Stealth Tactics

[+StarBrand]

The best tactics I have used.

 

5. Carry a clipboard and look offcial.

 

4. Carry a camera and small notebook - shoot pictures and take notes (fake).

 

3. Carry a book on botany and a notebook with some pressed "samples" - works great around trees and bushes.

 

2. Bring the 5 year old and 2 year old with me. They could drive anybody to disraction.

 

1. Best method: Forget stealth - march right up to the cache, grab it, sign the log, put it back. Act like you know 100% what you are doing and why. Don't flinch, don't look around, don't act nervous. Just do it. Such people tend to get ignored. Acting stealthy will certainly attract some level of attention.

[+gof1]

I have given up on stealth. If I can't just walk up and look for it I just don't look for it.

There is no way to look more suspicious that trying not to look suspicious.

[+DrJay]

The key, as other people have suggested, is to not act like you are worried about someone seeing you. Because that makes people more likely to pay attention to you. I just get myself in the right frame of mind: I have a job to do. These people have no idea what my job is. But it is very important that I do it, and I am not going to be bothered by other people around. I of course try to make sure that they don't actually see me retrieve the cache. But if you pull it off right, even then they don't care.

 

But... the most extreme thing I did in "stealth" was to do the exact opposite. I was in Chicago for a conference and did a little urban caching in the down time. The area of the cache had a number of transients, and it was very hard for me to go unnoticed. They were far enough away that they couldn't hear or see exactly what I was doing, but they were watching my every move. One, in particular, was watching me very closely from across the street.

 

I was not going to be able to play the casual "got a job to do" routine without him seeing what I was doing and not caring. The cache was under the sidewalk, there was no way I was going to be able to do this without being noticed. So I figured I would have to do something that would distract him. I sat down right there acting like there was nothing unusual about that at all... the key was to make it look like I was acting.

If he thought I was a cop, he was going to be less likely to come up to me and ask for money.

 

I had my MP3 player with my earphones. So I started talking into my sleeve (they were far enough away that they couldn't hear what I was saying) and... and here's the important part... I was acting like I was doing surveillance on someone down the street. Every once in while I'd pop up from my position and I'd look down the street, listen intently to my earphone (Bob Marley was playing ) and then speak into my sleeve and drop back down. I'd make it a point that I was looking down the street, so much so that he started looking down there too just to see what was going on! Then, when they were looking down the street on one of those cycles, I huddled down to act like I was trying to hear and made the grab. Signed the log like I was taking notes, performed the same "surveillance" move a couple times and replaced the cache without being noticed.

 

Then it came time for the exit. My actions became a bit more animated and excited, and finally I shouted into my sleeve, "He's on the move!" and I took off down the street in the opposite direction and out of sight.

 

I have no idea how much my actions were necessary. I did peek back to see what effect the whole scene had and I laughed when I saw the guy talking to one of his "colleagues" and relating the whole thing to him. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he kept motioning over to where I was, mimicking my actions and then pointing down the street towards my "subject." At the very least, I gave the old guy a story that he could share with his friends. In the end it was, without a doubt, the most fun I'd ever had in finding a cache... even though it was just an altoids tin under a sidewalk.

[BCProspectors]

Huh

 

So I guess a big white Suburban with geocaching decals on both sides, a backpack, 2 gps' and a geocaching sweatshirt aren't such a good idea.

 

That's not nessasarily true. There is nothing wrong with letting people know you are Geocaching. It's not like you're doing something wrong.

[+XopherN71]

Very true... well, not as long as the hider got permission

[+peajay84]

I take hubby along on my caching adventures so we can spend some quality time together. Last weekend we went searching along the local hike/bike trail. Of course most were off the trail into the trees and brush. After each find we'd head back to the trail to walk to the next one. One time, upon our return to the trail from behind some bushes, we popped out to find a couple runners headed down the trail. I wasn't trying to be stealthy, I was only trying to brush off leaves/twigs/etc. You could tell though that they thought hubby and I had been getting frisky behind the bushes! I was so embarressed!!

 

It IS a good stealth tactic though!

