An example of a nice way to talk to land owners.

[+Michael]

Thank you whoever you 4 are. This is the way we should all strive to talk to land owners.

 

This came in to Groundspeak today and I thought thanks were in order.

This morning I spoke to a group of 4 individuals on my private property. They advised they were geocaching. I advised that they were on my land and they advised that geocaching does not knowingly use private property and that I should contact you and ask you to remove the cache and my property from your records. They advised that I should reference [town name] to you and you would remove this location from your system. The group that I spoke to this morning were very pleasant and professional and I'm glad I stopped to speak to them rather than call the Maryland State Police to report them as trespassers. Please take care of this immediately.

Regards,

 

It is so nice to get emails like this. It really helps things when cachers are professional in their dealing with land owners and managers.

 

Thanks to all that do this, not just these 4 people.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Michael

[+Airhead-kb]

And the geocache was hidden by ??? obviously without permission. And that person will get their hand spanked?

 

I am glad the searchers were able to talk to the owner and everything was sorted out. But this should not have happened in the first place.

[+Kit Fox]

And the geocache was hidden by ??? obviously without permission. And that person will get their hand spanked?

 

I am glad the searchers were able to talk to the owner and everything was sorted out. But this should not have happened in the first place.

 

The landowner was lucky he encountered truthful geocachers. We all know about geocachers who will lie about the activity, when confronted by property owners. Honesty is always the best policy.

[+Renegade Knight]

...obviously without permission. ...

 

Potentially, not obviously.

 

My last run in with a land owner was not about a cache on their land. It was on land they maintained via their homeowners association because the real owner wasn't about to do the job.

 

It's one thing to talk about things in a forum on complete information. It's another to move that into real life.

 

As Michael and Kit Fox both point out. The heroes are the cache finders who recieved actual kudos from the land owner.

[+hydnsek]

Of course, it's also possible the cache owner didn't realize it was private property, particularly if it's wooded. Around here, it's often hard to determine if a greenbelt or wooded area is public or private. Yep, you can do a records search, but how many people do that before placing a cache in what appears to be generic woods?

 

For instance, there's a large wooded greenbelt in my subdivision, with trails and everything. Hikers and equestrians use it; geocaches are hidden in it. Little do they know that the greenbelt is actually owned by the nearby property owners. I own nearly an acre of this greenbelt, but allow people to freely pass through. No property owners have signs posted, there's no fencing, so anyone would innocently assume it's public property unless they looked at property records or a plat map.

 

I'm just sayin'....

[+sbell111]

Every time I see this thread's title, I think 'You're gonna let me put a cache here or I'm gonna bust a cap in ya'. I don't know why.

[+Lil Devil]

Every time I see this thread's title, I think 'You're gonna let me put a cache here or I'm gonna bust a cap in ya'. I don't know why.

 

Sbell, remind me not to take you with me when I go seek permission for hiding a cache

[+Cav Scout]

What kind of geocachers do you know?

 

And the geocache was hidden by ??? obviously without permission. And that person will get their hand spanked?

 

I am glad the searchers were able to talk to the owner and everything was sorted out. But this should not have happened in the first place.

 

The landowner was lucky he encountered truthful geocachers. We all know about geocachers who will lie about the activity, when confronted by property owners. Honesty is always the best policy.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Of course, it's also possible the cache owner didn't realize it was private property, particularly if it's wooded. Around here, it's often hard to determine if a greenbelt or wooded area is public or private. Yep, you can do a records search, but how many people do that before placing a cache in what appears to be generic woods?

 

For instance, there's a large wooded greenbelt in my subdivision, with trails and everything. Hikers and equestrians use it; geocaches are hidden in it. Little do they know that the greenbelt is actually owned by the nearby property owners. I own nearly an acre of this greenbelt, but allow people to freely pass through. No property owners have signs posted, there's no fencing, so anyone would innocently assume it's public property unless they looked at property records or a plat map.

 

I'm just sayin'....

 

What I don't get is why the landowner was asked to make the request to have the cache removed. If *I* was out geocaching in an area and encountered a land owner I would have explained what the game was all about then asked the landowner if he would like the cache removed. If the answer was yes, and depending on how vehement he was I would have taken the cache then contacted the owner, otherwise I would have just contacted the owner and informed the team that they had placed the cache on private property and the owner would like it to be removed.

 

My in-laws live about 6 miles from me up on a hill. Their house is about 600' off the road on 25 acres of mostly wooded area. One of these days I'm going to ask them if they'd mind if I put a cache on their property. They live on Nottingham Rd. (just off of Sherwood) so I could make a nice Robin Hood themed cache. However, they've also had problems with deer hunters on their property (despite the no hunting signs). There are a lot of deer and turkey in the area. A month or so after they moved there they spotted some hunters about 200' from the house. As they stepped out the front door one of them fired off a shot at a deer. Since then they've become pretty protective about their property so I'm not sure they'd let me put a cache on their property even though I could easily place when in a few spots where they would likely never see a cacher.

[+Kit Fox]

What kind of geocachers do you know?

 

I've met about 100 different cachers, and know quite a few, who deny the game when confronted by landowners, and law enforcement.

 

 

What I don't get is why the landowner was asked to make the request to have the cache removed. If *I* was out geocaching in an area and encountered a land owner I would have explained what the game was all about then asked the landowner if he would like the cache removed. If the answer was yes, and depending on how vehement he was I would have taken the cache then contacted the owner, otherwise I would have just contacted the owner and informed the team that they had placed the cache on private property and the owner would like it to be removed.

 

 

I'd remove the cache and contact the owner, this way the game piece is secure. I'm fairly sure most of us have encountered "busy bodies" who pretend to own land, but are only lying to keep people out of an area. In these instances, it is still better to keep the cache away from them.

[+uxorious]

depending on how vehement he was I would have taken the cache then contacted the owner

 

I'm glad you weren't one of the first finders on one of my caches. The first day the cache was listed a couple of searchers were approached by someone who insisted the spot was private property.

 

The next morning I went over to the place and spoke with the land owner. She said the fellow that had told them that, was her grandson. She was well aware that the old county road went through the property and that where the cache was, was on county property not hers.

 

I did give her my phone number, and told her if the cache became a problem to let me know and I would remove it. But I'm glad I had the chance to take care of my own cache.

[+Michael]

Every time I see this thread's title, I think 'You're gonna let me put a cache here or I'm gonna bust a cap in ya'. I don't know why.

 

Everytime I see the title I think the same basic thing. It was a good idea but in hindsite it didnt read the way I wanted it to.

 

Let keep this on on topic please. (not refering to you sbell)