Police

December 29, 2006

I know this sounds silly, but we figure it is bound to happen as we continue to Track Cache's. Tonight a police officer came by as we were just opening a cache. Has anyone been asked by the police what are you doing?

Has anyone had the police called on them, and if so then what do you do?

Thanks for the information!

7.3k · December 29, 2006

I think that Patudles has the record for being stopped by the police the most often.

December 29, 2006

Yes I've have and i give them this.

http://www.geocacher-u.com/resources/brochure.html

and then after thay read it i go from there.

December 29, 2006

Yes I've have and i give them this.

http://www.geocacher-u.com/resources/brochure.html

and then after thay read it i go from there.

So this means that just about all Geocachers have been questioned by a higher authority? Hmmm, making me feel a little faint hearted....

December 29, 2006

Yes I've have and i give them this.

http://www.geocacher-u.com/resources/brochure.html

and then after thay read it i go from there.

So this means that just about all Geocachers have been questioned by a higher authority? Hmmm, making me feel a little faint hearted....

also remember some of our law officers are also cachers. don't worry about it

December 29, 2006

Honesty is the BEST policy! Having the geocahcer-u brochure is a great thing to have on hand. I have even pulled into a lot with 2 officers sitting there and handed them the brochure right before I went for the cache. This way they knew what I was doing already.

December 29, 2006

Honesty is the BEST policy! Having the geocahcer-u brochure is a great thing to have on hand. I have even pulled into a lot with 2 officers sitting there and handed them the brochure right before I went for the cache. This way they knew what I was doing already.

I carry at least 5 broshures at any time to prevent this type of thing from escalating into a arrest, or a bomb squad coming out. At least you have a documented explination for what your doing.

7.3k · December 29, 2006

One time we did a cache that was behind our Costco. It was last winter, and in the dark. Patudles had pulled in just when we did, from the opposite side. So this police officer pulls up to see two cars in the dark behind a store, obviously meeting quickly with their engines running.

The policeman gets out and asks us what we are doing. I have the cache in my hand, so we tell him that we are geocaching and ask him if he knows what that is. He says something like, yeah, one of the other officers does that. He proceeds to ask me about our find, and wants to see our catch.

It was good. It can be a bit heart pounding, but they are people just like anyone. More and more people are finding out about geocaching, and by this time the majority of people I talk to have heard about it in some way or the other. Patudles has been stopped many times, and I have a couple times. Always works out, and we all usually get a chuckle from it!

That reminds of our last experience, being questioned by a park ranger in the middle of the night. He ended up climbing up on a mossy, wet train trestle to try and help us find the cache! You can read Patudles' log and my log here if you want.

Edited December 29, 2006 by Ambrosia

2.2k · December 29, 2006

you develop a ability to spot lies so if you start a story then you'll get them suspicious.

tell the truth, you aren't doing anything illegal. the worst case scenario is they leave thinking you are a weird individual, so what.

24.7k · December 29, 2006

It happens quite often. If you cache long enough sooner or later your turn will come. Just smile and tell them you are geocaching. They will already know about it, or ask more questions but unless you are doing something completely stupid (like using a crowbar on a window for a cache inside a library) you should be good to go.

December 29, 2006

So this means that just about all Geocachers have been questioned by a higher authority? Hmmm, making me feel a little faint hearted....

I wouldn't go that dar, a i 'm sure most of us haven't been stopped.

Digital_Cowboy

December 29, 2006

So this means that just about all Geocachers have been questioned by a higher authority? Hmmm, making me feel a little faint hearted....

I wouldn't go that dar, a i 'm sure most of us haven't been stopped.

Digital_Cowboy

December 29, 2006

So this means that just about all Geocachers have been questioned by a higher authority? Hmmm, making me feel a little faint hearted....

I wouldn't go that dar, a i 'm sure most of us haven't been stopped.

