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Excuses To Muggles


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I am fairly new to the game, so I generally just try to avoid looking in areas if people are hanging about. In times when I've been searching in more public areas, I've gotten a few strange looks, but no one has ever questioned me. I did have one funny experience though. I was in a parking lot, in a handicap parking sign that was cemented into a weight - nothing else around it. I figured it was a micro somewhere hidden in the sign. The parking lot was empty and it looked like the stores were empty. I was trying to look incosnpicuous... tying my shoe while looking all around. Then I realized someone in one of the darkened stores was watching out a window. I got back in the car and left, as I didn't want him calling the police. As I pulled out of the parking lot and looked back, I saw the guy out by the sign, looking all around it and looking very confused! It was pretty funny.

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As a new geocacher, I generally try to avoid muggles. However, at one cache a security guard drove up and asked what we were doing. We told him and he said that it was fine to look for the cache, as long as we were not getting into trouble. He had heard of geocaching before, so that helped! So far, that's my worst experience! :D

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one of my freinds was caching in a larger city parking lot of a medical plaza type place and had the security guard come up to him. The guard asked them what they were doing, they told them about the game and the guard spend the next 30 minutes helping him look for the cache. They found it and the guard was blown away because he never knew it was there.

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Start out simple...

 

"Whatcha doing?"

 

"Looking for a geocache."

 

"Oh, cool!" (more people than you might think have at least heard of it)

 

or

 

"A what?" (an unknown word just doesn't register)

 

"A survey marker"

 

"Oh."

 

Re clipboards and hard hats... I've never needed to try it, I stick to the woods and forests, but a tape measure might be a good idea. Two American POW's in WWII Germany escaped with only civilian clothes and a tape measure... they started measuring around the prison camp, worked their way to the gate, whereupon the guards obliging opened the gate, and they measured their way right on through. Traveling across Germany to the border, any time anybody paid any attention to them, the whipped out the tape measure and started measuring anything in site... lamp posts, curb heights, whatever. They made it all the way home.

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We are fairly new, on our very first one we had to snow shoe back in to the cache. Had to clean off a rock wall to find the location. Had the camera out to take a pic of my wife. On my back was my daughter. Heard a guy coming down the path talking. I started to walk out to where the trail was. He was talking to his dog while he was skiing. It was perfect my daughter loves dogs, didn't tell him anything.

 

Just last week we were out on a nice flat trail but the cache was hidden at the top of a hard climb of a hill/rock wall, in a rock ledge. One car in the parking lot, and we passed that guy on his way out. My wife is at the top, I heard this guy talking to his dog, he was on his way back, no luck on this one, what is she doing up there, some sort of geologist, crazy? I told him we were geocaching. I told him what it was all about, a treasure hunt over the internet. It is also a way for people to find new places for hiking and get some exercise. I told him what it was all about and he moved on after we visited for a few minutes.

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I don't have a car and it makes caching hard for me, So this was back in Early October of 06 I was still a newbie at that time since I started caching in late August of 06, I was walking from my home to the town my then boyfriend lived to FTF a cache not far from his home (which was a 7 mile walk), I took a shortcut through a park where there were 3 newly placed caches I found the first with no muggle encounters, but the second one there was a woman walking by me as I was trying to retrieve the cache (which was at the base of a tree on a stick) I quickly took out my camera and started snapping pictures I thought I had fooled her since I didn't look to see if she had gone, proceeded to retrieve the cache and sign the log. As I was putting the cache back she asked me if I was a terrorist!!! I looked at her like she had two heads and said no, (I should have mentioned that the area I used to live in at that time was about 20 mins from NYC) so I had no choice to explain what geocaching was. I even showed her how to use the GPS we ended up talking for a good half hour and she said that she wanted to get into it, I gave her a printout that my father encouraged me to carry with me that explained what caching was and had the website on it as well.

 

Another incident happened about 7 months later in May of 07 when I was out with 2 fellow cachers I had met at an event a month earlier, we were searching for a cache hidden on a bus stop in Old Bridge a cop pulls up and asks us if we were ok and we said we were geocaching and suprisingly he heard of it and he then told us where other caches in the area were!

 

I moved to Wheeling, WV in February of 08 and was out last Monday getting a power adaptor for my laptop since my old one went to electronic heaven, and the cache was in the shopping plaza and I forgot my pen so I asked the store manager to borrow a pen and when he questioned why I simply told him that I was geocaching and he said what? so I said it's a scavenger hunt for gps users and I needed to sign my name to prove I was there and he said make sure you bring the pen back when you are done. I returned the pen, I was afraid that the cache might have been muggled by the manager but my fiance and I were at the same shopping plaza the next day (since I just got my fiance into caching) I handed him my gps and told him to look for it while I went to a store nearby and when I came out he told me he couldn't find it so naturally I panicked but all was good because he didn't lift up the skirt on the light post enough and the cache was still there.

