Police ended up letting them go with no trouble and I got a good laugh.

 

She checks into the waypoints now before adventuring out

 

Team Cedar

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A couple of weeks ago I had a run-in with not a policeman, but a worker for a local town's parks. We were searching for a cache in a garden (the cache was nowhere near the coords), and this guy drove up, got out, and asked us what we were doing. I showed him the cache page, and explained geocaching to him, and he commented that he had seen people around the garden doing the same thing.

 

Other than that, we really haven't had any run-ins, which is surprising considering the county we live in has an overbearing police force.

Edited by Dragonfire870
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I have had 6 police run-ins. 2 were pretty bad, 1 was downright scary, but all in all, after a little overreaction on thier part, I was able to explain my way out of anything bad. It helps not to be doing anything wrong to begin with.

 

Yeh. What really I hate is when the police approach me for geocaching somewhere that I have every right to be, but I am sweating bullets as I am speaking with them, because we are standing only fifeen feet from my car and there are six dead bodies in the trunk and a stolen Russian nuclear-tipped surface-to-air Sunburn missile lying in plain sight on the back seat. . . I hate those days...

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You should always carry a print out of the cache from geocaching.com. That will give you some credibility if you encounter Law Enforcement or a civilian do-gooder wondering what you are up to.

Yes, I much agree, and I carry the printed listing page in a clipboard which is clearly marked in large letters on the back: "Geocache Search and Retrieval". I think this helps to forestall trouble in the first place.

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I find police to be overbearing and officious. (My apologies to the policemen/women here.) They use their authority to badger (semi) innocent people. Somewhere, there mght be a record that I was questioned by the Brigantine Beach Police (?) for 'hanging on a bridge' in Atlantic City. Like someone would ever blow up this bridge to nowhere?!? I explained that I was hunting for a benchmark. Nope. We're all terrorists in this police state.

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I find police to be overbearing and officious. (My apologies to the policemen/women here.) They use their authority to badger (semi) innocent people. Somewhere, there mght be a record that I was questioned by the Brigantine Beach Police (?) for 'hanging on a bridge' in Atlantic City. Like someone would ever blow up this bridge to nowhere?!? I explained that I was hunting for a benchmark. Nope. We're all terrorists in this police state.

 

I've been a cop for 18 years now and people with attitudes like this makes the job a lot harder. A cops first duty is to NOT GET KILLED. Sorry if you get offended while they are trying to get to the bottom of what you are doing. Most likely they received a call regarding suspicious activity on the bridge and they had a duty to look into it. If you bust out with an attitude when they contact you, because you "have a right" to be on the bridge, then of course they're going to become a little defensive. For the most part, a citizen's attitude sets the pace for a police contact. Most people have never heard of what we are doing, loitering around with GPS's in our hands. Don't blame the cop for doing his job.

 

One day, while at work, I decided to grab a cache that just happened to be in my patrol area. Guess what? When I hit the GZ I noticed a suspicious person setting in a car parked 20 feet from the cache. Car turned out to be stolen and the guy behind the wheel had a gun. Two fellow cachers ($kimmer and Splashette) scooped the cache while I was taking this guy into custody.

 

My advise is to just be low key if the police contact you. No one likes stress, including the police. When you go off on the "Why are you harrassing me?" soapbox, you're forcing a situation that does not have to happen. Cops don't have crystal balls, all that they have is their observation skills and gut feelings. And you know what else? Ask yourself what the cop was doing before he got called out to check on your "suspicious activity". Imagine spending 4 hours with a family whose 19 week old baby just died. Now imagine clearing that call and having to deal with someone who has never met you, but because of what you do for a living feels that you are "overbearing and officious". fun times huh?

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I find police to be overbearing and officious. (My apologies to the policemen/women here.) They use their authority to badger (semi) innocent people. Somewhere, there mght be a record that I was questioned by the Brigantine Beach Police (?) for 'hanging on a bridge' in Atlantic City. Like someone would ever blow up this bridge to nowhere?!? I explained that I was hunting for a benchmark. Nope. We're all terrorists in this police state.