Digital_Cowboy

December 29, 2006

So this means that just about all Geocachers have been questioned by a higher authority? Hmmm, making me feel a little faint hearted....

I wouldn't go that dar, a i 'm sure most of us haven't been stopped.

Digital_Cowboy

December 29, 2006

I've been questioned by the police while signing a cache. I showed the the cache and the contents. He was suprised and told me that he had heard of the hobby. He didn't even inspect the cache, and was satisfied with my answers.

Telling them the truth is always a good idea. If we are not doing anything illegal, why do you want to lie or try to decieve them? If you get caught in a lie, you open yourself for more questioning and inconvience. Most of the time, you'll be saving yourself and the police's time by just telling them the truth.

5.9k · December 29, 2006

Has anyone had the police called on them, and if so then what do you do?

Thanks for the information!

Yes, but it had nothing to do with geocaching.

1.1k · December 29, 2006

Has anyone had the police called on them, and if so then what do you do?

If you'd done a search on the topic you would have found several threads. Just within the past month here are 3 threads specifically about police. There are quite a few others:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=151192

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=142842&hl=

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=149709&hl=

December 29, 2006

this is my first post after coming here for a couple months, mostly because this is timely. last night i found my 5th (WOOOOHOOO) cache, and had my first LEO experience.

needless to say, i was doing something i prolly shouldn't have been (namely caching after dark when the park was closed), but i guess i let my enthusiasm override my better judgement. however, when he stopped us and we explained what we were doing, he actually seemed pretty ineterested, and really didn't seem to care that we were there after hours. that said, i will never go after a cache again unless it is posted for night caching. oh well, lesson learned, and i am surprised at just how fast i had a run in with the law!!

2.6k · December 29, 2006

I've been caching almost 6 years and found almost 2600 caches, and have been stopped one time, and all he was interested in was the cache container which was a prescription bottle as soon as he saw what was in the bottle he lost all interest and left <_<

December 30, 2006

I'm one of your fellow Geocachers that is also a police officer. If you are stopped by the police just tell them what you are doing. When we get suspicious person calls we have to investigate to see what is going on, it's not a choice, it's a law. Tell the officer what you are doing and then show him the "evidence", ie your GPS or cache pages, whatever you have. I had been caching for a few months when I found out that four other officers on my department were cachers. All four of them had been introduced to it because of "suspicious persons" that told them what was going on and the officers loved it. Now a whole bunch of my guys do it, mostly because of cachers they met who were very nice and took time to explain it. You never know, if you stop and talk to them for a while you might get another cacher into it.

If you have any questions about this kind of stuff, just email me, I am a training officer where I work

Edited December 30, 2006 by Kayak194

3.8k · December 30, 2006

My first experience with The Man went something like this.

I was going after a cache in the middle of a bean field up on a tree that had partially fallen down. It was about fifteen feet up in the air and I was dressed in my work clothes. There wasn't really any good parking but it was a seldom used country road so I thought I could just pull off to the side of the road and grab the cache.

Just about the time I got up the tree a marked police car pulled up behind my work van and started the lights up. I very quickly signed the log and ran across the field trying to decide how I would explain what I was doing in the farmers field in a marked Xerox van with Missouri plates 260 miles into Kansas.

I started explaining about geocaching, and that I had only been parked for a couple of minutes. The police officer kept asking questions about caching and I thought he was going to cuff me and call for the pyscho wagon. I had just gotten to the point that I offered to take him out to the cache so he would know I wasn't pulling his leg when he started to laugh and say that it wouldn't be necessary to show him the cache as he had placed it.

Turns out that a good share of the Salina County Sheriffs officers are geocachers. You can tell them by the SASO and then there badge number as a caching name. Also the Kansas reviewer is police officer in Salina.

7.3k · December 30, 2006

My first experience with The Man went something like this.

I was going after a cache in the middle of a bean field up on a tree that had partially fallen down. It was about fifteen feet up in the air and I was dressed in my work clothes. There wasn't really any good parking but it was a seldom used country road so I thought I could just pull off to the side of the road and grab the cache.

