Something weird happened to me...

[+Jaebird82]

Something pretty freaky happend to me. What do I do? Bare (Bear) with me and read my story.

 

So, a few weeks or so ago I'm out and about night caching on one of these very very windey roads around Mulhollad Road and some of the intersecting roads. Some parts more deserted than others. I started from the PCH (coast) and worked my way up. Keep in mind, its extremely dark around here. Just the moon and the stars and a few street lights. After a few caches found, I notice this white work type van (not a Mini Van), driving around back and fourth, then I saw him parked on the side of the road up a ways and thought nothing of it. I drove ahead to the next cache. He drove by me and I thought that was that.

 

So I notice a little ways up the road he's parked with his lights off and as I drove by, he turned on his inside dome light and flickered it really fast as I drove by. I didn't get a good look at him. At that point you'd think I'd just go home, but I was on a mission and thought maybe he was a fellow geocacher. ( I know I sound like a dumb blonde from a horror movie.) I pulled over and found another cache as he flew by me again. I was kind of freaked out, but I thought he left. Sure enough, he's parked on a side road this time with his dome light on a good 500 feet off the road. I continued by..

 

Maybe just lost? So this is where is gets scary. I pull up for my last cache, I knew it was a pretty quick one off a little tiny trail off the main road. I park in the light on the road across from the little side trail. Maybe not even 120 feet. I debated on wether to get out or not. It was so close though! I went for it. I crossed and ran up the hill and started to zero in on the cache in a matter of 45-60 seconds or so, when he pulls up behind my car and turns off his lights. My heart dropped. At this point.. im standing in the middle of the trail fully exposed.

 

He then slowly passed my car, but i was looking down from the trail. He made a Uturn and parked on the other side of the street on the same side I was standing just 100 feet up. Then its as though he saw me standing in the dark. I just felt it. I flipped open my knife and started running down back towards the road because I felft like if he was going to get out, at least id be by the main road where I hoped someone would drive by. He took off extremely fast flying back down towards the canyons where he came from.

 

So I go home empty. handed for that cache just glad to make it home with my head in tact. I thought I would just go back during the day another day. This is where it gets really weird. So.. today around 12 Pm or so, I pull off the side of the road, run up the hill and make the find ,and while I was signing the log.. yes.. the same white van pulls behind my car. In plain day light, im 100 percent sure he saw me up at the cache. He sat there for a second, then made a screeching uturn and took off. Just very strange. Do I tell the cache owner about this??

Edited October 19, 2008 by Jaebird82

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Something pretty freaky happend to me. What do I do? Bare with me and read my story. . .

Quick note to the OP: I have just stumbled upon this thread at 5 AM, and I have only read the first paragraph so far, but I do wish to pause here and quickly respond to you before reading any more of your post. Briefly, regarding your invitation to get bare with you, no thank you! While I am not prudish nor puritanical, and while I am not afraid of being naked, I do not feel that it is appropriate for me, nor for you, to be bare naked on this forum, nor in many geocaching venues, for many good reasons. So, no, I will NOT be getting naked with you on this forum, nor anywhere else! I just want to get this boundary REALLY CLEAR with you before I read your post any further! Thanks for listening!

Edited October 19, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

First, you did not tell us in your post where you are located, nor does your forum thingie tell us where you are located, since you did not fill out that part of your profile. I therefore needed to go to your profile (hoping, by the way, that I would not encounter bare-naked pictures) and explore your recent finds to figure out where you live, as I simply do not know off the top of my hear where "Mulhollad Road" is located. and it seems, from perusal of your finds, that you may live in California, and perhaps in the Los Angeles area, although that is less certain at this time. Nest time you tell us a tale like this, it would help me a lot if you would simply tell us explicitly where in the country you are located, and even more specifically, exactly where within a named city or county your adventure took place. For the remainder of my reply, I will assume, for the moment, based upon my earlier-mentioned sleuthing, that the site of your adventure was in Los Angeles, California, and will proceed accordingly.

 

Based upon what you have told us, and particularly upon the incident with the flashing dome light, it is entirely possible that you had a near-encounter with either a gay male sex cruiser (on some rural roadways and even in deserted areas of some cities, they cruise on certain pre-designated roads in cars) or, alternatively, with a mobile drug dealer who customarily does his/her business with clients via casual rendezvous with them in vehicles along the roadway in question. To my best knowledge, the behavior exhibited by your would-be "friend", including the flashing dome light, indicate strongly that the encounter was likely one of these two scenarios.

 

And yes, you may wish to send a note to the cache owner, suggesting that they may wish to put a note warning about the possibility of such encounters on the cache listing page, or you may simply wish to post your own log note about the matter on the cache listing page. Beyond that, I would not bother to get obsessed about the matter, for, at least in my worldview, such bizarre encounters are simply part and parcel of modern urban life, and they are even more common at night than during daytime.