 

Although I have never worked in law enforcement in my life, I feel compelled to reply to your post. I feel that it was very polarized. In my entire life, across all the police officers whom I have ever met, even those encounters which occured under less-than auspicious or even potentially adversarial situations (for one funny example, see footnote 1 below), I would say that what you wrote might have been true for 2% or 3% of them at most, and those few may have been having a bad day. The remainder went out of their way to be civil and helpful and considerate and were very sincere. I suspect that what you were really trying to express may have been your frustration that since 9/11, everyone in America, including civilians, legislators and law enforcement, seems to be overly-vigilant. This is normal in the wake of an event such as 9/11 and my sense is that it will decrease over time.

 

Now for the promised footnote tale...

Footnote 1 -- Here is one example of a less-than-auspicous situation in which I encountered police and yet we all handled it very well and I ended up encountering no troubles or hassles, and we all parted on great and friendly terms after matters had been figured out and explained. Two years ago, I was in a Midwestern city on a consulting job for a small firm. The CEO of my client company had kindly loaned me a beat-up old Jeep which was their company "gofer" vehicle, partly so that his company would not have to pay for a rental car for me. It was a nice Jeep but very beat up. He neglected to tell me that the vehicle was listed with the police as having been stolen from their fenced compound two months earlier by two escaped felons, and that he had let the vehicle registration and insurance lapse. Oh, and it turned out that there was no registration sticker on the windshield. When the police pulled me over at midnight (on my way back to my hotel from the supermarket) for having two busted taillights and expired registration, I opened the glove compartment to look for the registration and insurance cards (as that is where the CEO had assured me they would be found) and there was nothing in the glove compartment but a large bloody hunting knife and an old marijuana cigarette. Things had not been looking good so far (at least on paper), and they suddenly seemed like they might get much worse. Amazingly, the police officer and I managed to keep smiling and stay incredibly relaxed throughout the whole bizarre unfoldment of events, and, after he was able to verify over the radio that the vehicle had indeed been stolen by two ex-felons but had been recovered days earlier at gunpoint by state police in another state, we parted on great terms, thanking each other for having had a wonderful interaction and wishing each other a wonderful night. The officer even allowed me to drive the vehicle for the rest of the night, so that I could get back to my hotel and then to the nearby offices of my client the next day, whereupon I returned the vehicle and the keys to the CEO and told him the tale (no, I never drove that vehicle again!) By the way, when I was pulled over, I did not act indignant and I did not mouth off; I simply explained calmly and peacefully who I was and what I do for a living, and also where I was from and why I was driving the vehicle that night. What is it the Aussies say (my wife Sue is an Aussie)? "No harm, no foul!"

Edited by Vinny & Sue Team
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:anitongue:

When I first got my GPS I was at work and my wife and her freind wanted to try this GEOcaching thing that I was telling them about. I had a bogus coordinate in the GPS that I had put in when learning how to use it. Well turns out that they went looking for that spot which was not too far away. Weirdly enough the waypoint lead them to a undeveloped peice of property inbetween two house's. They were looking alover the place for this hidden treasure until the police showed up. One of the neighbours seen them and called them in. It wasnt too long after that they called me at work all upset cause the police had no idea what they were talking about. hehe

 

It took a few miniutes for me to clue in that they were looking for this bogus test plot that I made. The Police ended up letting them go with no trouble and I got a good laugh.

 

She checks into the waypoints now before adventuring out

 

Team Cedar

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I stand behind Harry Dolphin. Every cop I've ever met made me prove I was doing nothing wrong.

 

I have stood in the rain for over an hour while cops searched my car for no reason. They have stopped me while walking down the street, again for no reason. Then when I didn't have ID had to sit and wait for proof till they were satisfied. I've had my car and house broken into. " Yep it sucks, probably nothing we can do" Wow thanks guys!

 

Did you ever see a cop ask the young mother pushing her child on a swing what she was doing? How about the businessman with a briefcase. Do they have to strip on the side of the road while LEO goes through their belongings. Explain it to me. but if I am staring at a GPS suddenly I am a security risk?

