How Do You Search Without Looking Too Obvious?

[thelostkids]

How do you go searching for caches without being too conspicuous? I've got 5 people with me and I don't want to look too eager...excited, etc.

 

AND....

 

If someone has told me there are caches in a certain area in/around my town how do I locate them? I have the coordinates but there was nothing listed on the site as to "here are the coordinates to this cache".

[+TotemLake]

Whip out a trashbag and start picking up the litter. Nothing will get you ignored faster.

 

Use the Hide and Seek a Cache link on www.geocaching.com.

[thelostkids]

Whip out a trashbag and start picking up the litter. Nothing will get you ignored faster.

 

Use the Hide and Seek a Cache link on www.geocaching.com.

 

I would never have thought of doing that...(trash picking).

 

The second question I had, with your answer of "hide and seek a cache", well, I've tried that. It doesn't help.

 

Thank you, though, for the first tip!!

[+BlueDeuce]

The second question I had, with your answer of "hide and seek a cache", well, I've tried that. It doesn't help.

 

I'm not sure how you are trying to use it.

 

That page does have a section to Search by latitude/longitude format:

Edited June 20, 2006 by BlueDeuce

[+TotemLake]

Whip out a trashbag and start picking up the litter. Nothing will get you ignored faster.

 

Use the Hide and Seek a Cache link on www.geocaching.com.

 

I would never have thought of doing that...(trash picking).

 

The second question I had, with your answer of "hide and seek a cache", well, I've tried that. It doesn't help.

 

Thank you, though, for the first tip!!

Well if you have the coordinates of the park and you plug in the coordinates, then it will give you the caches nearest to that point. If the page doesn't show any nearby, it's not listed with geocaching.com. Likely the alleged caches in the park will be listed on another listing service.

[thelostkids]

Well if you have the coordinates of the park and you plug in the coordinates, then it will give you the caches nearest to that point. If the page doesn't show any nearby, it's not listed with geocaching.com. Likely the alleged caches in the park will be listed on another listing service.

 

AH! That makes sense. Thank you! I've only been told of geocaching.com site. I'll have to check the others then.

 

*can you tell I'm new at this??*

[+Prime Suspect]

Carry a clipboard, and act like you wish you were home having a beer, instead of being wherever you are, doing whatever you're doing. You will become invisible.

Edited June 20, 2006 by Prime Suspect

[+Jhwk]

As you approach the site, if you think you know where it might be, put the GPS up to your ear like a cell phone and just meander around like you are talking to someone. Works some of the time, but looks weird when you do it in the woods.

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

Bring some kids with you! It's amazing what you can get away with as a father running aorund with his childern! Nobody gives us a second look!

[thelostkids]

Bring some kids with you! It's amazing what you can get away with as a father running aorund with his childern! Nobody gives us a second look!

 

that's why I posted how to look inconspicuous...I have 3 (teens) and I just though we looked sorta "out of place"

 

I'll do those other suggestions too: GPS up to ear, etc.

 

Thank you all for the help. Now I don't feel so..... out of place. I'm sure once we get going on these we won't feel that way.

[+Team JSAM]

my kids work great if someone gets real close I will say "dont worry hunny we will find your toy it has to be right here."

[+Wadcutter]

It's called hiding in plain sight. It's the same tactic that police using during surveillances and spies use. You do what it takes to blend in with the public. Carry a clipboard and wear a vest, even an orange vest. People may look at you but they'll ignore what you are doing. You'll look like you're with the utility company, a survey crew, government research, whatever. You look like you belong. People are use to seeing people like cable TV, telephone, gas, water, and electric readers in normal clothes walking thru back yards. GPS isn't a strange object. People know all those companies use GPS and other handheld electronic instruments.

Last spring we were in Pensacola FL. Have IL plates on my pickup. There was a cache near a park bench on a city street and there were people sitting on the bench. Carrying my clipboard and GPS I just excused myself and told them I need to get to my survey point to log the current conditions. Didn't bother them at all. Guy in a pickup, wearing a black vest, carrying a clipboard and pencil, and carrying some kind of electronic gear is just normal everyday happenings. Works in the busiest of towns or out in the woods. People just don't pay attention to you if you look like you're doing something official.

