Jump to content

Best Excuse For The Question: "what Are You Doing?"


50Cal

Recommended Posts

I appreciate the aspect of the game that involves secrecy, but so far (i'm really new at this) I don't mind telling people what I'm up to as long as I'm not right about to pull out a cache. That said, I was in San Antonio recently and a police officer was walking by just as I was about to pull out the container. I was a little concerned that he might think it was drugs or something so I pretended to take pictures of a radio tower until he left.

 

-Sam

Link to comment

My Significant Other didn't even WAIT to be asked the other day. This guy comes by on a narrow trail just as I'm trying to replace the cache and S.Other didn't notice him until he was on top of us. The guy says hello, but asks no questions and S.Other VOLUNTEERS that we're from the parks department and we're noting the position of the tree that has obviously fallen down recently. Then he pulls out our notebook and starts jotting the coordinates of the tree!

 

I'm sure the muggle didn't believe him. Possibly because I was ROTFL! :):D

Link to comment

Usually, I tell the truth, especially if law enforcement is asking the question. But occasionally, I just feel perverse, and/or prefer not to launch into the whole explanation. In those cases, I explain that I'm a biologist. That gives a reasonable, believable, and sufficiently vague reason to be poking around anywhere in the woods (I don't do a lot of urban caches). Recently, some schoolkids busted me in the middle of combing a tree for a nano, and surprised me by asking, "Are you a biologist?" "Yup."

Link to comment

with law enforcement or children, I try to be truthful.

 

Although I love

I'm using billion dollar sattelites to hunt tupperware.
:ph34r:

 

I asked one guy what he was up to, cause I swear he had a gps in his hand, and he said he was just playing with his pda. Next thing you know, he and I are talking about our kids (D2 was hanging out in her sling) and he offers to help me find the cache because its at the 6' mark and I'm only 5'4. I show him where I've zeroed out the coords and have been looking and about how antsy I was about the syringe and he offers to find it for me. He climbs into the same area I was at, turns around, looks up - the one place I hadn't looked - and grabs it. I show it to his daughter, and sign it, offer to let them sign it but they said no.

 

The best part of it is that I think I made a convert of him and his girl.

Link to comment

Why do we need excuses? Is geocaching illegal? Guess it depends on whats in the cache, but most often, the answer is no. Is Geocaching the start of some secret society? As long as people (wtf is a muggle? sorry, i'm a adult, not into Harry Potter) don't see you take the cache out, or put it back, why do we need to hide anything? I've read logs of non-geocachers who have found the cache, have exchanged stuff and placed it back. Some have probably come up missing after people finding it, but that could happen regardless if the secret of the geocaching society is out or not. Hiding your GPS from people you meet or saying its a phone? What is wrong with you people? I just started geocaching a few weeks ago, and think its a awesome game. I love it, but it's a game, stop taking this, and everything else so seriously. I was looking for a cache yesterday in a rather large park, a guy and his kids came up the trail, the kids went past me, the guy looks at my GPS and asks me if I'm getting a good signal on it (I was standing a few feet off the trail with my gps infront of me, trying to figure out where to go next) I replied "yeah, theres a cache around here somewhere and I'm going to find it." (I was no where close to it) He laughed a bit at the way I said it, and continued on his way catching up with his kids. Theres some funny excuses, but why do we need them?

 

Wow, unbelievable...but what can be expected from someone who's email addy (according to your profile) includes the term "bubble farts"? In reference to a subsequent post of yours, "Non-geocacher" is not a "label", it is simply a term to differentiate between those that geocache and those that don't. BTW, there might be medication available for whatever your mental health issues might be, but if it's a personality disorder you're SOL. Good luck with that....

