This ever happen to you?

[+Cladius]

I went to find a cache today to be confronted by the property owner about what I was doing! She turned out to be very nice and (after some smoosing by me) I showed her how the GPS worked and explained the game to her. Just a reminder to think before you place a chache. Happy Holidays. Cladius.

[+Sioneva]

Did you state that in the log? Sounds like a cache without proper permission... She might have been okay with it this time, but if she starts getting a steady stream of visitors to the cache, that could change. A note to the cache owner would be good!

[+Confucius' Cat]

I went to find a cache today to be confronted by the property owner about what I was doing! She turned out to be very nice and (after some smoosing by me) I showed her how the GPS worked and explained the game to her. Just a reminder to think before you place a chache. Happy Holidays. Cladius.

Nothing new there.

 

I think I have on several occasions been the one who has introduced the landowner/manager to caching... and not by asking p********n to hide, but as a seeker. That is why I am real quick to abort the hunt when it appears the cache is on private property.

 

The typical property owner "confrontation" goes pretty much as you describe. Most are amenable to the idea as long as cachers are civil and don't damage or disrupt. That leads me to believe it typically wouldn't have been that hard for the hider to just ask and get p********n.

 

I guess that is one of my pet peeves... I tend to think explaining the game to the landowner (and the nosey neighbours) should be the hider's job.

 

These situations make us look bad. But the issue is "our little secret" and we just don't talk about it in polite company.

Edited December 16, 2006 by Confucius' Cat

[+CYBret]

I've really got to start practicing what I preach (an occupational hazard) and carrying the "Let's Go Geocaching" brochures with me. Last week I had someone ask me what I was doing. It would have been the perfect opportunity to hand one over to them.

 

I also had a guy at the drive-thru ask me what the weird symbols on my back glass meant (the satellite+hiking=geocaching decal). Again, I reached for the brochures but they were all gone. Sigh.

 

Some day I'll learn.

[+Confucius' Cat]

Again, I reached for the brochures but they were all gone. Sigh.

 

Some day I'll learn.

Hey PREACHER!

BE PREPARED (1 Peter 3:15)

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

This happens to me on a regular basis - my best guess would be about thirty times in the three years I have been geocaching.

 

In fact it happens so often that my geoPals call me a cop magnet and EXPECT to get stopped when caching with me!

 

I have to mention two great ones, 'near-misses' if you will; once when BubbaCache and I outran a meter maid in a Cushman who chased us from cache to cache through downtown Birmingham for hours (funny story!) and once when five carloads of us took off when the police rolled up and abandoned MonkeyBrad to their clutches!

 

My 'personal best' record is five times in one night, with four other cachers in my Suburban.

 

All geocachers should make sure that their (and all adult passengers) Drivers License is current, no drugs or alchohol is in the car (or their belly), all fireams are permitted, and they have no wants or warrants - if all that is true then police stops shouldn't worry you one bit. In fact I enjoy meeting cops and generally the check-outs are smooth and friendly, if not actually humerous!

 

I am glad, in fact, to know our police are vigilant and watchful. Underpaid and overworked as they are I am glad they are out there and never mind explaining myself to them. Having lived in places like Asia and Guatemala I can tell you that you have nothing to fear from our police!

 

It happened again just last week on a road trip to Pennsylvania to attend a Christmas event... three times!

 

In a quiet Pennsylvania town, night caching, searching for a micro outside a closed toy store (near the loading dock!) we were spotted by a departing employee, who alerted her manager, who called the cops, only to discover that one was sitting across the street watching us!

 

The employee, manager and three police cars rolled up on us after about 10 minutes and gave us a serious check-out; usually they will hear our story, say good luck and move on - this time they ran our ID, our car tag and VIN#, questioned us thouroughly, wanted to know why some yahoo from Alabama was prowling around a Pennsylvania toy store after hours... luckily I had the cache in hand, in fact the cops had watched me retrieve it just before they rolled up on us!

 

If it had been a DNF they would NOT have bought our story and no telling what would have happened. In this one unusual instance I do believe that a DNF would have resulted in some kind of charges! Only by showing them the cache, log and the cache page on my laptop did the situation de-escalate.

 

I explained the game, explained that normally the hider is expected to get permission, apologized that he hadn't, apologized that the hider did not put his contact info in the cache or on the cache listing, told them we were in town for a geocaching event, that dozens of folks would be all over town hunting these things the next morning, and showed the cops the town's cache density on the map on my laptop.