 

I've never had any nasty encounters with muggles or police. In my 2 years and 7 months of caching I have ALWAYS told the truth because it's REALLY what works. You never know who you might get interested in the game. I understand about preserving cache sights. But sometimes you also never know who might be watching a cache for a fellow cacher and they might just want to know if you are a geocacher or just someone messing with it.

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I've had tons of stops from very angry cops who told me to take my stupid games elsewhere or else be arrested to interested muggles. I used to try to fool people until it almost got me in jail now I just explain what geocaching is, an explanation paper would help a great deal!

Edited by Deftik
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I was looking for GCZJ67 which is in a public park near some baseball fields. About 30 seconds after getting out of my car, another car rolls up and two kids and their dad pop out. He says to me "They've been talking about redoing the road here; you an engineer?" I said No. He said "surveyor?" I said "No, I use my GPS(I held it up so he could see it) to find boxes in the woods." I specifically avoided saying boxes of toys. He quickly turned around and yelled "Come on boys,It's too muddy up here" and they left. :laughing:

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Once while we were digging through rocks in a ditch beside the road, a car stopped and ask if everything was OK? I said "NO! My friends threw my new BlackBerry out my window as a joke and I'm trying to find it! That's what the F**K is wrong!" They rolled up their window and drove away quickly. LMAO!

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Normally, if asked, we mention the treasure/scavenger hunt thing, looking for the next clue etc etc.

 

Over the Bank Holiday we were at a cache and were sitting on the floor with the box, signing the log etc when a bunch of teenagers came and sat really nearby for a picnic or something and were watching us intently. We are in our mid forties (thought that would be good to mention in the circs). The teens showed no signs of moving so we had a big snog, the teenagers were heard to say "gross, eewwww, old people making out ewwww, gross". They went elsewhere PDQ :unsure:

We finished logging the cache, re-hid it and left. Not actually holding hands and skipping but it did cross our mind :D

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I was looking for a cache on a city trail between 2 houses. Thinking it might be on the chain link fence I was checking it quite closely. Next thing I hear someone asking why I was looking in his yard. Seems the property owner was concerned I was checking his yard. I assured him I wasn't looking in his yard and infact was checking out the fence.

"Oh, is the city finally replacing this fence?"

"Well it is being looked at."

Well it's about time. Do what ya gotta do."

 

Poor guy thinks the city will fix his fence now.

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I had taken my daughters and some friends geocaching one afternoon. The cache was hidden near a restaurant. There was an employee sitting at the picnic tables outside. The girls really wanted to find the cache, so they pretended to have lost their cat, "Kit". To make it even more real, they dripped water on their faces to look like they had been crying. I am sure the muggle wondered why the crazy lady was laughing while her kids were crying and calling out "Kit, here Kit, where are you Kit". Unfortunately, we did not find the cache. We need to go back sometime when the location is muggle free to take a better look.

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November 11, 2007 by glyn(the only one) (519 found)

Decided to take JDNZ's German Shepherd (Lexie) for a walk planting a cache & then trying to find this one in the dark, in between the 2 we travelled down Hinemoa St to come across a bad crash that had blocked off the road. It took some time to clear all the glass etc off the road & get thru.

When we arrived at the park I noticed a helicopter circling the area at some height above us, I presumed it was interested in the crash site & assumed it was the press taking photos maybe.

We parked across the road from the park, walked over the field to the trail & proceeded towards GZ in what was now pitch black. As we went on I saw what appeared to be a black object on the trail ahead about 100 metres away which I couldnt make out, it wasnt moving so I thought maybe its a tree. As we approached GZ the Gps indicated it was time to get off the trail, so we did & proceeded to rummage about looking for the missing cache in the dark by the light of a small torch. Can you imagine what it was like, trying to hold back a frisky big dog on the slippery slope, the other hand on the GPS with the torch clenced between my teeth,while the lead caught around the undergrowth & my legs,all the while my backpack joining in the fun by getting stuck in unseen snags! Fun!

After a few minutes of this I heard the sound of someone approaching along the trail, I shut down the torch, tried to keep the dog quiet, then realised that was going to be a hopeless task as the person was accompanied by a rather large dog & Lexie goes bananas at anyone anyway, especially at night! A voice called out from the dark "Why are you hiding from us? Its the police, we saw you dive off the trail when you saw us, what are you up to?" Sprung!!!

Hauled the now highly vocal Lexie back on the trail to meet PC Plod, now positively drooling at the prospect of an early arrest & a dinner date for PC K9 (who,amazingly was the most quiet of all of us!)