Edited October 19, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+on4bam]

Nest time you tell us a tale like this, it would help me a lot if you would simply tell us explicitly where in the country you are located, and even more specifically, exactly where within a named city or county your adventure took place.

 

I would even say more... Where in the WORLD you are located. I'm in Belgium and if the OP used other locations I may not have known where he was. Fortunately I visited CA (that's California USA ) and was aware of Mulholland and PCH (Pacific Coast Highway).

 

Remember that the world is bigger than LA, CA, USA some people (mostly US) seem to forget that.

 

As for an explanation on who/what happened I guess Vinnie&Sue might be correct. Maybe the caches Jaebird82 went for are best done during daylight hours (and then some). The owner may know better about the area.

[Mr.Yuck]

 

Based upon what you have told us, and particularly upon the incident with the flashing dome light, it is entirely possible that you had a near-encounter with either a gay male sex cruiser (on some rural roadways and even in deserted areas of some cities, they cruise on certain pre-designated roads in cars) or, alternatively, with a mobile drug dealer who customarily does his/her business with clients via casual rendezvous with them in vehicles along the roadway in question. To my best knowledge, the behavior exhibited by your would-be "friend", including the flashing dome light, indicate strongly that the encounter was likely one of these two scenarios.

 

 

I'd agree with this. Especially with the flashing dome light. Not that that's a well known "signal" for one of those two things. It may be though, but I don't partake in either activity, so I wouldn't know.

[+Star*Hopper]

Vinny, you disappoint me. It took me only as far as the first paragraph to deduce it was California and immediately thought to ask OP, "Do you understand the concept of 'Pickle Park'??

 

\not that there isn't anything not wrong with that.

 

~*

Edited October 19, 2008 by Star*Hopper

[+swfirefly]

"Do you understand the concept of 'Pickle Park'??

 

\not that there isn't anything not wrong with that.

 

~*

[+BlueDeuce]

.. the same white van pulls behind my car.

 

I personally would report such behavior to the police/sheriff. Now of course they would probably do nothing more than take the report and thank me, but at least it would be on record. (Who knows maybe they got a report about me snooping around the area).

 

Then I would take a few buddies back out there and be very conspicuous, maybe get a license plate number. I certainly wouldn't confront this person but it would send a message that I and others see you. Bad guys don't like getting too much attention.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Vinny, you disappoint me. It took me only as far as the first paragraph to deduce it was California and immediately thought to ask OP, "Do you understand the concept of 'Pickle Park'??

 

\not that there isn't anything not wrong with that.

 

~*

Well, I largely agree, but really, it seems to be more like "pickle road in an unpopulated and somewhat abandoned area of an urban megalopolis", in the current case!

 

Frankly, I too was a bit amazed that the OP did not figure out instantly that it the incident was either gay sex cruising-related or drug-sales-related (or illegal handgun sales-related, although the probability of that is rather low...), and I am still even more amazed that the OP acted surprised and shocked that such an encounter could happen in a desolate part of an urban area, and at night, to boot. However, when I start getting a bit critical about this level of shock and incredulity, my charitable side kicks in and reminds me that it is entirely possible that one of the following hypotheses are true about the OP:

• she/he grew up in a tiny town in the New Jersey Pine Barrens with a population of 13 persons, and lived there for their entire life until one week ago, when they moved to Los Angeles, California, whereupon they immediately took up the dubious pastime of hunting caches in abandoned and desolate urban areas late at night.
  
• he/she was born in a tiny monastery in upstate NY, on the NY/Canadian border, and grew up in the monastery and lived on the monastery grounds for their entire life until one week ago, when they moved to Los Angeles, California, whereupon they immediately took up the dubious pastime of hunting caches in abandoned and desolate urban areas late at night.
  
• she/he was abducted by aliens as a tiny child, and has lived on the mother ship (hovering in geostationary orbit over the Sahara Desert) for their entire life, and was returned to earth's surface only one week ago, and happened to have been set free in Los Angeles, California, whereupon they immediately took up the dubious pastime of hunting caches in abandoned and desolate urban areas late at night..
  

This all reminds me of something which is somewhat relevant:

My admittedly very extreme and unreal Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis is located in an aging and long-neglected abandoned fort located in an aging and long-neglected and underfunded urban park located on the very desolate and abandoned outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. And, as is true of all such parks worldwide in such locales, a number of activities are rampant in the park. Because I was well aware of this when I placed the cache -- largely from having read the disgusted find log entries logged by past finders over the previous three years of a virtual cache that was located in the same park (and which did NOT bear any cautions or reminders on the cache listing page about the types of activities that one could reasonably expect to find in the park -- I decided to do something rather radically different when creating the cache listing page for this cache:

 

I listed in large bold font on the cache listing page a rather comprehensive warning statement and list of just some of the more common activities that one could reasonably expect to witness in this park (and in most other neglected urban parks around the world), and the page and list included the following:

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WELCOME TO EXTREME GEOCACHING, AND TO PSYCHO URBAN CACHES!