 

Of the five officers and two civilians none had ever heard of geocaching, and I don't think we'll be getting any recruits from that crowd!

 

I asked the manager if the cache could be left in place and he said yes, and that he would alert his staff to geocachers looking in that area. A nice guy, he seemed somewhat bemused that I would drive 700 miles to find a magnetic keyholder outside his store!

 

An officer contacted his Chief and told them my Tahoe as well as several other cars would be prowling the town that night geocaching, and that a whole bunch of us would be there the next day. They had no problem with that and thanked us for the heads-up.

 

So, permission now granted for that cache (you're welcome, cache owner!), police alerted, we cached on for several hours before getting a hotel around 3 a.m. - and we still got stopped twice the next day!

 

One memorable stop that next day was because not all of us had orange vests on while searching for an ammo can in a wildlife preserve hunting area... I think only 3 out of 7 of us did. The officer followed us into the woods and busted us just as we were signing CCCooper's 18k cache, so no matter how long you're in the game or what kind of cache you're hunting getting checked out by someone is just gonna happen!

 

Please, folks, ask for permission for every hide! It's not hard and most folks will happily allow it! The fuzzy guidelines don't make it clear when you need permision, but as a courtesy to fellow geocachers and for the good of the game, if at all possible, get permission every time!

 

This event was unusual in the number of stops, but having police HQ know that there is an event in their town and that a bunch of folks will be looking really does help - I always notify the local cops about my events and the geocaching runs before and after, and I know others who do this as well. You may still get stopped but at least it isn't complete news to the police! They are much more likely to respond with "Have fun, be careful" if their dispatch knows about us!

 

Ed

Edited December 16, 2006 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+Renegade Knight]

I went to find a cache today to be confronted by the property owner about what I was doing! She turned out to be very nice and (after some smoosing by me) I showed her how the GPS worked and explained the game to her. Just a reminder to think before you place a chache. Happy Holidays. Cladius.

 

I've been approached by the Adjoining property owner. Never an actual property owner, unless I approached them first.

[+Renegade Knight]

Did you state that in the log? Sounds like a cache without proper permission... She might have been okay with it this time, but if she starts getting a steady stream of visitors to the cache, that could change. A note to the cache owner would be good!

Perfect advice.

[+Confucius' Cat]

All geocachers should make sure that their (and all adult passengers) Drivers License is current, no drugs or alchohol is in the car (or their belly), all fireams are permitted, and they have no wants or warrants - if all that is true then police stops shouldn't worry you one bit. In fact I enjoy meeting cops and generally the check-outs are smooth and friendly, if not actually humerous!

Excellent advice

In a quiet Pennsylvania town, night caching, searching for a micro outside a closed toy store (near the loading dock!) we were spotted by a departing employee, who alerted her manager, who called the cops, only to discover that one was sitting across the street watching us!

I would have definitely hit "ignore" on that one- even in daytime (permission or not).

I explained the game, explained that normally the hider is expected to get permission, apologized that he hadn't, apologized that the hider did not put his contact info in the cache or on the cache listing

It is a shame for a seeker to have to do that.

Please, folks, ask for permission for every hide! It's not hard and most folks will happily allow it! The fuzzy guidelines don't make it clear when you need permision, but as a courtesy to fellow geocachers and for the good of the game, if at all possible, get permission every time!

A voice of reason standing above the many "stealthaholics" who seem to think the object of the game is to get as close to the "edge of the law" as possible. It is NOT FUN as a cache seeker to have to talk hisher way out of a trip to the "Hilton".

[+StarBrand]

Talked to a few adjoining land owners over the years but all went smoothly. The brochure helps to explain things.

[+DavidMac]

I ran into the owner of some horse fields behind a public walking track, who asked if I was looking for "more of those geode things". She was friendly, and after we talked for a few minutes and I explained caching in further detail, she mentioned that she had run into people along her property line in the past who had told her they were hunting something. She had misunderstood them and thought they said "geode", and she and her husband later went out but were unable to find any hollow rocks at the back end of their property. When she realized that it was a box we were looking for, not rocks, she was relieved and said that she didn't mind people caching on her land as long as they didn't dig anything up or disturb the horses.

[+Cladius]

I did not think to add that to the log. In the future I will. I do carry print outs with me to show anyone who challenges me that I'm legit.

[+briansnat]

So no matter how long you're in the game or what kind of cache you're hunting getting checked out by someone is just gonna happen!

 

Maybe I'm lucky, but it has yet to happen to me in nearly 700 cache hunts.