[+Mykul]

Thanks for the ideas, I was wondering the same thing.

[+ADK 46-R]

i like it when people stare at me, i give them the middle finger and tell them there #1

[+Renegade Knight]

If I can't look without being observed I tend to leave. Not being there is fairly inconspicous.

[wandat24]

Carry a clipboard, and act like you wish you were home having a beer, instead of being wherever you are, doing whatever you're doing. You will become invisible.

I'll have to try this!

[+Savoy 6]

Bring some kids with you! It's amazing what you can get away with as a father running aorund with his childern! Nobody gives us a second look!

 

Depending on the age of the children; strollers and puppies attract women. Not a bad thing. I do like the vest and clipboard idea. I have one with "Department of Health" on it. If nothing else, orange DOH vest, clipboard, GPSR, tha park will become mine and mine alone!

[+budd-rdc]

The clipboard idea works very well. I've seen it used effectively many times.

 

I rely on time. I try to outwait the muggles figuring they have better things to do. If I stay in an area long enough, people will assume I belong there, so I become invisible.

 

There are times nosy people or people who actually belong there ask me what's up (police, neighbors, property owners). No need to lie here (unless you are cheating to increase your find count ). I give them a generic answer first ("looking for something") and if they inquire further, I become more specific.

Edited June 24, 2006 by budd-rdc

[ccbiggs]

One thing i havenever tried bu have wanted to is if someone asks what you are doing you tell them you are collecting tick samples and they get out of your way! FAST!

[+scavok]

A bright orange vest, a clipboard, my GPSr and a tape measure or something hanging from a belt loop and I'm pretty much invisible while looking up drain pipes, wading through bushes, and searching under benches for urban caches. It looks weird if you are dong it on a hike of course but in downtown Denver, nothin works better.

[+WxGuesser]

The best way is to wait for all muggles to leave.

other methods i've used... the old fake tying your shoe

take a camera and pretend to take pictures..

[+gps_junky]

I like the NINJA method.... Dress up in all black and start creeping around.... DON"T FORGET TO PAINT YOU FACE BLACK. All mugelers can see are the whites in your eye and a yellow G.P.Sr. Then when someone comes up to you, just start talking to them in chinesss. HUNDAAAA.... FORTUNNEEE COOKIE. Then tell them in english (THE TRANSLATED VERSION OF WHAT YOU SAID) "YOU CAN SEE ME?" Then you start jump kicking in the air yelling HIEEEAAAAYYY.

 

Believe Me People want to leave you alone after all this.......

[bowenfamily]

Bring some kids with you! It's amazing what you can get away with as a father running aorund with his childern! Nobody gives us a second look!

 

Depending on the age of the children; strollers and puppies attract women. Not a bad thing. I do like the vest and clipboard idea. I have one with "Department of Health" on it. If nothing else, orange DOH vest, clipboard, GPSR, tha park will become mine and mine alone!

Sorry, posted too soon. See below.

Edited July 3, 2006 by bowenfamily

[bowenfamily]

Bring some kids with you! It's amazing what you can get away with as a father running aorund with his childern! Nobody gives us a second look!

 

Depending on the age of the children; strollers and puppies attract women. Not a bad thing. I do like the vest and clipboard idea. I have one with "Department of Health" on it. If nothing else, orange DOH vest, clipboard, GPSR, tha park will become mine and mine alone!

I guess a white jumpsuit, a gas mask, a metal detector and a device that made a clicking sound could be useful also. When someone asks what you are doing, tell them they are in great danger and need to leave the area now! This will get them headed in the opposite direction pretty quickly.

[thelostkids]

The best way is to wait for all muggles to leave.

other methods i've used... the old fake tying your shoe

take a camera and pretend to take pictures..