 

Also, Geocaching has been around for 5-6 years. There have been a few high-profile instances where a cache has been blown up for fear of a bomb. Or where people tromp around parks in the middle of the night with a GPS. Don't these agencies talk about this? LEO would have us think they do so much training. Why not just a little bit about Caching? I would think a 15 minute lecture on what it is, what a cacher would have on them, and how to confirm a cache site etc. would save countless hassles for both sides. They are going to run into far many more cachers than Al-Quaida.

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I stand behind Harry Dolphin. Every cop I've ever met made me prove I was doing nothing wrong.

 

I have stood in the rain for over an hour while cops searched my car for no reason. They have stopped me while walking down the street, again for no reason. Then when I didn't have ID had to sit and wait for proof till they were satisfied. I've had my car and house broken into. " Yep it sucks, probably nothing we can do" Wow thanks guys!

 

Did you ever see a cop ask the young mother pushing her child on a swing what she was doing? How about the businessman with a briefcase. Do they have to strip on the side of the road while LEO goes through their belongings. Explain it to me. but if I am staring at a GPS suddenly I am a security risk?

 

Also, Geocaching has been around for 5-6 years. There have been a few high-profile instances where a cache has been blown up for fear of a bomb. Or where people tromp around parks in the middle of the night with a GPS. Don't these agencies talk about this? LEO would have us think they do so much training. Why not just a little bit about Caching? I would think a 15 minute lecture on what it is, what a cacher would have on them, and how to confirm a cache site etc. would save countless hassles for both sides. They are going to run into far many more cachers than Al-Quaida.

Well, I don't know where you live, but there are rules of law that need to be followed by the police before they can even legally search your car. As far as contacting you while you were just walking down the street. I've contacted people who were "just walking down the street" because they looked like someone we (I guess I'm LEO?) looked like. Maybe the difference with they guys / gals I work with and the "LEO's"?? in your area is they didn't explain themselves. Maybe you didn't give them the chance? I've had people drive by and yell out, "Leave him alone!" while I was talking to someone. What this person didn't know is that the guy I was talking to flagged me down. If the officers did respond like you said that they did when responding to your theft call, then all I can say is that wherever you live, maybe the cops need to think about their professionalism. Don't put all police officers into one lump though. That is just not fair at all. I find it funny that the people who do this are also the people who scream about racism, sexism, gender bias etc. BUT YOU HAVE NOOO problem judging a person because what they do for a living huh?

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Let's look at this from the cop-angle... Now, it needs to be noted here that I'm not now, never was, and would never consider being a police officer. Crummy job...

 

[dramatization follows]

 

Ok, so you got up this morning and had an argument with your wife. You were supposed to change the oil in her car today but you can't: You have to go to court and spend the next 45mins having a lawyer try to discredit you. He wants to know "exactly how you ascertained that his client was doing 110mph in a 25mph zone". Of course, you're kinda sensitive to that seeing as how just last month you helped clean up the mess where three teenagers died in a "street racing accident" on that very road. Such a senseless waste. . .

 

Go home and change for your shift.

 

You get a call for robbery in progress. Oh yeah, the kid's armed. Turns out to be a watergun. Good thing he got talked down instead of wasted. That would have destroyed your "career" [sic] And how would you live with yourself after that?

 

You make a traffic stop. The woman is weaving erratically. She gets irate, throws her license at you. You take a deep breath and calmly ask for her registration and insurance. She _darts_ for the glovebox. Time stops: Is she going for a weapon or registration and proof of insurance? Time starts again - it was the latter. You hook her up - suspicion of DUI. She's still irate - stupid public servant. Then when you put her in the car, she starts crying about her family and how sorry she is and how it's never happened before - gosh, is this the same person?

 

You respond to a suspected domestic abuse. The most dangerous call a cop can get. You know these two. Fifth call this month. Last time you told him if it happened again, he was going to jail. You place him under arrest when suddenly she jumps on your back and starts pounding on you. You can't take her man away!

