Great Cammo Or Bad Cache Idea

[+sciuchetti]

I have done a couple of caches in the last couple of weeks that required a tool to unscrew an electric outlet box or take apart what looked like a sprinkler head. When the electric box has a magnetic lid, and you can take it apart without tools - I think that this is great cammo.

 

However, when you have to take apart things to get to a cache - it can be dangerous or destructive. If the electric box I took apart wasn't a cache and had live wires going through it, it would be dangerous. I have seen my share of real sprinklers taken apart near a cache site, irrigation pipes taken apart and not put back together quite right.

 

When (if ever) does great cammo go to far? I have mixed feelings about this and not sure where to draw the line.

[+EraSeek]

Well, I've done this a few times. Yes it can be a great camo job. But I have taken apart the real McCoy thinking...maybe, and found wires and such.

 

So here's my solution. Don't be stupid. If it looks too real and needs to be unscrewed, don't do it. Even if it is a cache. Just don't do it. Not worth it. AND the respondsibility for YOUR actions is YOURS. No one elses! So don't take things further than you know you should just for a cache find.

[+Shop99er]

Well, I've done this a few times. Yes it can be a great camo job. But I have taken apart the real McCoy thinking...maybe, and found wires and such.

 

So here's my solution. Don't be stupid. If it looks too real and needs to be unscrewed, don't do it. Even if it is a cache. Just don't do it. Not worth it. AND the respondsibility for YOUR actions is YOURS. No one elses! So don't take things further than you know you should just for a cache find.

 

That pretty much summs it up. Nothing more to see here, move along.

[+sciuchetti]

I guess this gets back to my point....

 

I agree that it is great Cammo. I also agree with EraSeek..

 

So here's my solution. Don't be stupid. If it looks too real and needs to be unscrewed, don't do it. Even if it is a cache. Just don't do it. Not worth it. AND the respondsibility for YOUR actions is YOURS. No one elses! So don't take things further than you know you should just for a cache find.

 

However, I still find torn apart sprinkler heads and other real equipment at cache sites damaged so not everybody uses this solution (or it might not be geocachers doing this damage)

 

The question isn't how do you go about finding them or when do you stop looking at a potential cache. The question is that do hides like these encourage cachers who don't use EraSeeks solution to do damage to the area when they come upon the real thing. And doesn't that give all cachers a bad name.

[+EraSeek]

OK, in truth, how many times have you actually found damaged equipment at a cache site.

 

I'll give you, it has happened, but but not often. I figure each cacher is going to make a dumb move at some point before the lesson is learned. Most of these will not cause damage. In a few rare cases they will. In my case I was looking for one of Seth's mystery hides (clues along the way) I unscrewed a cap on a "Walk Signal" post and found just legit wires inside. I put it back together. No damage done except for thinking what a stupid move that was.

 

I have not seen a preponderance of dead sprinkler heads out there. Does such hides create a situation where this happens? Yeah. Is it a huge problem and are we getting a bad name from it? No. If you see where it has been a problem E-mail the cache owner and he may post some kind of warning or alter the cache. You break a sprinkler head, maybe an apology and a check to the property manager is in order.

 

Should we stop all suggestive and creative hides like this? I don't think it is at that point. Perhaps just posting a thread like this spreads the word, "if you think it is a sprinkler head and you pull lightly on it and it doesn't come, leave it alone. If it is on a light post and it isn't magnetic, don't do it."

 

But again I say, what encourages you to look somewhere is suggestive. That cache may work quite nicely at one spot and not be a problem, but the suggeston remains with you in your travels where it is not a good and proper idea. The acting out of a thought and the responsiblity for that action remains with the cache seeker.

 

Don't go jump off a cliff just because you think someone is telling you to, or because the guy in front of you did.

[+EraSeek]

By the way, I think there are 2 things we want to avoid. One is a truely dangerous situation, the other is having a cadre of cache police. If you come across a cache the you think does present a hidden danger in any way, post your concerns on the cache page. It lets the cache owner and future finders know that there is a situation. Perhaps there is a good way to resolve it. (If I had to unscrew an electrical box that was atached to some possible source of electricty, I wouldn't do it, but I would post my concern.)

[+Stump]

I have not seen a preponderance of dead sprinkler heads out there.

 

But even loose sprinkler heads will cause a problem when they're turned on. You'd have to ask a landscaper how often this happens, or if it's even an issue at all at some cache sites.

[+shunra]

I agree with EraSeek. But the problem is bigger than that.

 

While I haven't found many damaged sprinkler heads, I have found a great deal of badly damaged stumps in the forests, ripped appart by people who thought (whether rightly or not) that that is where a cache might be.

 

I try not to place caches inside or near places that might be damaged, and if I ever should, I'd place a warning: "it's not in the stump, no need to dismantle it". I've occasionally even found it necessary to include that in logs to other people's caches, when I saw the damage done by previous finders. Fortunately that happens only rarely.

 

I don't think damage to man-made features is more of a problem than damage done to natural features. In either case, when we're talking about irrepairable damage, or damage that might be dangerous to other people, we ought to act responsibly.

[+Team Noltex]

While I haven't found many damaged sprinkler heads, I have found a great deal of badly damaged stumps in the forests, ripped appart by people who thought (whether rightly or not) that that is where a cache might be.

 

I'm wondering how you are able to tell the difference between damaged to stumps caused by cachers and that caused by animals or natural decomposition?

 

As relatively few geocachers as there are and given the large number of them that seem genuinely concerned with the environment and its preservation, I don't think that we need to be so quick as a group to immediately take responsibilty for any and all damage that we encounter in the area of caches. Most of these parks/trails/public lands that we use for caches are also heavily used by the rest of the public for other uses. If some flowers are pulled up, some vegetation trampled or a sprinkler head damaged, it could just as easily, and probably more likely to have been some kid, a dog or some wacko that did it. Without question, cachers should take responsibility for making sure that they don't do any damage while they search. Let's just not beat ourselves up unneccesarily.