 

I like that idea. I'll have to bring my camera the next time. I mean, there ARE things that are worth taking a photo of....the beautiful scenery!

 

Thanks!

[+humanloofa]

I find wearing a pink too-too and carring a 44 magnum gets people out of the area quick, also chew on some alka-seltzer. I have done most of the sugestions mentioned above. Being in AZ if someone asks me what I'm looking for in a park I like to tell them I'm looking for either scorpions or rattlesnakes, because a fellow classmate said they found a nest of them here. The people never stick around after that. You could tell them you are checking on reports of a toxic fungus that maybe growing on the trees. Ask them if the come there offten, if the say yes ask them if they have experianced any type of weird symptoms. If they call your bluff tell them the truth. I am using multi billion dollar satalites to search for an altoids tin/film canister/breath strip container..... see if they believe that.

[+budd-rdc]

The best way is to wait for all muggles to leave.

other methods i've used... the old fake tying your shoe

take a camera and pretend to take pictures..

 

I like that idea. I'll have to bring my camera the next time. I mean, there ARE things that are worth taking a photo of....the beautiful scenery!

 

Thanks!

Camera trick works REALLY well. I used it for grabbing and rehiding a cache located in one of the busiest tourist location in San Francisco.

[+Mystery Ink]

In our area we did a cache with high muggles we got out of the truck a bunch of little thugs were loitering. They came up to us and asked us what we wanted we had a clip board and camera in our hands we told them we were putting in Surveillance camera's in the area due to the crime rate, and started taking pictures. We took pictures of them and the area next thing we know they took off running never to return to that area again. Sometimes we will carry clip boards and sometimes we will just wait for them to leave.

Edited July 4, 2006 by Mystery Ink

[+arpegio]

I used the camera trick yesterday when I came upon a cache site occupied by a couple and a big dog. I said I was doing macro photography of flora in the area for a college class. It worked well... in that scenario it doesn't look all that weird to have your face in the bushes poking around.

[+Team Cotati]

they're

[+Wadcutter]

It's all about blending in with the people and environment around you. Some people are good at it, some aren't.

 

Edited July 4, 2006 by Wadcutter

[+Waarthog]

A camera has worked best for me as I also wear a travel vest with bulging pockets so I look somewhat like a photojournalist in the field. To the uninitiated, a GPS looks like a light meter. When in city parks, near lucntime, I take a sack lunch. No one looks twice at someone munching on their lunch in a park.

[wheetree]

A neck lanyard with a photo ID hanging from it is another geocaching costume must! It doesn't matter what the ID is for, make up your own. The key is to look official.

Hard hats are always effective also.

[+bobbyfrass]

Walk around talking to yourself. Occasionally slap an open hand on your head repeatedly. Rock back and forth. People will probably stare, but they won't suspect you are geocaching!

[thisdoghunts]

As newbies, my son and I were on our second day of hunting in our home town. It was a cache called "watering Hole". This one had a double meaning as it was located at a bar & grille with an outdoor patio which had a water feature next to landscaped areas. There is a bench right up against the water feature and almost always someone is on it. At the same time, patrons on the patio are facing directly toward you while enjoying their suds & spuds. My son and I managed to dig around in the bushes, under the rocks, along the water feature and nearby light poles and such with people staring directly at us. I did not try to conceal the GPS, but rather entertained the small crowd by staring at it and scratching my head, then rifling through the bushes some more. I instructed my son with one rule..."If you find it, don't announce or act surprised. Move on somewhere else, and then we will have to find away to slip it out, sign the log, and return it with no one seeing it." We had a guy sitting on the same bench with us when I found it. My son was looking directly at me when I found it and still didn't beleive me when I told him I had. We sat there for a moment just chatting, but stealthly waiting until all eyes were turned another direction. I grabbed the cache and since no one knew what we were writing on, we signed the log in plain sight, then waited a moment to slip it back.

 

On another hunt at a very busy road and grocery store, I noticed the more time we stood around staring at the ground and surrounding areas, the more looks we got. But once we dove into the landscape, people apparently thought we were landscapers and hardly even noticed us.