Just about the time I got up the tree a marked police car pulled up behind my work van and started the lights up. I very quickly signed the log and ran across the field trying to decide how I would explain what I was doing in the farmers field in a marked Xerox van with Missouri plates 260 miles into Kansas.

I started explaining about geocaching, and that I had only been parked for a couple of minutes. The police officer kept asking questions about caching and I thought he was going to cuff me and call for the pyscho wagon. I had just gotten to the point that I offered to take him out to the cache so he would know I wasn't pulling his leg when he started to laugh and say that it wouldn't be necessary to show him the cache as he had placed it.

Turns out that a good share of the Salina County Sheriffs officers are geocachers. You can tell them by the SASO and then there badge number as a caching name. Also the Kansas reviewer is police officer in Salina.

That is awful! But very funny. <_<

6.7k · December 30, 2006

3 years and a couple thousand caches in 24 states and maybe 30 police encounters makes me 'a police magnet', my friends tell me!

I cannot imagine living in fear of my police, therefore being checked out by them holds no trauma for me - they can check me out anytime and I will be glad to see them on the job! I WANT them on the alert for anything that looks unusual!

I wouldn't feel the cops were doing much of a job if I could be behind malls and in closed parks without getting checked out!

Plus, I've been places where the cops were the bad guys - trust me on this, American cops are the best in the world!

Just tell the truth, give them no grief and you'll be fine.

Ed

2.5k · December 30, 2006

Here is my log from today. We explained that we were caching. The one officer that I spoke with knew about caching. We walked back to the cache and I showed it to him. He asked about trade items so I explained that this was a micro with just a log book and showed him the log book pages. We walked back to the police car and the four of us parted ways. They never even asked for ID. This particular cache was in a bike/pedestrian tunnel that is run by Washington DOT. They have cameras in the tunnel due to a large amount of graffiti and other potential problems in this quarter mile long tunnel.

December 30, 2006

3 years and a couple thousand caches in 24 states and maybe 30 police encounters makes me 'a police magnet', my friends tell me!

I cannot imagine living in fear of my police, therefore being checked out by them holds no trauma for me - they can check me out anytime and I will be glad to see them on the job! I WANT them on the alert for anything that looks unusual!

I wouldn't feel the cops were doing much of a job if I could be behind malls and in closed parks without getting checked out!

Plus, I've been places where the cops were the bad guys - trust me on this, American cops are the best in the world!

Just tell the truth, give them no grief and you'll be fine.

Ed

Excellent points! That was my first thought when I saw the original post.

I have had a few too and the most memorable ones were when 1. The cop joined me in the hunt and 2. The cop said he wasn't worried about what I was doing to the area, but what the area might do to me -- I was in gang territory.... ...and yes, the owner of the cache archived it with my news...

Cops are a good thing for geocachers.

December 30, 2006

It happens quite often. If you cache long enough sooner or later your turn will come. Just smile and tell them you are geocaching. They will already know about it, or ask more questions but unless you are doing something completely stupid (like using a crowbar on a window for a cache inside a library) you should be good to go.

Reply: My angle of this discussion is that if you don't get questioned by cops in five police cars that are stopped at a three lane traffic single while trying to find a micro cache inside a blue federal mail box that is on the side walk in plain view; I think that the odds are stacked in your favor.

December 30, 2006

My first day caching I nearly got "caught". The cache had been there (at a small town courthouse, with permission) for a couple of years. Looked like an easy one - it was our first find... my son found it quickly. It was a holiday (Labour Day) so nobody was around, we signed the log, replaced the cache.

When we got home, we logged it, and shortly afterward, somebody else logged it who had found it immediatly after we did - but they met with the local constabulary who checked them out for drugs, and made them keep the cache. Cache is now archived.

