Stealth Technique

[+wesleykey]

I make every effort to hide my activities unless it might be to my advantage to give myself away. I never lie to cops or other authority figures. I keep information hidden from potential muggles, though... I hope this helps.

[+wesleykey]

Note that I am not the OP. Evidently the OP's post was eaten by the forum.

[+zinger5656]

Whats the farthest extreme you've gone to get a cache with muggles everywhere? Pretend to tie your shoe? Dropped your keys? Wear a meter reader uniform? Postal outfit? A white shirt and a clipboard? Tell me your most exciting cache involving stealth/ninja skills. Sorry if there have been similar threads, but I'm a noob.

[+wesleykey]

I once logged a light pole micro with a carload of muggles parked right at the pole. I spent an extensive amount of time checking the wiring out and tapping randomly at my PDA, which was not even on. I snuck the cache out and took it to the car under my shirt. After logging it, I check the wiring some more, replaced the cache, and reported that "The problem has to be on another pole" to those in my car. Off we drove to "check the other poles".

 

I don't believe there is ANY cache that you can't get if you are good at stealth.

[+zinger5656]

I love it keep the stories coming!

[+Mother Wolf]

I had a cache that was tied in a tree. There were construction guys all around clearing the wooded area on the next lot. 2 guys came over & asked if I was ok or did I need some help. I told them I was fine that I just had to recheck some things 1 of my crew failed to check for a job. They wanted to know what I was checking.

Swell now I had to really think fast. So I told him there was a concern from a person in the area that this was a nesting area for a rather rare butterfly. I just had to hope this guy wasnt into butterflies because I wasnt sure where it would go from there LOL He did show some interest & asked a few questions, who I worked for etc. I told him I was connected to NWF (National Wildlife Federation). I am a member & that we always monitor wildlife areas before they are destroyed if we get a letter of concern. Well he excepted that easily said well I hope you can save something today & went about his business. I then recovered the cache, went back to my truck for a min (to SL) took some notes, which I usually do anyhow then replaced it without him seeing where. I cont to look through some of the trees & bushes for about 10 mins then I went back over to the guy & said "It seems that the concerned person was right. There is evidence of this butterfly in that area. At this time Im not sure if it has nested but I will be back in a few days to check again. In the meantime if he could just make sure his crew didnt disturb that area I would really appreciate it." Well he yelled over to his guys to not go into or near that area as there is some kind of research going on. They all gave the thumbs up, waved, I said thanks alot for your cooperation then got in my truck. They watched me so I also stopped at a lot about 1/2 block away got out & checked around for about 10 mins then left. They all waved as I went by. I just smiled & waved back.

 

It did the job because that cache never showed any logs that it was gone or there was a problem so i considered it a job well done plus I had a little fun with some of our county workers.

Edited July 25, 2008 by Mother Wolf

[+zinger5656]

Thanks for your post! Geocachers: Good hearted con-men! Has anyone else tried a con and failed?

[+zinger5656]

Sorry - I dont know what happened to my original post, so here it is again.. If I dont get a lot of replys I'll try and start the thread again. Please keep the thread alive...

 

Whats the farthest extreme you've gone to get a cache with muggles everywhere? Pretend to tie your shoe? Dropped your keys? Wear a meter reader uniform? Postal outfit? A white shirt and a clipboard? Tell me your most exciting cache involving stealth/ninja skills. Sorry if there have been similar threads, but I'm a noob.

[+Five Frazers]

Sorry - I dont know what happened to my original post, so here it is again.. If I dont get a lot of replys I'll try and start the thread again. Please keep the thread alive...

 

Whats the farthest extreme you've gone to get a cache with muggles everywhere? Pretend to tie your shoe? Dropped your keys? Wear a meter reader uniform? Postal outfit? A white shirt and a clipboard? Tell me your most exciting cache involving stealth/ninja skills. Sorry if there have been similar threads, but I'm a noob.

At the beach last week I had to sit on the hot sand and pretend to dump out my shoes to put a log back.