 

It's the end of the shift, busy day, and you get a call for suspicious activity. Here's someone poking around under a bridge. He has something in his hand, hard to tell from here. You ask him "how are you this evening, sir?" He stands up and says "good evening, officer, what can I do for you?" You ask him what he's doing. He replies "I'm looking for a geocache. Are you familiar with geocaching?" No. "It's like a complicated scavenger hunt. One geocacher places a container with a log book some place. They then post it to the Internet. Other geocachers then download those coordinates and use their gps to go try to find it and sign the logbook." Hmm. Sounds harmless enough. "Do you have any ID?" "I always carry my ID. It's in my left hip pocket. May I get it?" Wow. Cooperative citizen. "Yes, please" [calmly take ID from pocket with two fingers, hand it to the cop] ID is valid. Looks like the same person. JoeHarmlessCitizen. Punch the number in the car terminal - no wants, no warrants. "Sorry to have bothered you, Mr. Citizen. Have a nice evening and stay safe." "Thank you, officer, YOU TOO!"

 

"Weird hobby, but on a scale of 1-WEIRD, it's about a 1.2. [shrug] Nice guy, though. These geocachers are pretty cool".

 

That's a cop *I* want to run into when I'm out caching. The one that ran into a cacher as described. He doesn't need to see my ID. He just needs to hear "are you familiar with geocaching?" and his previous experience pops immediately to mind.

 

Everyone with a bad attitude about cops should get invited on a ride-along once or twice. It's a real eyeopener. And when you have friends who are cops, you get to learn the other side of it: They're people with personal lives, stresses, good days, bad days, hopes, dreams, ...

 

Personally, I find the most amazing thing to be how good the psych screening is for cops.

 

I'd have shot most of the people described above in the face. Twice.

Edited by Adrenalynn
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Police officers have one of the toughest jobs in the world and deserve a lot more respect than they get. Adrenalynn does a great job showing how hard their job is. Perhaps people should take that into consideration the next time they interact with a police officer. I have geocaching business cards in case a officer ever wonders what I am doing.

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Police officers have one of the toughest jobs in the world and deserve a lot more respect than they get. Adrenalynn does a great job showing how hard their job is. Perhaps people should take that into consideration the next time they interact with a police officer. I have geocaching business cards in case a officer ever wonders what I am doing.

Thanks for the last two above posts... Very understanding... Here is the lesson. Most people need to understand, that for the most part the citizen being contacted helps set the pace for the contact. If the person is calm and cool with me, I'll be the same... But, no cop is going to drop his / her guard, only lower it a little, once they feel that they are safe. Regarding caches being blown up by bomb squads, maybe the following may help save a few caches.

 

I work for the second largest city in California, sixth in the nation. Here is how our "bomb" calls are handled. First of all, they are not aired. Before we had computers in our cars they called them "desk calls" and we had to call in to dispatch to get the details. Now they still call them desk calls, but we don't call in, they just send the details to our car's computer without airing the details. The next thing the dispatcher does in says, "Units, code-6 radio traffic in the area of..." This means do not use your radio in the area of the call. When the police arrive at the scene, we turn off our in-car computer and all of the communication equipment. Then we walk to the area where the suspicious package, or whatever is located. Then we visually inspect it. We do not and never should touch it. If we have a bomb dog available, then they will respond and sniff the package. If there is no dog, and the package looks a little out of the norm, then we call for our bomb squad. Our bombers work out of the fire department. From there we just try to keep people away from the thing and evaulate for a possible evacuation. Fire arrives, if they can, they will x-ray the package. If they can't do that then most likely they will "disrupt" it.... In other words the container gets exploaded. Now, put yourself in the shoes of the first cop that arrives on scene. Even if your gut tells you that most likely it is not a bomb, are you going to risk your life picking the thing up or are you going to error on the safe side? I'm going to error on the safe side. Unless of course I know for a fact that it is a geocache, based on my playing the game. The lesson to learn is, if it is an urban cache, don't use ammo cans or any type of pipes or tubes. Use a clear container. Don't put a case in areas where you are going to generate a lot of suspicion. Most cops don't carry gps units with them, so they're not going to ask communications to check www.geocaching.com for caches in the area. I have to tell you.... With all of the publicity that geocaching has been getting and all of the nuts out there, I pray that the wrong person doesn't get ideas about this sport...