Edited by annakido
Link to comment

Today I was in that predicament. I was looking for my first container and it was not there, and a muggle who was a maint. worker asked me what I was doing. I looked a him straight in the eyes and said nothing, but I can see he knew what I was doing. And all of a sudden he gave me the container and said to me " my friend thought it was trash". The last log entry was in Nov. 18 2006, I put it where it should be and it shouldn't disappear again. <_<

Link to comment

Sometimes folks assume you are doing the same thing they are. My dad was taking me and my brother-in-law around where he lives introducing us to geocaching. On the last leg of our first multi, we weretramping around out in the woods along a nice hiking path. An older fellow and young boy started to approach us, so we decided to hide the gps and try to look inconspicuous. When he got close, he told us not to worry, he was doing the same thing we were. We though, "hey cool, 2 more sets of eyes to help find this thing". So we pull the gps back out and start to look around some more. That is when I noticed the guys was just standing there. I motioned to my brother-in-law, and that was when we realized he was NOT doing the same thing we were. He was over there releaving himself on what I hoped was not the cache location. Luckily it wasn't.

 

Now, I normally keep a camera in my vehicle. In heavy muggle areas, I use taking pictures as an excuse. Used it today as a matter of fact. Had a cache near an old church, so I parked my truck between the church and the cache. After replacing the cache and about to leave, the pastor started to approach us. I quickly grabbed my camera and when asked if I was lost told her I had heard about the 100 yr old church. I was then given a history lesson and a tour of the church. I later told her about geocaching and was informed that some of the kids found the original cache and she was happy to know exactly what they had found.

Link to comment

"what are you doing". What ARE YOU doing? "no what ARE YOU doing?" No what ARE YOU doing. then it goes on like that for another 10 minutes till someone goes away

 

heres another one

 

"what are you doing?" good your here, hey YOu got My money? "what money?" YOU DIDNT BRING IT! well then thats just too bad.

 

and by then hes long gone

Edited by FlagFinder
Link to comment

I've got a few examples:

 

Heather and I were at a "park" (it was actually just a small patch of grass with some kind of cement structure and that was pretty much it. While searching two park rangers pulled up (go figure, they're checking on this small park when we happen to be there). The one park ranger asked, "So, whatcha guys doin'?" I responded "Well, have you ever heard of geocaching?" he immediately got out of the vehicle and said, "What! There's a cache here?" He and his partner helped us search for about 5 minutes or so before heading off. In more and more places the local police and park rangers and become more and more aware of geocaching. It's always good to be honest with them. Case in point...

 

A buddy and I were on a late night cache hunt that was along a bike path that went alongside some homes in an urban area. There was really nothing wrong with us being there, there weren't any time restrictions for the bike path or anything like that. While scouring the area with our flashlights I noticed another beam of light way down the path heading our way. At first we thought it might be a cacher and then we noticed the flashlight was darting back and forth too much for someone walking toward a cache location. We decided to jump behind some of the bushes. While waiting there I asked the question: "What would be better? For this guy to find us searching for a cache or for him to find us crouched behind some bushes hiding." We luckily made the right decision and went back to our search just before the police officer showed up. He approached with his hand on his gun (shining his flashlight in my face).

 

Officer - "Do either one of you have any weapons?"

Me - "No sir, just a GPS unit and a flashlight"

Officer - "What are you guys doing here?"

My buddy - "Just looking around."

Me - "We're geocaching. Have you heard of it?"

 

We then proceeded to describe geocaching to him. He then asked, "Well, have either of you seen any women's clothing lying around?" We politely replied "No" and he said, "Well, I'll let you get back to... I don't know whatever it is you're doing I guess." He left, we found our cache and on the way back to the car we kept an eye out for both women's clothing and a naked woman! We saw neither.

 

Jared

Link to comment

you know... that reason is exactly why you should have one of the geocache brochures available to give out. You could then give it to the officer/security/whatever and that would answer their questions and maybe get them to cache too.

 

Converting the masses! I like that idea!

Link to comment

okay...

 

one of the other townhouses in the complex has been staked out all day... well... for a week or more by the cops. Today, we had a batmobile in the parking lot, a cop hiding in their backyard and a plainsclothes one in another townhouse waiting for them.