I carry a notebook with all my print outs in it so I hope I look official, in the woods I probably look silly

[+Firespinner]

Sorry - I dont know what happened to my original post, so here it is again.. If I dont get a lot of replys I'll try and start the thread again. Please keep the thread alive...

 

Whats the farthest extreme you've gone to get a cache with muggles everywhere? Pretend to tie your shoe? Dropped your keys? Wear a meter reader uniform? Postal outfit? A white shirt and a clipboard? Tell me your most exciting cache involving stealth/ninja skills. Sorry if there have been similar threads, but I'm a noob.

 

so far I've only had two that I'd call being really stealthy. Both were light pole caches.....

 

1. As soon as I approached the light pole, a couple came up from the other side and got in the car right next to the pole. There was no hiding, and no way to pretend that I was heading anywhwere else. So I leaned against the pole, put my GPS unit up to my ear and pretended it was a cell phone. Unfortunatley, the people didn't leave right away and they had their windows down, so I spent 5 minutes having a pretend one-sided conversation about how I was at the designated meeting place and couldn't find them. I kept describing the light pole (the one by the tree right next to the Olive Garden), where I was parked and when we were meeting. Finally the couple drove away and I snagged the cache.

 

2. I pulled up in the Meijer parking lot and saw the cache quickly.....it was a painted magnet container designed to look like part of the bolt mechanism holding the trash can onto the pole. Unfortunatley, I also saw the cop sitting in his car in the parking spot next to it. I pulled up, got a store-bag from the trunk and proceded to clean the kids mess from the back seat. I walked up and threw the trash away with the right hand, while the left hand snagged the cache. Back in the car, I took it apart, signed the log, reassembled. Then I found a few more items I could throw away from under the passenger seat and repeated the two handed trash/cache process to put the cache back on the pole. The cop just thought I cleaned my car. :-)

 

I am going to invest in an orange vest and clip board....those two items get you access to many places without question.

[+zinger5656]

I love it. I'm a big videogame player. When trying to get a cache, no stealth or Metal gear or Splinter Cell game comes close to doing it in real life. Caching is a rush. I love all the stories so far.. keep them coming!

[+Renegade Knight]

I make every effort to hide my activities unless it might be to my advantage to give myself away. I never lie to cops or other authority figures. I keep information hidden from potential muggles, though... I hope this helps.

 

Same here. If I think there will be a muggle I don't go there unless I know I can search discretely. I don't like to muggles if one busts me caching. What I will do is if I think they are a threat to the cache is I'll keep the cache safe by calling off the hunt, or not replacing it until they are gone.

 

Best stealth cache ever was in the mall. You sit on the bench beneath a skylight (I had a GPS lock) and discretely reach under the seat...

Edited July 25, 2008 by Renegade Knight

[+zinger5656]

This was posted by motherwolf in my earlier thread:

 

had a cache that was tied in a tree. There were construction guys all around clearing the wooded area on the next lot. 2 guys came over & asked if I was ok or did I need some help. I told them I was fine that I just had to recheck some things 1 of my crew failed to check for a job. They wanted to know what I was checking.

Swell now I had to really think fast. So I told him there was a concern from a person in the area that this was a nesting area for a rather rare butterfly. I just had to hope this guy wasnt into butterflies because I wasnt sure where it would go from there LOL He did show some interest & asked a few questions, who I worked for etc. I told him I was connected to NWF (National Wildlife Federation). I am a member & that we always monitor wildlife areas before they are destroyed if we get a letter of concern. Well he excepted that easily said well I hope you can save something today & went about his business. I then recovered the cache, went back to my truck for a min (to SL) took some notes, which I usually do anyhow then replaced it without him seeing where. I cont to look through some of the trees & bushes for about 10 mins then I went back over to the guy & said "It seems that the concerned person was right. There is evidence of this butterfly in that area. At this time Im not sure if it has nested but I will be back in a few days to check again. In the meantime if he could just make sure his crew didnt disturb that area I would really appreciate it." Well he yelled over to his guys to not go into or near that area as there is some kind of research going on. They all gave the thumbs up, waved, I said thanks alot for your cooperation then got in my truck. They watched me so I also stopped at a lot about 1/2 block away got out & checked around for about 10 mins then left. They all waved as I went by. I just smiled & waved back.

