Suspect illigal/prohibited items.

[+kifcog]

What would fellow caches recommend you do if you find items you suspect might be illigal or prohibited by geocaching.com - I personally would remove prohibited but not illegal items and dispose of them. What about illegal things though?

 

I have found a number of small balloons with tufts of hair on and smiley faces drawn on them in South essex caches (They look homemade). My 2 yr old actually chose to swap one at a cache and played with it, eventually it split open and white powder came spilling out.

 

Whilst I'm sure they aren't full of drugs I realised that they look just like wraps, particularily the type "mules" stuff up thier butt holes to smuggle (I have helped retrieve some of these as a nurse working in A&E!) I am certain thet the material in their is not; talc, flour, any type of sugar, baking powder, fullers earth, or any other white powder I can think of. I would rub some on my gums like cops do in films but I don't know what cocain tastes like!

 

I have tried to discover who is placing them but thier never seems to be any record in the logbook that says Took ??, Left £20 wrap of heroin.

 

The last one I found I spit open and binned, but I wonder if I should do anything else? I thought about snorting a couple of lines to see what happened but as I have never taken drugs in my life I would probably do it all wrong and OD or something.

[nobby.nobbs]

well i will ignore my "don't feed the troll" reaction.

 

if it's against the rules remove it. if you think it's potentially dangerous remove it.

 

if you actually had any experience with drugs then you'd know that the ways you suggested to test them are for the movies and not real life.

[+FollowMeChaps]

Clearly no question. You are under a DUTY to report anything suspect to the Police. You took the first step reporting it here.

 

You report your own concern at your 2 year old playing with something potentially harmful. Others will follow so think about their children. We all feel pangs of guilt reporting something that may turn out to be totally harmless and a waste of police time but if in doubt we have to overcome that. Be on the safe side - Report it!. Who knows, in so doing you may even introduce others to this fascinating hobby.

[+Mad H@ter]

I think I know the sort of thing you are talking about as we have placed some of these in caches. They are like a mini, squidgy stress toy widely available at toy shops, pound shops etc. I have no idea what the powder is but I'm pretty sure that it's not cocaine, heroin or similar as you can get a pack of 10 for about £2.99. To be honest though I wouldn't recommend giving them to your 2 year old as I'm sure that they won't be suitable for under 3's, in fact I don't think I would give anything out of a cache to a child that young as you do not know its history. Mind you common sense would tell you that so I'm sure you don't need telling .

[+maxkim]

The ballon things you describe were quite popular with our two when they were younger. You part fill a balloon with flour plain or self raising and as you mention attach eyes etc. They can be moulded in to various shapes. As you mentioned when they split it makes a bit of a mess. Totally harmless. Re the drug angle, the quantity you describe would be worth a lot of money... not something usually associated with items left in caches.... unless iv'e been missing something over the years. Totally harmless is my view. But if in doubt remove and report to the Police. Use gloves and avoid any skin contact. Max

[Lactodorum]

AFAIK there are NO Trolls in this thread so thanks to everyone who has contributed.

 

If you find something that the guidelines say shouldn't be in a cache, knives, alcohol etc. you would be doing the caching community a favour by removing them. The reviewers would be very pleased if you did this. It would help if you mentioned this in your logs so as to help educate those who perhaps aren't aware of the guideline.

 

As for other "suspicious" items, probably common sense is a good guide. While Geocaching is certainly a family game it is up to adults to supervise their own children and take responsibility for them. People should do as you wisely did and watch what their children do at caches. If you feel there is something wrong with an item then by all means swap it out for something else.

 

In this particular case, if you think drugs are involved you should go straight to the police who can do whatever tests are necessary. Better safe than sorry.

[+scottpa100]

Remove illegal / not allowed items. Suspect illegal - report to police. Not allowed items - just remove and dispose of. Just like sensible cacher Gwyddno has done on this log.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...0d-fd8c44f5016b

[+Coppers Lot]

Couldn't help contributing to this thread being a bobby. Lactodorum says it all; Geocaching guidelines cover such eventualities.

 

From my point of view if you suspect the substance to be drugs or other 'white powder'* substances then this DOES need reporting as the local Police Force will need to know these things are happening:

 

1) Handle the item as LITTLE as possible,

2) NO skin contact,

3) Do NOT inhale dust or taste powder.

4) Double bag the item i.e seal completely into one bag and then seal completely into a second bag**

5) Produce item at your local Police station with your suspicions, where located, etc.

6) Note whats been done in your log and inform the cache owner via email.

 

* Not to be alarmist but we've heard the term on the news with regard to terrorism. Be suspicious of ALL white powder.