[+Morning Dew]

I tried to be all sly once and it back fired on me.

 

I was searching some bushes for a cache outside a library that no longer existed (I didn't know it at the time). I was searching very hard and getting a little flustered because this was supposed to be a 1 hide and a regular size container.

 

I didn't realize it but I was being watched and the guy eventually came up to me and asked what I was doing. I thought I was so smart as I instantly told him that my fiance (I'm married BTW) and I had gotten in an arguement right here and she took off the engagement ring and tossed in the bushes. I had come back to find it.

 

He says "Oh my God! I'll help you, what does it look like?" So now I'm caught up in what leads to multiple lies thinking "What if this guy finds this big tupperware container...what then?"

 

It sure is funny thinking back on it but it wasn't at the time. We never found the ring or the cache and I left telling him it was my loss and I never should have been such a jerk to her.

Edited April 25, 2008 by Morning Dew

[Dinoprophet]

If you're searching near your car, leave the hood up. Then whatever it is you're doing, it's obviously related to that.

[+Cache-Bandits]

I recently had a micro find in the middle of a very busy park. The cache was magnetically held to the underside of a utility box on a post about 12" above the ground. It was the only feature for a good distance, so I was sure it was on the box before I got there. There were hundreds of people around though! I bent down and pretended to tie my shoe while I felt around for the container, grabbed it, and took it a couple hundred yards to sit and sign the log. When I replaced it, I did it in one smooth move as I walked by, then watched the site for about 20 minutes to make certain no one tampered with it. Probably my boldest public find ever, but I was ok with it since I watched so carefully afterward.

[+DrgnTrappr]

Now I know that when Team Drgn pulls up in the safety yellow Exterra and the three of us pile out to find the micro we are not allways stealthy. But when I'm out cachng alone I feel like everyone is watching me. Team Drgn's motto is "We are invisible." just act like this is normal.

[+MickEMT]

Good idea - Wearing my security windbreaker. Avoids many stupid questions.

 

Bad idea (when group caching) call out " Nope, I'm getting the higher radiation readings over here!"

[+KerBear]

will have to remember my animal response jacket-only problem is it's high visable yellow with reflective strips. might cause more attention! anyway, for stealth-zoie becomes a decoy. go on zoie-go pee. usually works well unless there's no grass around-then looks a little strange. favorite stealth hide was at a pa rest area in the pet section. worked great. zoie peed while I signed the log.

[+Pod-Cache]

I discovered a technique a couple of weeks ago: CITO!!!

 

Put on an orange vest, bring a garbage bag, and pick up some trash! You'll look like you belong. Although, hopefully you don't run into clients, parents-in-law, ex-girlfriends, etc. or else it may look like your doing your community service sentence...on the other hand, people will keep their distance and give you space to look for the cache!

 

Another one I've done is wear my hard hat, nobody questions what anyone's doing when they're wearing a hard hat...

[unmanedpilot]

Something I did that I think works pretty well, but only at sunset, is just to stare into the sky. I was collecting a magnetic micro placed on a lone sign. There were a few muggles around, one walking right past the cache, and after I leaned against a tree to sign it I just stood there staring at the sunset. Though it was weird, I must have looked lonely cause he asked if I wanted to play volleyball with his group, I just told him I was fine, replaced the mico quickly and walked to the next one.

 

Oh, just thought of this. Its like the funny pose but something elce you could try is yoga. People do that all the time in parks so why not work on your flexibility while replacing a cache.

Edited April 30, 2008 by unmanedpilot

[+toothfaker]

I have been geocaching for 1 month. have found 14 so far. On the very first time, I was looking for a cache with my kids, and elderly gent of maybe 80+ asked us if we were looking for Morrell mushrooms. I had an enfatic YES! have you seen any? He said no and we moved on. The kids were silent and saw me tell a white lie. They were kind of laughing about it and i said i didn't want to lye but he was on top of us before we knew it. His dog rambled up to us as we were replacing a well hidden amo box with lots of goddies. Thinking about it now if we just told him what we were doing he would have thought it was really a fun activity.