 

It did the job because that cache never showed any logs that it was gone or there was a problem so i considered it a job well done plus I had a little fun with some of our county workers.

[+hikemeister]

Many techniques and sometimes even the best ones do not work.

 

Last week on the way home from a meeting a couple of hours away, I intended to find three nanos hidden along the highway.

 

Everyone was a magnetic button nano hidden up under the top of a vacuum cleaner at a gas station. Every darned one of them had a guy using the vacuum cleaner on his car!

 

I just bagged it that day and will try those again.

 

Sometimes these hides are more annoying than fun.

[+Driver Carries Cache]

One of our local cachers is frequently seen in an reflective orange vest (the highway worker type), and carrying a clipboard. He says it makes him virtually invisible in an urban environment.

 

DCC

[+WebChimp]

Whats the farthest extreme you've gone to get a cache with muggles everywhere? Pretend to tie your shoe? Dropped your keys?

 

I figure the main thing is to not give away the cache location. If I reach under something and find the container, I'll pull it out, palm it, and repeat the inspection in another spot or three. After wandering off, I'll sign the log, and replace the container. If there are muggles about, I'll go to other spots and look there after replacing the container, just to remove interest from the container location.

[+Quiggle]

Sorry - I dont know what happened to my original post, so here it is again.. If I dont get a lot of replys I'll try and start the thread again. Please keep the thread alive...

I have merged the two threads together. Though wesleykey's 2 responses at the top are before yours, they're from the original thread that broke.

[+Viajero Perdido]

I once waited until 10,000 people gathered around the cache, then went for it. It was one of my ballsiest grabs yet, but also one of the smoothest. I knew to the inch where the cache had to be, dropped my pack right there, and "rearranged the contents" a bit.

Edited July 25, 2008 by Viajero Perdido

[+wimseyguy]

I generally find that acting like you aren't doing anything wrong makes you invisible to the mere muggle. However, I have asked 1-2 people if they would mind if I looked under the bench they were sitting on at the bus stop/Cracker Barrel to find a game piece for an internet scavenger hunt.

[+CrippledBlindSquirrel]

I don't get a real thrill from working under the noses of the muggles. I have found that many owners seem to love to hide on property where there are more security muggles per acre than customers or other employees. I have a special folder in which I slip these called "Morning and Noon" caches. Depending on the type of activity in the area of the cache I will run a "dawn patrol" and get the cache while everybody else is at home trying to find the coffee pot and the security muggle is snoozing under his cap with his feet up on the desk.

 

For those where Security doesn't let their guard down I try them at noon when everybody is busy with lunch and there is a lot of activity for old Barney Fife to be distracted by. If you have done your homework and reconned the area then you can strike under their noses.

 

When all else fails I use the set of muggle repelling clothing that the good taxpayers around here gave me. People will break their necks trying not to notice me. I almost consider it cheating!

 

All this being said, I still prefer a nice quiet walk in the woods and like to spend a few minutes plundering the cache.

[+WRASTRO]

Our log from a hunt for a multi in a local park while literally hundreds of people were there for a special event.

 

April 2, 2005 by WRASTRO (1870 found)

George and Elroy trundled down the hill from Kelsey View this afternoon and into the throngs of a "special event" at the park. Meaning: no parking within several miles...

Great trails down the side of the hill got us in the back door so we could mingle with the thrumming crowds of muggles. Don't they know these parks are reserved for us!?! Found WP1 while a muggle family was thrashing about in a mud puddle only a few feet away. Now that was fun! Found WP2 despite not finding the paw print. George read the clue but Elroy already had the container in hand. We ended up back at the same spot a bit later and found the item attached to the structure, but still no paw print.

 

WP3 was right where it should have been and we were off to the final...