 

At one point, I go to my car, right beside the batmobile, and the officer is asking me what I'm doing. So I explain to him that I'm checking my car out because I plan on taking my kid out geocaching in a minute or two - I had my swag bag with me but forgot my gpsr. He and I talk a bit about the stake out. I let him know that he's fully able to use our bathroom if he's desperate (sucking up, yup. :) ) and that I'll get him the brochure to read. I go back inside, find my gpsr, get my son ready, print the brochure from geo-u and go with son in tow.

 

I hand the officer the brochure and he gets out of the car to check out my gpsr. He and I talk some more - one of the cars in the lot is stolen blah blah blah (must have been bored running plates like that) - and I tell him about my little cache. He's fine with it and I think he might have even gone to see if he could find it. LOL. We talk about accuracy and about how his batmobile has a gpsr antenna on the roof and he seems real interested in it.

 

We get our beast of burden moving and go to get the cache (and some freecycling too). I come back and he wants to talk to me some more. "You can rest easy now. The (bad guys) were busted elsewhere. Did you find the cache?" I say yes, then hand him my print out and tell him that there's a ton in town.

 

Hey... cops who cache are a good thing. :lol:

Edited by mamid
Link to comment

I am extremly new to this, havent been out looking yet due to sub zero temps. Anyway I think alot of theese answers are pretty good. They have given me plenty of good ideas to use while searching. I have thought of one more that would only work here near St Paul, MN.

 

Some of you might know about the anual medallion hunt they have here every winter, Well depending on what month it is you could tell them you are either hunting for the medallion or looking for a place to hide the next one.

 

I think that would throw a lot of peple here for a loop and it would be funny to see what happens next time theres a hunt.

 

just a thought, LOL.

Link to comment

Why do we need excuses? Is geocaching illegal? Guess it depends on whats in the cache, but most often, the answer is no. Is Geocaching the start of some secret society? As long as people (wtf is a muggle? sorry, i'm a adult, not into Harry Potter) don't see you take the cache out, or put it back, why do we need to hide anything? I've read logs of non-geocachers who have found the cache, have exchanged stuff and placed it back. Some have probably come up missing after people finding it, but that could happen regardless if the secret of the geocaching society is out or not. Hiding your GPS from people you meet or saying its a phone? What is wrong with you people? I just started geocaching a few weeks ago, and think its a awesome game. I love it, but it's a game, stop taking this, and everything else so seriously. I was looking for a cache yesterday in a rather large park, a guy and his kids came up the trail, the kids went past me, the guy looks at my GPS and asks me if I'm getting a good signal on it (I was standing a few feet off the trail with my gps infront of me, trying to figure out where to go next) I replied "yeah, theres a cache around here somewhere and I'm going to find it." (I was no where close to it) He laughed a bit at the way I said it, and continued on his way catching up with his kids. Theres some funny excuses, but why do we need them?

Well I don't know but after that stupid geocaching movie comes out. TheAngryTomato told me that the movie is about a bunch of teenagers go to egypt for some caches and they discover tombs and they get cursed and some other stupid ramdom crap like that we will have to more careful about how we reply to the question what are you doing. :rolleyes::huh:

Link to comment

Most of the stupid people around here have never seen a gps before so I tell them it's an idiot detector. Then they usualy ask how it works and make do a noise over and over and I say well I just walk round and if people ask what it is their and idiot. :rolleyes:

yes, that is by far the best response ive seen so far! :o:o:huh::o:o

Link to comment

I gotta go poo. A guaranteed winner. Grab the back of your pants while saying it. If they don't leave you be follow it up with uh oh... if they still don't let you be start to sniff. If they still don't leave reach for the pants button. If they still don't leave you're on your own :signalviolin:

That actually violates at least 2 laws in Michigan: indecent exposure (even if you're in the middle of the woods) and littering.