 

Anyway. Nuff rambling... I should know by now that some people just don't like the Po-Po. So here are my parting words. If you get contacted by the police out there, be polite and simply explain what you are doing. Carry a print-out and just be cool. Even if you hate cops like a few of the last cachers, bite your lip for a few minutes you might be surprised. They're just people with a real dirty, hard job that a lot of people wouldn't want to do. A lot of my fellow cops have become geocachers too, by the way.

 

And hey, El Chorizo, since you started this freak'n thread, and you are a local boy, let me know if you would like to go on a ride-along. I'm currently recovering from surgery do to a work related injury, but I should be back on the job in a month or so.

 

Cheers to all!

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... I should know by now that some people just don't like the Po-Po. So here are my parting words. If you get contacted by the police out there, be polite and simply explain what you are doing. Carry a print-out and just be cool. Even if you hate cops like a few of the last cachers, bite your lip for a few minutes you might be surprised. They're just people with a real dirty, hard job that a lot of people wouldn't want to do. A lot of my fellow cops have become geocachers too, by the way.

 

Nicely said Cletus. I've had a few run-ins with the locals and I have done my part in educating several locals as well.

 

Many times geocachers put themselves in situations where they can be mistaken as burglars. The LEO's have no idea what is going on other than the call of a suspicious person(s).

 

The best thing to do if you are challenged is to be honest and have a friendly attitude.

Edited by bogleman
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I think too many people may be looking that all cops are "good" or "bad."

 

I've had my share of police that were polite and courtious, just doing their job when I might have looked suspicous or was speeding or something. I have no problem with these. And if I am going 65 in a 55 and get a ticket, well that will teach me to pay more attention won't it?

 

Of course, than we have a local officer a few years back charged with child molestation, and the officer that wanted to search my car for me making a right turn on a red light with nothing coming and no sign saying I couldn't turn on right.

 

Different people act differently. We can't judge people by their job. That's just like saying all waitresses are good looking or all factory workers are well built, or even that all lawyers are pure evil.

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I used to work with an ex-cop. This is a guy who walked around a corner one day and a nutjob shoved a shotgun into his gut. The front sight got stuck in his belt, so he spent 2 hours trying trying to talk a druggie/drunk down, wondering if the guy would twitch and send his spinal cord down the street.

 

Yeah... cops are 'teh eeeeeevil'.

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Give a try to benchmarking near a government building in this post 9/11 Era! I was looking for a benchmark that was placed in front of, what was once the Post Office and most recently/currently (it's moving) the Federal Courthouse. After five or ten minutes of walking around I had a uniformed officer come out to ask me what exactly I was doing and what did I have in my hands? I showed him my GPS and digital camera and told him about benchmarking. Ironically, as I talked to him, I realized I knew him. Went out with his daughter a couple of times back in the late 70's or early 80's! :P Learned that they discourage much in the way of picture taking near government buildings and they sure watch what's going on around the outside.

 

JohnTee

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It's the end of the shift, busy day, and you get a call for suspicious activity. Here's someone poking around under a bridge. He has something in his hand, hard to tell from here. You ask him "how are you this evening, sir?"

 

I've been called a lot of things by various police in my day, but "Sir" isn't one of them.

=)

 

I do agree though, that most cops are decent folk just doing their job.

The fact is, though, that a healthy minority have an attitude problem, be it through years of dealing with the dregs of society, or superiority complex made worse by the uniform. These people tarnish the image of police everywhere.

 

And, of course, "I was stopped by a cop, I told him what I was up to, and he carried on his way" isn't nearly as interesting a story to post as "I was held down on the ground by three rabid police dogs as five police had their way with my GPS. It turns out that the town has an ordinance restricting unlicensed GPS use and I spent four nights in solitary while the DA siezed my house"

heh.