 

As we were strolling along we came around a corner and clearly startled a mom and her young daughter. Since we were still a bit from where the GPSr was pointing we tried to be non-chalant and continued on. Found the final quickly - left the Sanibel Sal TB - then headed back to the spot where the startled ones had been. Quickly found a letterbox and solved our little mystery.

 

Heading back UP,UP,UP the trail to the geowagon we encountered the mom and daughter, so George outed them as some sort of hiders!

 

Turns out they are the owners of the local letterbox series and were out doing some maintenance. Chatted for a few minutes and headed back UP, UP, UP the trail.

 

Thanks for a fun multi that can be completed even with literally hundreds of muggles wandering about.

[+horsegeeks]

I generally find that acting like you aren't doing anything wrong makes you invisible to the mere muggle. However, I have asked 1-2 people if they would mind if I looked under the bench they were sitting on at the bus stop/Cracker Barrel to find a game piece for an internet scavenger hunt.

Wimsey my hero. I am just too big and clumsy to be stealthy. I just go for them and normally no one pays attention.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I think my best so far is:

A small shelter in a park in a major city. Benches along three sides. Near a large pond. Muggles everywhere! A couple sitting on the bench on the left side. Their daughter sleeping on the bench to the right. The cache is right above the sleeping daughter. Hmm... We meet a couple of geocachers from another state. What to do? You all go off to the far left, point at the lake, and scream "What's that?!?" Everyone's attention goes to the left side of the lake. I climbed over the daughter, retrieved the cache. Okay. Repeat, pointing another direction. "Is that a hawk??" Cache replaced, and nobody ever saw me!

[+flask]

i just go right in and take it. nobody ever notices.

 

i believe very firmly that the more you try to be stealthy, the more you look like you're trying to be stealthy.

 

people get nervous when you try to look stealthy.

 

waltz right up to it as if it's the most normal thing in the world and nobody cares.

[+Royalott]

Actually if there are a lot of people in the area I just don't hunt the cashe. I like the wilderness cashes and pretty much ignore the rest. I saw one that was in a Walmart parking lot and there is no way I would hunt that sucker.

 

That is just me though

[+wapahani]

If there are too many muggles, I just move on and look later.

I try and not jeopardize a cache.

 

Stealth, what is it really?

 

You try and act like no one can see you, or what you are doing and everyone notices you!

[+SimbaJamey]

Wait....

 

I'm confused.

 

 

Don't the rest of you wear ghillie suits when you're out caching?

[Neos2]

I love it. I'm a big videogame player. When trying to get a cache, no stealth or Metal gear or Splinter Cell game comes close to doing it in real life. Caching is a rush. I love all the stories so far.. keep them coming!

I find that while I'm playing video games (like Oblivion) I keep seeing places that I think "Oh, that would be a good spot to hide a geocache!"

 

In real life, I've given up trying to be overly stealthy while hunting caches--it just makes me seem more suspicious than ever. I do try to be a bit discreet, but my basic method is to try to exude the attitude that I am doing nothing wrong, and whatever it is I'm doing, it is exactly what I should be doing.

 

Of course, it helps that I am a short, older female. I look like what I am--a school teacher. No threat there.

[+hlq]

I try to be as inconspicuous as possible! Just to answer SimbaJamey's question

 

Edited July 26, 2008 by hlq

[+wimseyguy]

Wait....

 

I'm confused.

 

 

Don't the rest of you wear ghillie suits when you're out caching?

A friend of mine was doing a maintenance run on one of caches in the NC Sandhills area. Rumor has it that the Marine squads that 'don't exist' use this area for occasional training exercises. As he neared the cache site, he noticed something was not quite right. It was a soldier in a ghillie suit. Harry says "we made eye contact, he raised an eyebrow, I nodded, and turned and walked away."

 

When I found that cache a few years back, a previous log was from a man in uniform who wrote "found your cache-fun game but we do this for keeps" Name, rank, serial number and his Utah based group ID. :lol:

Edited July 26, 2008 by wimseyguy