[thelostkids]

As newbies, my son and I were on our second day of hunting in our home town. It was a cache called "watering Hole". This one had a double meaning as it was located at a bar & grille with an outdoor patio which had a water feature next to landscaped areas. There is a bench right up against the water feature and almost always someone is on it. At the same time, patrons on the patio are facing directly toward you while enjoying their suds & spuds. My son and I managed to dig around in the bushes, under the rocks, along the water feature and nearby light poles and such with people staring directly at us. I did not try to conceal the GPS, but rather entertained the small crowd by staring at it and scratching my head, then rifling through the bushes some more. I instructed my son with one rule..."If you find it, don't announce or act surprised. Move on somewhere else, and then we will have to find away to slip it out, sign the log, and return it with no one seeing it." We had a guy sitting on the same bench with us when I found it. My son was looking directly at me when I found it and still didn't beleive me when I told him I had. We sat there for a moment just chatting, but stealthly waiting until all eyes were turned another direction. I grabbed the cache and since no one knew what we were writing on, we signed the log in plain sight, then waited a moment to slip it back.

 

On another hunt at a very busy road and grocery store, I noticed the more time we stood around staring at the ground and surrounding areas, the more looks we got. But once we dove into the landscape, people apparently thought we were landscapers and hardly even noticed us.

 

 

Good idea. I have noticed the more you loiter the more they "look" at you. I'll have to let my kids in on the "no expression" if and when we are in a busy area.

 

THANK YOU TO ALL!!!

[+crystalndave]

Dave and I like to slow dance and kiss (hey parks are romantic).. it scares people away... its sort of like eww crazy old people acting funny. When we bring our teens they have their own cameras and prance around like they are on modling shoot. I don't think anyone notices dave and I looking under benches when the kids are running around laughing and taking pictures.. I bring my camera most of the time too. The only person who has asked us what we were doing so far was cool with the geocaching explanation! I do like the tu tu idea though. I wonder where I can get one that will fit Dave.

[+beckynone]

GOOD question... and some really great answers. My other half had to come and see what I was laughing about. I like the trash pick-up idea... it's a practical answer and easy, as well as productive. We are new, too. Many of the caches we are looking for are in cemeteries, and that's not so hard. It's a place people do go to and look around in, although not usually in the bushes. We've left a couple when we've thought people were to the point of reporting us as "suspicious". We keep saying we're going to take the camera so one can be taking pictures of leaves or something while the other is looking for ones to take pictures of. But, it seems after we get out with everything else we need, the camera gets left in the car. I like the "look official" idea.... and we may try that. It seems every day we come up with more "stuff" we need to take along. We have one particular one we need to go back to, and we're going to try the trash pick-up idea. The area needs it.. but, we may need to go in a different vehicle as the neighbor across the street was really getting curious.

[+blackbird_pilot]

I like the NINJA method.... Dress up in all black and start creeping around.... DON"T FORGET TO PAINT YOU FACE BLACK. All mugelers can see are the whites in your eye and a yellow G.P.Sr. Then when someone comes up to you, just start talking to them in chinesss. HUNDAAAA.... FORTUNNEEE COOKIE. Then tell them in english (THE TRANSLATED VERSION OF WHAT YOU SAID) "YOU CAN SEE ME?" Then you start jump kicking in the air yelling HIEEEAAAAYYY.

 

Believe Me People want to leave you alone after all this.......

 

I love it, next time I'm going to try that! I may even get some really good medications out of the deal from our local mental hospital.

[+TEAM 360]

I brought some kids along once, but when they kept screaming for help and for their parents, I had to let them go...

[+KKTH3]

I prefer to wear my invisibility cloak.

[+Wild Thing 73]

Whip out a trashbag and start picking up the litter. Nothing will get you ignored faster.

 

Use the Hide and Seek a Cache link on www.geocaching.com.

WoW...that is a great Idea

[+Geovius]

Take a kitty collar to your free hand.