 

-ajb

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On my third attempt, at a very close to home cache, I looked up to see a woman and child in a nearby park, the woman was on her mobile phone, looking at me, ignoring the child. To better paint the scene, the cache is on a pedestrian bridge in a municipal park behind the town library and police station. So I think, I should just get the heck out of here, the woman is following my every move from about 100 yards, but this is my third visit, and the cache must be in one of two places, I try the first, and come up with the cache, quickly sign the log, replace the cache, and think, should I make a dash for the car, or walk out as I normally would?

 

My gut reaction would be to go over with a nice smile on my face, comment on what a beautiful day it is, and maybe explain to her what you were doing skulking around the bushes.

 

Something along the lines of:

 

"Hey how's it going. Beautiful day isn't it (modify for appropriate weather concerns)"

 

"Noticed you were looking a bit worried at me over there, hope I didn't scare you. I was just playing a kind of high tech treasure hunting game, somebody hid a little container over there, and then other people use a GPS unit to come and find it."

 

(depending on interest level/anxiety on her part, I'd either continue explaining, or wander on over back to the car)

 

Remember you aren't doing anything wrong, and if she chooses to go find and remove the cache later, well then its just a casualty of war.

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I just carry one of these with me incase I am ever stopped http://www.geocacher-u.com/resources/foldingcard.pdf I see no reason why some of you wont simply explain what you are doing. Also you DO look suspicious to the police when looking around in the bushes and trees. The ones that are doing this in the middle of the night are just asking to get stopped and questioned. Don't think of it as they are trying to hassle you , think of it as they are doing there job and trying to protect the people that are not looking around in the bushes and trees. If you were to see someone lurking around BEFORE you became a cacher then you would think they look suspicious too.

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I find police to be overbearing and officious.

My only encounter with police (other than a traffic stop), the guys were like that. I was home for a weekend while in college (home and school 300 miles apart). I needed to make some astronomical measurements (angles above horizon for some stars) for a class. Needed a dark place, with pavement (so my car wouldn't get stuck) to sit and wait for my night vision to ramp up. So I went to our VFR-only airport (small town) and drove out to the end of the runway. Listened to the radio for a while, then got to work. In the middle of my measurements, a police car came to check the hangars, just doing their jobs. The see my car, floor it and hit the takedown lights. I keep my hands in plain sight, they get out and ask what I'm doing. I explain that I'm taking some star measurments for my astronomy class, and I needed a dark paved area to do it. They were fine with that, shined their lights into my car, looked around, and asked for my ID. I showed them my drivers' license.

 

Guy looks at the license and says, "This says you live in Austin. What are you doing here?" That's the question that got me.

 

For a split second, I thought about saying something like, "It's a free country, isn't it? Is there some law against being on public property if you don't live in that town?" But I decided I didn't need facial contusions and lacerations and a night in jail, so I explained that my Dad lived in that town, and I was home for the weekend. They left, and I waited another half hour for my night vision to return after having 2 Mag-Lites shined in my face, along with the takedown lights.

 

Now, some of you may think they were just doing their jobs. But I was on public property, the airport was not curfewed after dark - I had every right to be where I was. No planes were going to land on me, because it's a daytime-only strip, and the runway lights were off, anyway! I had my astronomy textbook and notebook open, and my cheesy cardboard astronomy tools. I was alone, bothering nobody, not breaking any laws. So why ask the question?

Edited by SquirrelsWillRule
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I find police to be overbearing and officious.

My only encounter with police (other than a traffic stop), the guys were like that. I was home for a weekend while in college (home and school 300 miles apart). I needed to make some astronomical measurements (angles above horizon for some stars) for a class. Needed a dark place, with pavement (so my car wouldn't get stuck) to sit and wait for my night vision to ramp up. So I went to our VFR-only airport (small town) and drove out to the end of the runway. Listened to the radio for a while, then got to work. In the middle of my measurements, a police car came to check the hangars, just doing their jobs. The see my car, floor it and hit the takedown lights. I keep my hands in plain sight, they get out and ask what I'm doing. I explain that I'm taking some star measurments for my astronomy class, and I needed a dark paved area to do it. They were fine with that, shined their lights into my car, looked around, and asked for my ID. I showed them my drivers' license.