Link to comment

I gotta go poo. A guaranteed winner. Grab the back of your pants while saying it. If they don't leave you be follow it up with uh oh... if they still don't let you be start to sniff. If they still don't leave reach for the pants button. If they still don't leave you're on your own :signalviolin:

That actually violates at least 2 laws in Michigan: indecent exposure (even if you're in the middle of the woods) and littering.

 

Littering?

Link to comment

Muggle "what are you doing"

Me "the sun is blue and the wind is warm"

Muggle "huh?"

Me "the sun is blue and the wind is warm"

Muggle "HUH?"

Me "Ivan told me you might forget the counter sign, do you have the briefcase?"

Muggle "HUH?"

Me "Give me the briefcase so I can radio the Sub"

The FUN never ends....

:rolleyes:

Edited by DrDark
Link to comment

:rolleyes: "Minding my own dang business, same as you should be doing!" ;)

 

Please note though, I am 6'3 and 220lbs so I can usually get away with it. but I wouldn't recommend it on a regular basis.

 

:( But, I also believe in what I call Cacherflage to prevent them from even asking. Wear a baseball cap with a corporate logo (Preferably an obscure one and one that doesn't say what the company actually does), cargo pants, a name badge shirt(Check goodwill they usually have some) and carry a metal clip board and if possible, and ID badge. Believe me, no-one will bother you at all. :(

Link to comment

Quickly turn your head to the right as if you were tell an invisible person something and say " I told you they were watching!... no not again we cant do it again... I don’t care what mother says... please don’t make me do it again." :rolleyes: then begin to laugh uncontrollably ;)

 

On the other hand what better way to get someone interested in the sport than hand them the brochure and explain geocaching.

 

out of all in this topic this is my favorite. i'm going to so use it one day.

tim

Link to comment

Haha! Some keepers in here!

 

Me? I guess it depends on who's doing the asking.

 

This could be in Top10 format...Top 10 answers when asked by a Muggle "what are you doing"?

 

10: Reliving scenes from "Deliverance", my favorite romance.

9: Praying to Allah an infidel would not ask me "What am I doing".

8: Looking for friends. What's YOUR name? **go into Barney's "I love you..."**

7: **rubbing hands over chest, licking lips** "What do you WANT me to be doing"?

6: Hoping to save YOU money!!! My name's Bob, and if you're like me...**go into Amway spiel**

5: **Look at watch** "Oh, about 2:30. **keep giving answers having nothing to do with question**

4: What are ANY of us doing? I guess it all goes back to Plato's Cave Allegory...**insert endless babble here**

3: **with alarmed psycho expession** "NIBS!! NIBS!! NIBS!!! NIBSSS!!!" **repeating at top of lungs**

2: **collapse into heap and feign weeping** "Why did God have to make life SOOOO hard? WHYY?"

1: **In best Samuel Jackson/Pulp Fiction voice**

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.

**ANGRY**AND I WILL STRIKE DOWN UPON THEE WITH GREAT VENGENCE AND FURIOUS ANGER THOSE WHO ATTEMPT TO POISON AND DESTROY MY BROTHERS. AND YOU WILL KNOW I AM LORD WHEN I LAY MY VENGENCE UPON YOU!!!

Link to comment

"They like to come here often you know... Yes, this is where they come, and I want to talk to them. I want to know what they know, I want them to tell me all of their secrets. But I must be careful, because they can be very dangerious, they often destroy those who try, and every person whom they have been in contact with within the last 2 days! But, I know they are coming today, I KNOW IT! Yes, they are coming, THEY ARE COMING I TELL YOU!"

Or

"Uh, yeah"

Or

"Woah, Do I know you man? you look so familar or something man, I mean, man, woah man"

Or

"Looking for a SPOT-O-TEA!"

Or

"I'm busy floating my boat"

Or

"Looking for my next victom, want to be my next victom?"

 

Eh, I am too spontanious, I could go on and on and on, Whatever seems to work best at that moment, or whatever crazy sentence happens to flow from my lips :laughing:

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...