After a hurried explanation of what geocaching was all about,PC Plod became very dissapointed & angry that he'd been fooled & the real perpetrators had probably slipped away. Without another word ( apart from a few "F" words,) he turned on his heel & stormed off into the dark. I then resumed my search, but by this time Lexie only had eyes for the departing PC K9, so I gave up. I also realised what had happened was the chopper overhead was the Eagle Police Bird & it had directed the Dog Squad to us & it became very suss when they saw us exit the trail.They would have been trying to find the person who had done a runner from the crash site earlier.

As I was pondering this, away in the distance I could hear shouting, barking & then screams as Pc Plod & K9 closed in on the perp.All well that ends well, & now Im glad to report the cache is there after all!--;)

:) ---Glyn.

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I use commonly:

 

"I'm checking trees for disease that may need to be taken down, this one is bleeping screwed."

 

"I'm doing survey work for the city"

 

"I dropped my cellphone"

 

I also fake that my GPSr is a cellphone and act like I'm talking or texting.

 

I don't know if they buy it or not but either way it will give them something to talk about at home.

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I saw on another board the suggestion of carrying a clipboard, as that makes you look 'official.' I think it's a brilliant idea! Might try it.

 

I've often thought wearing a high-viz vest and carrying a litter picker and black bag would be a good disguise for a geocacher (also convenient for CITO).

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I generally speak the truth, especially if it is near someone's property where they are going to see lots of cachers.

 

I've used the GPSr as a cell phone trick before.

 

If people look at me I sometimes stare back.

 

The only time a joked was at a cache that was near a homeless camp. A guy came up and the converstation went like this:

 

"What are you doing?"

 

"Looking for something."

 

"What?"

 

"I don't know. Someone on the internet told me something was here and told me to come find it."

 

"You don't know what it is?"

 

"No."

 

He looked at me with that look that said "Idiot" and walked away.

 

I smiled inside then kept looking.

 

Kind of the truth.

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On the only hide, in my home town, about six blocks from where i live, I came back to my car to find the folks in an apartment complex had called the cops on me because I had parked in the lot at the end of a cul de sac, sat in the car for a while (loading the cache box), then walked across the gravel landfill to the woods a few hundred yards away. They thought I was a child molester??? The cops were cool. I had my GPS and a bunch of corroborating evidence in the back seat. Very embarrassing though. About 20 people had gathered to watch the pervert be hauled away. The cop apologized explaining that they had had a "problem" a month ago and the perp also had a blue cavalier. !!! Later, I decided that was probably me when I parked there to go back in and scout out the hide. I think I remember saying hi to a couple of kids who walked by. Apparently, that's a no no now a days! Sheesh!

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I've come up with the excuse...

 

"I am a paid volunteer for a Medical Lab, and they are in development of a new bee/wasp sting medicine that supposed to make all pain go away in just 6 seconds. My job is to find a wasp nest and intice them to sting me, then spray the special medicine they gave me, and see how long the stinging lasts. So I am loking for the wasp nest I seen a week ago, to poke it with a stick"

 

Let me tell you, they LEAVE me alone real quick.....

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I dont have a picture, but a geocache called DRY WEATHER ONLY, takes you to a place to park and the sign says Warning! Impassable when wet! Do Not Enter during or after rain event! Failure to comply will result in Shriff's Citation

 

This is in Monroe county IL outside of the town of Red Bud, IL. Basically what it means is, If you go out there and get stuck, not eve a wrecker can go that far out and they have to retrieve farm equipment to get you out, and the Sheriff gives you a ticket for all the trouble.

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Hang a camera around your neck and you're settled. The minute muggles pass by, you just take the camera and aim it at something random (even a blank wall will do :( )

 

even on your knees in the middle of town/the forest it works great... people don't tend to bother "artists" :(

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The only time I have actually encountered someone who looked suspicious, the person happened to be another cacher. It was lucky that we ran into him, becasue it was our first time searching for a micro, so he showed us what it looked like, and where it was. Then, since it was a multi cache, we continued to find the second half of the cache together (along with my dad and my friend who are my caching partners).

 

I've gotten some strage looks when it was only me and a friend (without my dad) but no one has actually come up to me. If someone did ask me, I would just tell them that i was Geocaching and then walk away.

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I dont have a picture, but a geocache called DRY WEATHER ONLY, takes you to a place to park and the sign says Warning! Impassable when wet! Do Not Enter during or after rain event! Failure to comply will result in Shriff's Citation

 

This is in Monroe county IL outside of the town of Red Bud, IL. Basically what it means is, If you go out there and get stuck, not eve a wrecker can go that far out and they have to retrieve farm equipment to get you out, and the Sheriff gives you a ticket for all the trouble.