[+HarleyPiper]

I've never gone to this extreme, but I think a hard hat an a surveyor's tripod would work wonders. NOBODY questions their presence, no matter where they are...

[+powercatjeffy]

I'd definitely go with the "act like you know what you are doing."

 

[+family explorer]

I have the family as decoys. The wife and boy will go out picture taking, while I swoop in for the prize. Cars back good human shields when they can be parked close enough.

[+JacobBarlow]

What kind of stealth tactics do you use while searching for a cache in high muggle areas?

 

I don't, I think stealth when caching is generally a bad idea, most people are not as sneaky or cleaver as they think they are so they just end up making it obvious that they are hiding something, and if you look like you're being sneaky you'll raise a lot of concern.

 

I believe in not hiding my actions, if someone is looking at me like they are wondering what I'm doing I'll often just walk over to them and explain it, unless I'm feeling playful and then I'll just stare at them like THEY are doing something weird and wrong until they feel awkward enough to leave... lol

 

Personally I don't believe in "non-cachers" stealing caches, sure it might happen once in a blue moon, anything can happen, but if you stop to think about it, if you were not a geocacher but saw one find a cache would you wait until he was gone and then go steal it? I wouldn't and I can't picture any family or friends being like that either... no... I personally believe 99% of caches that go missing are because Geocachers steal them, but that's another thread topic.

[+Radnord]

The best way is to be direct and act like you belong; rarely do people question someone who acts like they belong. If that fails, just act stupid; no one wants to deal with an idiot.

 

When my wife and I emerge from the woods after finding a cache, we just carry big grins on our faces and no one asks us any questions

 

The GPS cell phone and camera are also a can't miss - depending on what you are taking pictures of.

 

Happy Caching

[+DanOCan]

If it is a cache in an obvious location such as a LPC, I'll just walk up and grab it, sign and replace without employing any stealth. Hey, if someone is going to hide a cache in a high visibility location they know the risk they are taking.

 

If it is going to involve a search such as a nano on an electrical box I'll just skip it and put it on my Ignore list. I don't need a smiley that bad.

[Skippermark]

I don't, I think stealth when caching is generally a bad idea, most people are not as sneaky or cleaver as they think they are so they just end up making it obvious that they are hiding something, and if you look like you're being sneaky you'll raise a lot of concern.

 

That's our feeling too. If the cache is near where someone is standing and they're in the way, we politely ask if we can sneak past. If they watch us, we say something like "we're doing a scavenger hunt and think what we're looking for might be hidden here." Most of the time when we ask to sneak past, they just walk away or go back to their phone call.

[+jim32809]

I print out my cache pages and carry them on a clipboard, so if there are muggles in the area I just take the clipboard with me and play the "inspector" routine. I figured this out after sitting in a Wal-Mart parking lot for 15 minutes with a constant flow of muggles. I grabbed the cache, then moved on around the parking lot, making occasional "notes" and at the furthest one I signed the log. By that time the muggles had cycled so I returned and inspected the pole by my car one more time and drove off.

 

Another trick is to take a camera. I'm not a small guy so I don't have a lot of flexibility. Sometimes I'll point the camera under the bench or inside the low pipe and take a picture, then look at it. Several times I've located a cache that way. If anyone were to stop and question me, I'm just taking a photography class and our assignment is to take interesting pictures of normal objects and that the professor even mentioned the bottoms of benches!

 

I have known of people using the orange vest and hard hat tactic.

 

I've read several books where someone gets around a hospital, plant, office complex, etc. by just carrying around a clipboard and nobody questions their presence. It isn't just to act like you belong, you have to "look" like you belong too.

 

I was hunting a downtown Orlando cache not long ago, and people would look at me and then look away. Then I had a nice lady offer me a ride to the Salvation Army for a shower, clean clothes and a hot meal. I realized that I definitely looked like one of the transients that haunt downtown so that explains the behavior of both her and the muggles that looked away from me. Of course I had just completed a cache called "Fear Factor Urban Wetlands" and nobody can come out of that one looking clean, so I can't blame them.