It kind of rattled us a bit when we realized what a close call we'd had. I've read other accounts of geocaching-friendly police officers - I don't know what the concencus is around here, but undoubtedly sooner or later I'll find out. I think I'll print some of those brochures for my bag, just in case.

Jenn

December 31, 2006

Tell them not to just sit there and give you a hand in finding that elusive night cache! They usually have really good flashlights!

December 31, 2006

I too attracted the attention of the local police last night. I was stopping by a local cemetary where a cache had been placed just outside the cemetary fence. I'd found it before and was going to drop a couple TB's. I had been there 20 seconds when I noticed I had company. He asked me what I was doing, I said "geocaching" with a short explanation and he proceeded to run a check on my ID. I thought this was strange, but you never can be too careful. Looking back on the situation, I may have looked suspicious. I never did show him my GPS. I told him I had come to add contents to the cache container, but since his police car was parked right behind me, I just left. I felt I had taken enough of his time.

Here is my log from today. We explained that we were caching. The one officer that I spoke with knew about caching. We walked back to the cache and I showed it to him. He asked about trade items so I explained that this was a micro with just a log book and showed him the log book pages. We walked back to the police car and the four of us parted ways. They never even asked for ID. This particular cache was in a bike/pedestrian tunnel that is run by Washington DOT. They have cameras in the tunnel due to a large amount of graffiti and other potential problems in this quarter mile long tunnel.

December 31, 2006

Like everyone has said thus far, honesty worked for me on my latest encounter with the police.

Unfortunately, a recent crime had occurred the night before in the area ( :anitongue: arson :rolleyes: ) so it took some work to convince the officer that I was telling the truth.

If I hadn't come clean in the beginning, I am sure that I would have found myself down at the station, making my one phone call to my wife, who would have likely left me there :anitongue: .

1.8k · January 1, 2007

I know at least two cachers who've had the police pull guns on them.

I've been harshly threatened by the fuzz while caching, but have yet to find myself staring down the barrel of a gun. Considering my tendency to be sarcastic in inappropriate situations and my general dislike of authority figures, it's probably only a matter of time til that happens... :anibad:

January 1, 2007

As others have said, several of us geocachers are in LE. If you are approached by LE, simply follow their instructions and tell the truth. You might make a new friend. I was introduced to geocaching due to a call for service that I handled. A geocacher found a gun while finding a cache. That geocacher and his wife are good friends of mine.

January 1, 2007

I've had a similar situation but at the US/Canada border.

I was going South for a day of caching in Washington State and had to explain the DHS officer what geocaching was and why I was doing it.

After trying to explain "it's treasure hunting but there is no 'treasure' ", I handed several of my printouts from the Geocaching site. He read them, looked at me kind-a funny and let me in!

January 1, 2007

We haven't, but our neighbor, also a geocacher, has. He just told him what he actually was doing. The police officer approved and drove away.

January 1, 2007

Like everyone has said thus far, honesty worked for me on my latest encounter with the police.

Unfortunately, a recent crime had occurred the night before in the area ( arson ) so it took some work to convince the officer that I was telling the truth.

If I hadn't come clean in the beginning, I am sure that I would have found myself down at the station, making my one phone call to my wife, who would have likely left me there .

After reading your log if it had been me, I would have insisted on getting the officer's name and badge number and filing a complaint with his superiors. You told him why you were there and what you were doing. Had you known about the fire happening before you'd gone out in the area?

Regardless of whether or not you knew about the fire he had no right/call to treat you the way that he did. Not to mention how do we know that even though he now knows what geocaching is that he isn't going to treat the next cacher harsher?

It also kind of reminds me of something that recently happened to me. I was riding home from a local seafood restaurant.when I think that I stumbled on a police stakeout. He used his hand to signal me to turn off my headlights, as I was doing a pretty good job of lighting him up. I guess IF he'd wanted to be a hardass about it he could have busted me, although I don't know on what charge.