** Placing the item in one bag may not be sufficient as one bag bursts easier than two.

 

As far as your everyday cacher is concerned this will NEVER happen as the movers and shakers in the drug/terrorist world would place their own secret caches around the country for storage of such items and hidden at GPS co-ords no-one would find. They would not risk losing items in our Geocaches.

 

If in doubt, report it. Use your COMMON SENSE though, please.

Edited August 28, 2007 by Coppers Lot

[+third-degree-witch]

Ive found some bits n pieces since i started caching....penknives,lighters,cigarettes/roll ups,small quantity of puff left by a muggle,sweets..takes no time at all to cito em.

[+Renegade Knight]

....I have found a number of small balloons with tufts of hair on and smiley faces drawn on them in South essex caches (They look homemade). My 2 yr old actually chose to swap one at a cache and played with it, eventually it split open and white powder came spilling out....

 

Most likley corn starch, possibly flour. The tufts of hair would get in the way of the mule usage. But for an inexpensive sig item, the semi squishy baloon head would be cheap and easy to make. Plus it seems 2 year olds like it.

 

Of course if the guy is a Columbian Drug lord on holiday, some things may be simpler for him to use than corn startch for his sig item. The odds are a lot lower though for this scenario.

[+Renegade Knight]

Ive found some bits n pieces since i started caching....penknives,lighters,cigarettes/roll ups,small quantity of puff left by a muggle,sweets..takes no time at all to cito em.

 

I'd CITO most of those but a few are nice swag and legal to boot. Just against a guideline.

[+Vodor and Scorsby]

Suspicious white powder....? knives......? lighters........? why oh why cant someone with a big heart just leave a nice big roll of non consecutive £20 notes....

[+Renegade Knight]

Suspicious white powder....? knives......? lighters........? why oh why cant someone with a big heart just leave a nice big roll of non consecutive £20 notes....

I'll even take consecutive ones and spend them non consecutivly.

[+kifcog]

Thanks all for the repies - I'm not a troll but I suspected this thread might attract some - I'm really pleased to see sensible posts thanks again.

 

It was the homemade look that aroused my suspicions, I hope I didn't come across as a paranoid nutter, it was just a nagging doubt that bothered me!

 

Thanks especially to our copper friend. As a said I have no real personal experience of drugs except the following. I work as a nurse in A&E and twice have discovered "unknown white powder" on patients who have been involved in RTAs (both patients where FUBAR) The first time I was naive, we reported it to the police and then I had to wait around for ages whilst the police took statements and took the stuff away. The second time it happend I made sure I diddn't handle the stuff and my naive collegue got to hang around for ages instead (He can't give it to anybody else, that would be supply) Anyway i only mention it because the stuff in the balloon looked similar.

 

Finally if I find another I will drop it into the old bill and see if they're interesed, like you say it can't do any harm!

 

Thanks again all

[+crunchiespg]

Couldn't help contributing to this thread being a bobby. Lactodorum says it all; Geocaching guidelines cover such eventualities.

 

From my point of view if you suspect the substance to be drugs or other 'white powder'* substances then this DOES need reporting as the local Police Force will need to know these things are happening:

 

1) Handle the item as LITTLE as possible,

2) NO skin contact,

3) Do NOT inhale dust or taste powder.

4) Double bag the item i.e seal completely into one bag and then seal completely into a second bag**

5) Produce item at your local Police station with your suspicions, where located, etc.

6) Note whats been done in your log and inform the cache owner via email.

 

* Not to be alarmist but we've heard the term on the news with regard to terrorism. Be suspicious of ALL white powder.

** Placing the item in one bag may not be sufficient as one bag bursts easier than two.

 

As far as your everyday cacher is concerned this will NEVER happen as the movers and shakers in the drug/terrorist world would place their own secret caches around the country for storage of such items and hidden at GPS co-ords no-one would find. They would not risk losing items in our Geocaches.

 

If in doubt, report it. Use your COMMON SENSE though, please.

 

as another copper, allbeit one who has just left the UK police and i am moving to the canadian police, ill add my 2p worth.

 

if someone hands in any sort of drugs they just found in the street or whatever, they are not tested. they are just destroyed. why waste money testing them if we dont know who's they are.

 

to be honest if i found some drugs, if it was that serious i wouldnt even touch it, id phone the police and let them collect it in situ, lets face it, if you got stopped on the way to handing it in to the station who will believe you "i'm handing it in, honest officer" oh if i had a pound everytime i heard that. twice in one week from one local druggy!!

 

if its not that serious, just flush it away. i know thats not to the letter of the law, but lets be real.

Edited August 30, 2007 by crunchiespg

[Deceangi]

To be honest the chances of you finding anything illegal in a cache are slim usually it will be prohibited items or a muggle has left some unwanted bodily functions [yes it has happened].