[+mcwtlg]

Spouses and pets (possibly children) make great diversions.

[+mcwtlg]

I recently had a micro find in the middle of a very busy park. The cache was magnetically held to the underside of a utility box on a post about 12" above the ground. It was the only feature for a good distance, so I was sure it was on the box before I got there. There were hundreds of people around though! I bent down and pretended to tie my shoe while I felt around for the container, grabbed it, and took it a couple hundred yards to sit and sign the log. When I replaced it, I did it in one smooth move as I walked by, then watched the site for about 20 minutes to make certain no one tampered with it. Probably my boldest public find ever, but I was ok with it since I watched so carefully afterward.

 

I have done similar in parks. I grabbed stage one of a three stage micro that was attached to the outside wall of a park restroom, right in front of several people. I just sat down and acted like I needed a rest. I signed grabbed the coords, then replaced it. I walked away and stopped to watch stage one to make sure I was not seen.

[+WebChimp]

What kind of stealth tactics do you use while searching for a cache in high muggle areas?

Please share some of your stealth tactics!

 

Just walk up and grab the cache as if you're supposed to be there and doing what you're doing, and most folks won't notice you or your activity.

 

I think you're more noticeable if there are only a couple of folks around.

[+PlantAKiss]

I've mainly used my camera as my cover. As a "photographer", you can be anywhere doing anything and have an excuse. Used that once when a cop stopped to question me.

 

There have been a few times when I just had to come out tell what I was doing. Most people find it interesting.

 

However, I personally do not like caches in highly public areas. I don't really enjoy the hunt if I'm worrying about drawing attention to where a cache is to non-cachers. So either I try for the caches at off times or I simply don't do them.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I take hubby along on my caching adventures so we can spend some quality time together. Last weekend we went searching along the local hike/bike trail. Of course most were off the trail into the trees and brush. After each find we'd head back to the trail to walk to the next one. One time, upon our return to the trail from behind some bushes, we popped out to find a couple runners headed down the trail. I wasn't trying to be stealthy, I was only trying to brush off leaves/twigs/etc. You could tell though that they thought hubby and I had been getting frisky behind the bushes! I was so embarressed!!

 

It IS a good stealth tactic though!

 

I'll have to try that one sometime. Thanks for the advice.

 

I was in Rome (Italy) awhile back and was looking for a cache that was big enough to drop a few TBs. For and urban area it has a very low density, especially larger caches. In any case, there was one about a mile from where I was spending several days at a conference (FAO). On the listing it describe the terrain as quite steep and mentioned not to climb over the fence in a couple of places.

 

I took a long lunch break and walked over to the cache area, and wasn't exactly dressed for geocaching and was carrying my laptop backpack with me. I respectfully approached cache from below, climbing about 40' up a very steep hill. It was covered n loose leaves, vines, and a few thorny bushes as well. Near the top, within 10' of a wire fence I found the stump holding the cache. I went to place my backpack on level ground near the fence, just as someone came walking by with his dog. Helpfully, he said, "there is a spot over here where you can climb over the fence". What was I going to say", "No thanks, I'd rather stand here in the bushes with leaves in my hair?" So I did ended up climbing over the fence despite the warnings on the cache listing, then found a log to sit on and rest while the helpful Italian man went on his way. And yes, I climbed back over the fence to get to the cache, dropped off my TBs, then slid back down the hill to the trail. I walked about 20' when the same guy came around the bend. "Bon Giorno", I said as he passed and I got the heck out of there.

[+goathag]

When I was caching in Tokyo, the word 'Muggle' took on a new meaning. I was the only non-asian at the park, and it was field trip day for the kids. 2,000 people in their dark uniforms, and me in a bright pink rain slicker. Stealth went right out the window that day....

[+jodakry]

I just saw this and liked the ideas. I use my 11 year old son when we are looking in a high traffic area. Who is going to pay attention to a kid doing something stupid? I will pretend to be on the phone and he will go look. If somebody pays attention to him, I will "yell" at him to quit whatever he is doing and behave. If they keep watching, he will pretned to sya something "smart alecky" to my back when I turn around. It works wonderfully and he enjoys the ruse.