Digital_Cowboy

January 2, 2007

Only had to deal with the police once so far, and that was because I was walking the side of a very busy roadway tracking down one of the Madonnas.

4.7k · January 2, 2007

I think that Patudles has the record for being stopped by the police the most often.

how many times has that been?

i'm on my thirteenth episode. for my first one i was detained and questioned for about an hour and a half on suspicion of being a terrorist. another time i was questioned about "severed body parts" that they suspected i had dumped in the woods.

i do not want to know what kind of illegal dumping problem they have in that town.

20.7k · January 2, 2007

I have to wonder what those of us with very few encounters are doing differently than those cachers with very many encounters.

4.7k · January 2, 2007

I have to wonder what those of us with very few encounters are doing differently than those cachers with very many encounters.

i have no earthly idea; i'm a quiet little middle-aged lady.

other hand, i take a lot of pictures (that's what got me into terrorist trouble) and i habitually wear black.

38.2k · January 2, 2007

I have to wonder what those of us with very few encounters are doing differently than those cachers with very many encounters.

Hunting different kinds of caches I suspect.

I've had two very brief encounters with the police in over 600 cache hunts. The first one, we were walking in a meadow about 50 yards from a highway that is closed to pedestrians and a state trooper stopped, called us over and wanted to make sure that we weren't hitchikers. When we told him we were exploring the meadow he was satisfied and left.

The second was last week when we were looking for a rest stop cache. A state trooper drove by and eyed us very closely. I thought for sure this was about to be my first genuine geocache encounter with a cop, but he drove on and parked about 200 feet away. He either didn't notice or didn't care when I was down on my knees feeling underneath a storm drain for the cache.

20.7k · January 2, 2007

Hunting different kinds of caches I suspect. ...

I don't know that I buy that. You and I have a lot of finds in a wide variety of areas. I don't know how you select caches to look for, but I pretty much search for anything that lands on my radar and (at least in the last few years) I can be somewhat urban-centric at times.

I would think that the caches I look for would cause me to have more incidents, but I can only think of two encounters. The first involved my approaching a couple of state troopers to bet them to pose in a pic with me for an LC. The second involved an LA cop yelling at me to get on the sidewalk. Since, I was technically jaywalking, I can't fault him.

January 2, 2007

Placing a donut on the other side of the road will draw the police's attention to it and not to you looking for the cache. :anitongue:

38.2k · January 2, 2007

Hunting different kinds of caches I suspect. ...

I don't know that I buy that. You and I have a lot of finds in a wide variety of areas. I don't know how you select caches to look for, but I pretty much search for anything that lands on my radar and (at least in the last few years) I can be somewhat urban-centric at times.

I would think that the caches I look for would cause me to have more incidents, but I can only think of two encounters. The first involved my approaching a couple of state troopers to bet them to pose in a pic with me for an LC. The second involved an LA cop yelling at me to get on the sidewalk. Since, I was technically jaywalking, I can't fault him.

I still think that those who concentrate on urban and suburban caches, particularly those in malls, are much more likely to encounter the fuzz than those who do most of their caching in the woods.

Edited January 2, 2007 by briansnat

20.7k · January 2, 2007

I still think that those who concentrate on urban and suburban caches, particularly those in malls, are much more likely to encounter the fuzz than those who do most of their caching in the woods.

I completely agree. However, my recent activity suggests that this can't be the primary determiner of whether someone picks up a high number of encounters.

6.7k · January 2, 2007

Most of my 30+ police checks come at 2 a.m. when I am caching with a group, often multiple carloads, behind some shopping center.

When I am by myself or one other person they tend to run my Drivers License and tag and ask more questions. If there are three or more, and especially multiple carloads, I just tell them what we're up to and off they go.

Plus, we're not very stealthy - 5 or 10 cachers with flashlights scouring a 50' circle tend to get noticed anywhere, as do cars pulling in and out of parking lots... I have had cops ask me something like "I have been watching you for thirty minutes dip in and out of closed businesses - what the heck are you up to?"