 

I am sorry about confusion, I meant to post that in 'strange signs' forum

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I was stopped once while out with my father by an old man in a van, i sat on a rock and looked up and the cache was right in front of me hanging from a tree! the man asked what we were doing and when we replied nothing, he stated that he owned the property that we were looking on. Dad promptly said "in that case... we are geocaching.." and explained it to the old man... i was like "i fould it" and showed the man... he seemed interested!

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Yesterday, I was geocaching w/ my two young sons (5 and 3). We were hiking and looking for a cache up a fairly steep hill, the GPS started to beep and the boys were getting excited, cuz we were about to find the location. I'm looking around, but not paying much attention, I look up and it appears that the hiding zone is near or around a large drainage pipe that flows into a small run-off pond. The boys are ready to make the find, we get to the top of the drainage pipe, look over the edge and there's two teenagers "hangin' out".....

 

LOL, I said, oh.... hi muggles....... and then I had to tell me kids that we would have to come back to that one some other time.... The boys had no idea what happened and we went on to our next find!

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Last year a cache popped up about 1/4 mile from Fairlady's work place. She left early for work, 5 a.m. yo be exact. Since the cache was a notorious location, Hooters, she elcted to search for this one early in the morning.

 

A police car drove up and asked her what she was doing, thinking quickly she said my grandson lost his wallet here last night and well you know how grandmothers are. The nice officer offered to help, thankfully about that time he got a call and told her he'd be back to check on her progress a little later. Quickly she searched and while behind the shurbrey the sprinklers came on. She went to work soaking wet. It does not pay to lie to the law. Did she find the cache, NO. But the next day the Fisherman walked right up to it. Crime and little white lies do not pay.

 

We've really enjoyed reading these logs. Great topic, and some good ideas........

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I have yet to be stopped by a muggle (actually yet to find a cach) but I know exactly what I would do. I would use the jedi mind trick on them.

 

When they stop me and ask what am I doing I will look at them and wave my hand in front of their face while saying:

 

"These aren't the droids your looking for. Move along"

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At a family reunion recently, my brother-in-law and I decided to sneak away and look some of the many caches in the park. We encountered a gentleman out for a hike while we were still on the walking trail, so we nodded as we passed each other. The next three times we saw the guy, we were coming out of the woods, crossing the path, and plunging into the woods on the other side. On the last encounter, we were over the hill checking out a large fallen tree and he stopped on the path just above us. Although he couldn't see us, we paused and waited until he moved along. When he finally started to move again, we returned to the path and discovered that he has stopped several yards away to answer his cell phone. We ended up approaching him and started a conversation. When we told him what we were doing, he said that he had been thinking about getting a GPSr. He had never heard of geocaching until we told him, but he said it sounded like something he would definitely enjoy.

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At a busy detroit zoo

 

We were looking for a well camo'd micro in bushes. A park employee came by and asked us if we needed help, at this point im waste deep leaning over a fence into the bush.

 

My wife had the perfect response " Animals from all over the world are here at the zoo and I have the husband who wants to see where the chipmunk went!"

 

The guy laughed rolled his eyes and walked off.

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If the person looks cranky, I usually say "my friend left something in this area, and I'm trying to find it". Typically works, and not 100% inaccurate, so if they ask more questions and/or figure out what I'm doing I don't look like a jerk. If they offer to help, I usually say that I'm fine and they don't need to worry about it. If it's a creepy person, I usually just say that I give up and he can come back and find it himself. That works every time.

 

I haven't encountered a LEO yet.

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we were caught today at a mcdonalds ( golden arches , zip 18322 ) by the worker taking out trash ovcourse cache was behind dumpster .... we were about 5 cachers deep , the worker asked .... ladies ..... gentleman ..... whats goin on back here ..... as my teen cousin took a breath , i thought aw crap here we go , he mom belted out the truth ...... and ovcourse the worker had that bewildered look , huh ,,,.... its treasure hunting ..... not another word he just walked away still bewildered .... when we left we asked what my cousins pland on saying he replied and we werent supprised .........crack left from the orgy last night .... he tends to offend people to make them leave ..... yet supprisingly to me it works for him......

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We had some curious muggles watching us while searching for a geocache in some bushes near a museum. I called out "here kitty, kitty, kitty!" Told them I was looking for my cat. More frequently, if we think we are being watched and think the cache is near ground level or under something, we'll accidentally drop our keys or a quarter, then do a clandestine search while bending down or crawling around retrieving our dropped item. If it is a family watching us, we usually explain what we are doing and get the kids excited about the treasure hunt. We've made a lot of geocachers out of muggles :)

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looking for a cache on a rail to trail a muggle walked by and asked us if we where snipe hunting and we said that that is what where looking for . At a state park we ran into some bird watchers and they asked if that was what we where doing and my dad spoke up and yes we where and talked for a few seconds and sounded like he was just fitting in with there bird watching . They fell for it and we then went on our way to the cache .

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