[+infiniteMPG]

Caching this past weekend there were 5 of us doing an urban run. We located GZ right beside the visitor's dugout at a softball field with warmups in progress. We read the hint and figured it was in the top cap of the fencepost of the field near 3rd base. After much debate we decided to throw in the towel until I had that urge to leave no cache unfound so I walked up to the dugout, asked if anyone ever heard of geocaching. When no one knew I said it was high tech treasure hunting with GPS's and sometimes you have to make a fool of yourself looking.... like now. And I immediately climbed the fence, tossed down the cache, signed, replaced, and told them if anyone else comes looking they'll know what's going on and can have fun with them. They laughed, we left. All is well.

 

Sometimes the best stealth is no stealth at all

[+Ambrosia]

I like to hide in plain sight. I act like I know what I'm doing and furiously take down notes at what I'm looking at.

Please elaborate! For example how do you look like you know what you are doing when you are in the parking lot of Walmart looking underneath a light post?

Well for one, I don't look for LPCs. Not my cuppa java. But in high muggle areas, I'll pretend to study the tree near the cache location, occasionally looking up as well as in the brush and pretend to take notes.

As I read the post by gargamouse, I started laughing and said to myself, "they don't know TotemLake".

[+sbell111]

Caching this past weekend there were 5 of us doing an urban run. We located GZ right beside the visitor's dugout at a softball field with warmups in progress. We read the hint and figured it was in the top cap of the fencepost of the field near 3rd base. After much debate we decided to throw in the towel until I had that urge to leave no cache unfound so I walked up to the dugout, asked if anyone ever heard of geocaching. When no one knew I said it was high tech treasure hunting with GPS's and sometimes you have to make a fool of yourself looking.... like now. And I immediately climbed the fence, tossed down the cache, signed, replaced, and told them if anyone else comes looking they'll know what's going on and can have fun with them. They laughed, we left. All is well.

 

Sometimes the best stealth is no stealth at all

Perhaps it was best for you because you logged the cache. However, as the owner of a cache like that one, I would say that your actions certainly were not in the best interest of the cache, the cache owner, or future cachers.

[+infiniteMPG]

Perhaps it was best for you because you logged the cache. However, as the owner of a cache like that one, I would say that your actions certainly were not in the best interest of the cache, the cache owner, or future cachers.

There were five of us there and we all debated the issue. The basic conclusion was that these guys were nice elderly folks and we didn't think climbing to the top of a 15-foot chain link fence was on their dance card. I agree with the fact there is risk but I can also attest that I have had at least two dozen logs in the last six months on my caches state something like "Explained geocaching to a spectating fisherman and showed him what a geocache looked like. He seemed interested in the game." and I got nervous about it. But I have yet to have one of those caches muggled. If it would of been a bunch of teens goofing off then we'd of never done it. I think it's a judgement call and it wasn't made alone.

 

I worry more about the legitimate cachers that leave the dang things sitting out in the open after digging it out of it's hiding place

[+TotemLake]

I like to hide in plain sight. I act like I know what I'm doing and furiously take down notes at what I'm looking at.

Please elaborate! For example how do you look like you know what you are doing when you are in the parking lot of Walmart looking underneath a light post?

Well for one, I don't look for LPCs. Not my cuppa java. But in high muggle areas, I'll pretend to study the tree near the cache location, occasionally looking up as well as in the brush and pretend to take notes.

As I read the post by gargamouse, I started laughing and said to myself, "they don't know TotemLake".

I get that a lot.

 

I neeed to get down your way again. Been a long time since I had a good chat with you and your man.

[+kjohn73]

This a good thread! I have had couple of good laughs over some of the tactics, particularly the "snake" story. The clipboard seems to be a reasonable one. I found my second ever in a small park in a small town. There was a kid cutting grass a ways off, but I think he probably thought I was just a tourist gawking around. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself though. I am 60 years old, and think geocaching is a great pastime. Reminds me of when I was kid growing up in a small town in Saskatchewan (Grenfell). All summer long, we played different games, but, for some forgotten reason, we reserved "hide-and-go-seek" for Saturday nights only. That game and raiding gardens were the most exciting. Geocaching plays right into my theory that some of the most fun can be had for very little cash outlay.