Of all the times I have been checked out only the last one, in PA for a Christmas event, would have been ugly if I had DNF'd the cache - having it to show the police (5 in 3 cars) saved the day. Even then they gave myself and my caching partner the most thourough checking out I that have yet experienced.

Police have a learned if not natural eye for hinky behavior, and stealth caching falls squarely in that description!

Cache late at night in small groups in urban areas and you can expect to get checked out more often than not!

Ed

7.3k · January 2, 2007

I think that Patudles has the record for being stopped by the police the most often.

how many times has that been?

i'm on my thirteenth episode. for my first one i was detained and questioned for about an hour and a half on suspicion of being a terrorist. another time i was questioned about "severed body parts" that they suspected i had dumped in the woods.

i do not want to know what kind of illegal dumping problem they have in that town.

I don't know the exact count, but apparantly I was wrong, and TAR holds the record.

And the same with 'Tudles, she's a woman around your age, not like she looks as much of a threat as say, my 6'5" inch 30 something husband would. But then, 'Tudles has gone to over 2 thousand caches, and caches all over the place, and in all sorts of situations including at night alone. I personally see that most LE encounters of ours tends to be at night.

6.7k · January 2, 2007

I think that Patudles has the record for being stopped by the police the most often.

I don't know the exact count, but apparantly I was wrong, and TAR holds the record.

That's certainly not a record I seek!

On the other hand I don't knowingly do anything wrong, so am not afraid of the police, which confidance probably leads me to do things others would shy away from.

Just last week 3 police cars were parked talking to one another at a cache site; I drove up 20' in front of them, two of us hopped out, waved and found the cache under a newspaper box at a closed strip mall, they watching us all the while, hopped back in the car and split - most cachers would have skipped that one!

I don't know the exact number, but I am guessing I get checked out 10 times a year, and if you read the Tennessee and Alabama forums you'll see constant mention of folks who were with me when we got checked out, resulting in my rep as a Cop Magnet.

Again, not a record I care to be known for, if it is one at all, but I am proud that I can cache without worrying about police check-outs.

7.3k · January 2, 2007

On the other hand I don't knowingly do anything wrong, so am not afraid of the police, which confidance probably leads me to do things others would shy away from.

This is very true.

January 2, 2007

Hunting different kinds of caches I suspect.

I've had two very brief encounters with the police in over 600 cache hunts. The first one, we were walking in a meadow about 50 yards from a highway that is closed to pedestrians and a state trooper stopped, called us over and wanted to make sure that we weren't hitchikers. When we told him we were exploring the meadow he was satisfied and left.

The second was last week when we were looking for a rest stop cache. A state trooper drove by and eyed us very closely. I thought for sure this was about to be my first genuine geocache encounter with a cop, but he drove on and parked about 200 feet away. He either didn't notice or didn't care when I was down on my knees feeling underneath a storm drain for the cache.

Somewhere near the Edge of Ballonsbury I suspect??

Funny, only run in I had was in Sparta. Lot's of cops in that town.

38.2k · January 2, 2007

Hunting different kinds of caches I suspect.

I've had two very brief encounters with the police in over 600 cache hunts. The first one, we were walking in a meadow about 50 yards from a highway that is closed to pedestrians and a state trooper stopped, called us over and wanted to make sure that we weren't hitchikers. When we told him we were exploring the meadow he was satisfied and left.

The second was last week when we were looking for a rest stop cache. A state trooper drove by and eyed us very closely. I thought for sure this was about to be my first genuine geocache encounter with a cop, but he drove on and parked about 200 feet away. He either didn't notice or didn't care when I was down on my knees feeling underneath a storm drain for the cache.

Somewhere near the Edge of Ballonsbury I suspect??

Funny, only run in I had was in Sparta. Lot's of cops in that town.

First was in a salt marsh along the Garden State Parkway. The second was a Route 80 rest area.

Police

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