[+JennM]

Ohmygosh this thread is funny!

 

This is my first post on the forums. I found out about Geocaching a few weeks ago and am waiting for my GPSr to arrive (ebay!). A client of mine told me about it, he's been Geocaching for a couple of years.

 

He recently placed a cache near the business I own, and for the last couple of days I've been so entertained by Cachers trying NOT to look conspicuous

 

The cache listing says that nearby occupants (us) are geocaching-friendly, but it is definitely a high-muggle area and it's hysterical to *cough* inconspicuously go about my work, with one eye on a cacher trying to figure out where the cache is, without being obvious about it. It's hysterical to watch people trying to loiter with a purpose, to peek in every nook and cranny without appearing like they are actually looking for something. I haven't giggled so hard in years What's funny too, is while the cachers are trying not to be obvious about their activity, I'm trying not to be obvious that I'm watching them! One visitor logged yesterday that he could see me inside, and was puzzled that I never cast a glance his way - and *that* made him squirm! I saw him alright - guess I was just more stealthy about it than he was!

 

I do have to say it's really nice to meet some of the cachers, many of them come inside (not to look for the cache, but my workplace is interesting and attracts people to come inside), and when they come in, I just treat them as if they were any other customer. Then at some point in the conversation, if they haven't found the cache yet, I'll say, "You're really close to finding it!"... which often gets a puzzled look as if to say, "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about!" Or if they've already found it, stealthily removed it, signed the log, made their trades and stealthily replaced it, I'll wink and say, "Good find!" That moment when they know they're 'busted' is funny too - I never sound like I'm upset about it - rather, it's more like a wink and nod because I'm in on the secret too. Usually a great icebreaker - so I'm making plenty of new aquaintances, and the cache has only been up for a couple of days!

 

I'm having more fun watching... it's a great way to break the monotony of working

 

As I'm about to start seeking caches with my kids (12 and 14), I read this thread for some stealth ideas too - since the cachers I've seen have been anything *but* inconspicuous, no matter how they seem to have tried *g*. I like the CITO idea - that will probably work well. Probably will try that first!

 

Cheers,

Jenn

Edited July 21, 2006 by JennM

[+K0BKL]

A pair of binoculars.

Birdwatching is a very convenient way to look like you are doing something else,

than geocaching. It works for me, especially in a park or the woods.

It helps if you indeed are a birder, even a beginner like me.

I describe the birds that I am looking for. Works every time.

[Fiona Eliza & Florence]

I take the dog on most cache hunts and pretending to collect her "trash" doesn't get 2 looks!

[4wheelin_fool]

................ I instructed my son with one rule..."If you find it, don't announce or act surprised. Move on somewhere else, and then we will have to find away to slip it out, sign the log, and return it with no one seeing it." ........

 

Good advice. I dont mind if muggles are watching during the search. If I find it, I'll keep searching for 5-10 minutes in other areas, and then retrieve the cache only when no one is watching. If you are with other people, one of them could hold up a realistic looking dead mouse and announce a "find". "I found Mickey!! and he's dead!" Then put the GPS near the mouse, and announce that he's still radioactive.

[+Chaos A.D./aka Arlsdaddy]

A caching friend of ours says if anyone asks, just say you got in a fight with your old lady and she threw your keys over here somewhere!

[+jellis]

I had one where I had to retrieve it from under a newstand by a train station. A muggle was there waiting for a ride. So I sat on the ground next to the stand, looking like I was waiting too and making fake cell phone calls while reaching under the stand while he wasn't looking. When I got it and put it back I pretended to leave by faking a phone call that my ride wasn't picking me up and I pretended to be angry and that I was going back on the train.

Edited July 24, 2006 by jellis50

[+Lil Devil]

... hold up a realistic looking dead mouse and announce a "find". "I found Mickey!! and he's dead!" Then put the GPS near the mouse, and announce that he's still radioactive.

Oh my gawd! I have to stop drinking soda while reading threads like this. Now I have to clean my monitor