[+TeamFROG]

We bring a camera and the kids then do a photo shoot if someone wanders by.

[+flask]

don't pretend your GPSr is a cellphone. people know what cellphones look like, and they're not fooled. they don't look away from you because you're on the phone; they look away from you because you appear to be a dangerous lunatic.

 

your absolute best bet is to march right up, take the cache, sign it and put it back. people are mostly disinterested in what anybody else is doing and as long as you appear un-weird, you're invisible. if you need to buy time, sit near the cache and play with your GPS or your camera. nobody will look at you twice.

[mlbcard]

don't pretend your GPSr is a cellphone. people know what cellphones look like, and they're not fooled.

 

Well, if you're holding it in your hands and "texting" it's a little hard for others to tell what kind of "cell phone" you have in your hands.

 

Nice thread... I like the camera idea.

[+GPS & DJS]

I came across one that was hidden in some brush in a very busy park. I could see the cache from the edge, but there was no way to grab it without drawing attention. So I decided next time I'd take a kid with me to play catch and overthrow the ball into the brush. The cache was muggled before I could give my plan a try.

[+Trillian-N7]

I've never gone to this extreme, but I think a hard hat an a surveyor's tripod would work wonders. NOBODY questions their presence, no matter where they are...

 

I am a surveyor and while I haven't used a tripod, I have walked around the main park in town in my surveying work shirt, clipboard and was measuring the bridge I was hunting around. People didn't look twice at me, as surveyors appear in the most random of places doing random stuff.

 

I also had another one where I was looking around the local suspension bridge and so I wrote notes on my clipboard and told people I was studying Engineering and doing a project on bridge design...

[+sbell111]

I came across one that was hidden in some brush in a very busy park. I could see the cache from the edge, but there was no way to grab it without drawing attention. So I decided next time I'd take a kid with me to play catch and overthrow the ball into the brush. The cache was muggled before I could give my plan a try.

Perhaps the person before you believed that their best bet was to march right up, take the cache, sign it and put it back. Several people like to believe that as long as they appear 'un-weird', they are invisible. Sadly, they don't realize that what they are doing is not 'un-weird' and they are putting the cache at risk.

[+Tresco]

I don't geocache much where there are muggles around. When I do I just wait for them to go away.

[+twotfd]

I work as a claims adjuster. I do scene inspections all time in some of the strangest places. I just go with that... clipboard, camera, tape measure, measuring wheel, whatever I think i need to grab out of the adjuster bag of tricks if muggles are nearby. Rarely does anyone ask questions whether its real work or caching. I've been in the business long enough that coming up with a story to fit the location is easy.

 

~for the LPC --someone hurt their finger/hand and I just need to investigate how it happened.

[+JAYMEDINC]

Although we don't want any muggles to see us, much less talk to us, we don't even attempt stealth. It is useless as a family of 4.

[+The VanDucks]

I think the most fun we had employing "stealth tactics" was on a local multicache, where each stage contained a clue to the final stage, so you had to get all of them to log the final. The next to last stage was right outside a very busy skating rink, with kids and parents swarming in and out the doors. My husband got his geocaching bag (a big, black soft sided duffel filled with all sorts of stuff) and placed it on the ground right next to the cache, which was hidden at the base of a sign. I bent down and rummaged through the bag, while he grabbed the cache. So many skaters were going by with their big equipment bags that we blended right in! (And we did make it all the way to the final stage!)

[+brainandbraun]

Just run towards GZ yelling "Bomb Squad! Clear the Area!"

 

That's funny, thanks for making me crack up!