 

You've more chance of find something illegal near to the cache container, due to the fact that a good hiding place for us is a good hiding place for the bad guys. Out of the total No of cache finds in the UK, I can only think of less than a handful of finds of illegal items. so the chances of you ever coming across such things must be higher than your winning the lottery [in the millions]

[+jerryo]

<snip> so the chances of you ever coming across such things must be higher than your winning the lottery [in the millions]

Ths odds against winning a tenner aren't exactly brilliant either at nearly 50:1!

 

I was prevented from placing a cache by two armed bobbies not so long ago. It took a while to tell them about geocaching, the way it would, but they still seemed disinclined to let me put a large steel ammunition box with “MORTAR” inscribed on the side a mere 200 metres from the nearby nuclear power station. Can’t see why.

Apart from the obvious reason, they did say that the box might then be used by the local toe rags to hide their stashes, which as Deceangi says is pretty unlikely.

[+jindivik]

just to clarify

 

we recently bought some of these from a shop and the instructions on the back state it is cornflour

[+Lotho]

I saw on the forums somewhere a cache that a guy had gone to look for and upon finding the cache he took it out of the woods, opened it up and found it wasnt the cache- it was 3kg of heroin. Thats why the box was so heavy!

[+HATTSTER]

Hi..new to this!! call me a THICKO!! whats a troll???

[+Lotho]

A troll in forum terms is someone who makes a topic to deliberately draw attention. For instance, a thread asking for all micro sized caches to be archived would almost certainly be considered a troll post.

[+jerryo]

A troll in forum terms is someone who makes a topic to deliberately draw attention. For instance, a thread asking for all micro sized caches to be archived would almost certainly be considered a troll post.

Or someone who really doesn't like micros

[+Dorsetgal & GeoDog]

Twice this year I have removed disposable lighters from caches, bth had been left by European cachers, but this week something even more unpleasant, an unwrapped yellow condom ... well it was in a cache on Primrose Hill!

[+Vodor and Scorsby]

Twice this year I have removed disposable lighters from caches, bth had been left by European cachers, but this week something even more unpleasant, an unwrapped yellow condom ... well it was in a cache on Primrose Hill!

Maybe someone needs to be told that geocaching is a family activity not a family planning activity.

[+Lotho]

Woops

Edited September 24, 2007 by Lotho

[+Lotho]

A troll in forum terms is someone who makes a topic to deliberately draw attention. For instance, a thread asking for all micro sized caches to be archived would almost certainly be considered a troll post.

Or someone who really doesn't like micros

Touche

[+Realmofchaos]

To be honest the chances of you finding anything illegal in a cache are slim usually it will be prohibited items or a muggle has left some unwanted bodily functions [yes it has happened].

 

You've more chance of find something illegal near to the cache container, due to the fact that a good hiding place for us is a good hiding place for the bad guys. Out of the total No of cache finds in the UK, I can only think of less than a handful of finds of illegal items. so the chances of you ever coming across such things must be higher than your winning the lottery [in the millions]

 

Care to elaborate on some of these illegal items reported? For the benefit of us noobs

[+Realmofchaos]

To be honest the chances of you finding anything illegal in a cache are slim usually it will be prohibited items or a muggle has left some unwanted bodily functions [yes it has happened].

 

You've more chance of find something illegal near to the cache container, due to the fact that a good hiding place for us is a good hiding place for the bad guys. Out of the total No of cache finds in the UK, I can only think of less than a handful of finds of illegal items. so the chances of you ever coming across such things must be higher than your winning the lottery [in the millions]

 

Care to elaborate on some of these illegal items reported? For the benefit of us noobs

[+MartyBartfast]

 

Care to elaborate on some of these illegal items reported? For the benefit of us noobs

 

Well there's been a sawn off shotgun, pistol, stash of cocaine, and I think a stash of cannabis, some of which have been discussed here and in similar other threads.

[+MartyBartfast]

Double post due to the BB playing silly b*****s

Edited September 25, 2007 by MartyBartfast

[+Geo-Kate]

A modified replica handgun covered in parcel tape was found next to one of our caches. Scary stuff.

 

The cachers who found it (found by a 12 year old girl, actually) waited ages for the police to locate them, as it appears they do not carry GPSrs!

[+usimo]

Some cachers in our area (west Germany) found in one cache location Heroin!

A big stone with holes and in one a micro was hidden.

 

They took the micro, reported that to the police and the police made an investigation about that!

 

In the end of the day the stone with the cache was a postbox for drug dealers!

 

Bad luck, but I think this can happen everywhere!

 

Regards from Germany

 

Uwe

-usimo-