 

Guy looks at the license and says, "This says you live in Austin. What are you doing here?" That's the question that got me.

 

For a split second, I thought about saying something like, "It's a free country, isn't it? Is there some law against being on public property if you don't live in that town?" But I decided I didn't need facial contusions and lacerations and a night in jail, so I explained that my Dad lived in that town, and I was home for the weekend. They left, and I waited another half hour for my night vision to return after having 2 Mag-Lites shined in my face, along with the takedown lights.

 

Now, some of you may think they were just doing their jobs. But I was on public property, the airport was not curfewed after dark - I had every right to be where I was. No planes were going to land on me, because it's a daytime-only strip, and the runway lights were off, anyway! I had my astronomy textbook and notebook open, and my cheesy cardboard astronomy tools. I was alone, bothering nobody, not breaking any laws. So why ask the question?

 

Speaking as a pilot, particularly in post-9/11 days. . . Personally, I think the police were just doing their jobs. And, why did you assume that a VFR-only airport is a daytime-only airport? To me, that is a grossly unwarranted and dangerous assumption. I have made numerous landings at VFR-only airports under VFR flight rules at night. And, why would you even think of driving an automobile onto a runway at an airport? :unsure: Amazed you got away without some kind of citation or without a forced behaviorial health evaluation at a nearby facility. I think that you were very lucky. Had I been in your shoes, I would have thanked my angels for such luck and would have walked away from the situation with a lot of gratitude for having gotten off very easily.

Edited by Vinny & Sue Team
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With all of the publicity that geocaching has been getting and all of the nuts out there, I pray that the wrong person doesn't get ideas about this sport...

 

Given the current tensions I can echo agreement with this.. Sad to say but theres some sickos amongst us & I sincerely hope it doesn't spread into the GC community.

 

I recently placed a micro and before it was published I had a talk with the local police chief and the county sheriff. I showed then some geocaching print outs with reference to the GC site as well as the Maine site.

My reasoning was that in this town (pop ~~2800) theres a lot of drug issues. I wanted to make them aware of a couple things:

1. What geocaching is about.

2. Where my particular cache is located.

3. Why there is a degree of stealth involved to keep the cache from being pillaged.

Hopefully the end result will be.. getting a few more folks into geocaching and having the local patrols know what might be going on at the cache site as it is in plain view.

 

I feel it would be an excellent move on the part of ALL geocachers to make contact with their local LEO's and try to work with them rather than against them. YES-- to the muggle it IS a suspicious looking activity-- and if the LEO community is aware of the area caches chances are much better for a "friendly" encounter if any at all.

 

Thus far we (the entire CG community) have a good relationship with many parks and land owners.. let's extend that goodwill in the direction of the LEO community.

 

..it can't hurt...

 

JW

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why did you assume that a VFR-only airport is a daytime-only airport?

 

Because I had lived in this town for 20 years, and knew from pilot friends that the strip wasn't used at night unless someone came out to the airport and turned the lights on (which only happened once or twice a year). Now, maybe you want to try a landing on a rural airstrip with no approach lights or ground lights except the murcury-vapor street lights on the hangar and office - more power to you!

 

And it wasn't post-9/11. It was 1985. I agree that the police were only doing their jobs, protecting city property. I'm sure if I had been breaking any laws or ordinances, they would have told me to scram. Which they didn't.

Edited by SquirrelsWillRule
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I ran into a county detective while out caching. Didnt even see him, the greenery was so thick, but he saw me, and said hello, and when he stepped out, i saw his gun first, and badge second, he said he was off duty, and a friend had given him her GPS to see if he liked caching. It was his 2nd find, I found it first and i let him find it. I bet we looked funny stepping out of the woods and shaking hands. <_<

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