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Caching this past weekend there were 5 of us doing an urban run. We located GZ right beside the visitor's dugout at a softball field with warmups in progress. We read the hint and figured it was in the top cap of the fencepost of the field near 3rd base. After much debate we decided to throw in the towel until I had that urge to leave no cache unfound so I walked up to the dugout, asked if anyone ever heard of geocaching. When no one knew I said it was high tech treasure hunting with GPS's and sometimes you have to make a fool of yourself looking.... like now. And I immediately climbed the fence, tossed down the cache, signed, replaced, and told them if anyone else comes looking they'll know what's going on and can have fun with them. They laughed, we left. All is well.

 

Sometimes the best stealth is no stealth at all

Perhaps it was best for you because you logged the cache. However, as the owner of a cache like that one, I would say that your actions certainly were not in the best interest of the cache, the cache owner, or future cachers.

If the cache owner wasn't so stupid as to place it in a highly visible area then there wouldn't be a problem. Don't blame the finder.

[+sbell111]

Caching this past weekend there were 5 of us doing an urban run. We located GZ right beside the visitor's dugout at a softball field with warmups in progress. We read the hint and figured it was in the top cap of the fencepost of the field near 3rd base. After much debate we decided to throw in the towel until I had that urge to leave no cache unfound so I walked up to the dugout, asked if anyone ever heard of geocaching. When no one knew I said it was high tech treasure hunting with GPS's and sometimes you have to make a fool of yourself looking.... like now. And I immediately climbed the fence, tossed down the cache, signed, replaced, and told them if anyone else comes looking they'll know what's going on and can have fun with them. They laughed, we left. All is well.

 

Sometimes the best stealth is no stealth at all

Perhaps it was best for you because you logged the cache. However, as the owner of a cache like that one, I would say that your actions certainly were not in the best interest of the cache, the cache owner, or future cachers.

If the cache owner wasn't so stupid as to place it in a highly visible area then there wouldn't be a problem. Don't blame the finder.

The finder is the one who makes the determination as to whether the area has too many muggles or not at that moment. The finder is the one who uses this information to determine whether the cache can be found at that time without jeopardizing it. The finder is the one to decide whether or not he will use stealth or expose the cache to muggles. These things combine to make the finder the one responsible. The finder is to blame for his actions.

 

If a cacher does not like these types of caches so much that he believes that the owners of them are stupid, he should not attempt these caches. That way, he doesn't have to suffer through finding a cache that he doesn't enjoy nor does he risk causing the disappearance of the cache, thereby ruining the game for others.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Caching this past weekend there were 5 of us doing an urban run. We located GZ right beside the visitor's dugout at a softball field with warmups in progress. We read the hint and figured it was in the top cap of the fencepost of the field near 3rd base. After much debate we decided to throw in the towel until I had that urge to leave no cache unfound so I walked up to the dugout, asked if anyone ever heard of geocaching. When no one knew I said it was high tech treasure hunting with GPS's and sometimes you have to make a fool of yourself looking.... like now. And I immediately climbed the fence, tossed down the cache, signed, replaced, and told them if anyone else comes looking they'll know what's going on and can have fun with them. They laughed, we left. All is well.

 

Sometimes the best stealth is no stealth at all

Perhaps it was best for you because you logged the cache. However, as the owner of a cache like that one, I would say that your actions certainly were not in the best interest of the cache, the cache owner, or future cachers.

If the cache owner wasn't so stupid as to place it in a highly visible area then there wouldn't be a problem. Don't blame the finder.

The finder is the one who makes the determination as to whether the area has too many muggles or not at that moment. The finder is the one who uses this information to determine whether the cache can be found at that time without jeopardizing it. The finder is the one to decide whether or not he will use stealth or expose the cache to muggles. These things combine to make the finder the one responsible. The finder is to blame for his actions.

 

If a cacher does not like these types of caches so much that he believes that the owners of them are stupid, he should not attempt these caches. That way, he doesn't have to suffer through finding a cache that he doesn't enjoy nor does he risk causing the disappearance of the cache, thereby ruining the game for others.

There are some locations where muggles are present 24 hours a day. Is that the finder's fault?

 

Yes, some caches are better found after business hours, but I shouldn't have to go caching at 3am just because the hider has no consideration for those seeking his cache.