 

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS CACHE ALONE! BE SURE TO BRING ALONG ONE OR MORE PARTNERS AND SAFETY PERSONS, FOR SEVERAL REASONS! THIS CACHE IS BEST SUITED ONLY FOR A TEAM EFFORT.

YOU MUST READ THE FULL LISTING AND DISCLAIMER BELOW BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS CACHE!

 

CAUTION! This is a very sick and very tough cache located in an urban park; the odds are great that you will fail to find the cache even after a three-hour search. Despite the fact that a beatiful aging citadel is located at this park, ALL of the realities of modern urban parks are present here in plentitude, including:

 

* trash and litter, including beer bottles, liquor bottles and empty syringes

* graffiti

* large rats

* feral cats

* sometimes-deranged elderly men and women who drop by to visit the cats and give them food and water

* urban homeless people

* "street people", sometimes called "transients"; at least a few would be called "derelicts"

* drug and alcohol use onsite by some park visitors, particularly some street people

* tens of thousands of hungry cave crickets

* drug dealing

* drug users

* gay sex cruising

* straight sex cruising

* ongoing graffiti creation and tagging by "taggers" and graffiti artists

* prostitution by male hustlers

* history buffs with cameras

* prostitution by female hookers

* thousands of big spiders

* pimps

* johns looking for (straight) sex

* panhandling by transients and street people

* sightings of Sioneva

* paintball skirmishes by paintballers

* hungry and curious cave crickets

* puddles of possibly tainted human blood, urine, feces and other body fluids

* used condoms

* pale and tattooed bored and stoned "Gothic scene" teenagers dressed all in black

* bored and jaded tourists who are sightseeing

* teenage lovers in customized "monster" pickpup trucks

* recreational boaters (using boat loading ramp and docks)

* broken beer bottles, liquor bottles and empty syringes

* hungry and vicious cave crickets

* spiders (yes, I know that I already listed spiders above...! But, spiders, for some people, are a big deal!)

 

These factors all contribute to making this cache even FAR more "psycho" than it would be otherwise! We advise you of these phenomena in advance, so that you may better manage any situations which you may encounter.

...if any of these types of people, things, activities, people or critters offend you, or if you do not wish to witness such activities or critters, then we suggest that you may wish to skip this cache, even if the Difficulty 5 or Terrain 5 ratings do not deter you.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

To me, it was simply an act of commonsense courtesy to emplace that warning on the cache listing page. However, the reaction of the geocaching community -- and this includes not just local geocachers, but also geocachers from across the USA and from across the world -- while unexpected, has been impressive. I have, in the 2.6 years since placing that cache, heard from numerous geocachers around the world, including many seekers of the cache, thanking me profusely for being thoughtful enough to have placed these caveats on the cache listing page.

 

Some of these cachers told me that they are urban residents, and do most of their caching in urban areas, and so technically they should have known all these facts already, but that they still found it comforting that someone took the time to remind them that all these phenomena do exist, in case they had been blocking out such realities of modern urban life, or in case they had been totally spacing out that day. Others told me that they lived in very rural areas, and only rarely ventured into urban settings such as this one to seek a cache, and that they had been rather unaware of any and all of these realities of modern urban life, and they thanked me for the reminders!

 

.

[+Jaebird82]

HAHA! BEAR with me. =) Maybe this van guy heard me say that and just wanted a little nakey time.. The reason you couldn't find anything in my profile, is because I got scared of my own story and took my full name, including the city I live in out at 1 in the morning.. Yes, im a 6'2" male that can sometimes act like a 15 year old female watching a horror movie. You are correct, Los Angeles California.

 

I'm putting my name back in along with my address just incase he is indeed a gay male cruiser. The last gay male cruiser I came across drove a Miata, not a child molester van. BTW, I know how whole gay cruising thing works because it's happend to me before, and my gut feeling is that this wasn't it. He followed me up the entire long windey road from the PCH. Then, a week or two later he's back pulling behind my car in plain day light. A lot of this gay action you speak of happens at night... so i've heard. Anyway, thanks for the reply. I gotta take off, going back to Mulholland road for some "geocaching." Thanks.

 

quote name='Vinny & Sue Team' date='Oct 19 2008, 02:19 AM' post='3679902']

Something pretty freaky happend to me. What do I do? Bare with me and read my story. . .

Quick note to the OP: I have just stumbled upon this thread at 5 AM, and I have only read the first paragraph so far, but I do wish to pause here and quickly respond to you before reading any more of your post. Briefly, regarding your invitation to get bare with you, no thank you! While I am not prudish nor puritanical, and while I am not afraid of being naked, I do not feel that it is appropriate for me, nor for you, to be bare naked on this forum, nor in many geocaching venues, for many good reasons. So, no, I will NOT be getting naked with you on this forum, nor anywhere else! I just want to get this boundary REALLY CLEAR with you before I read your post any further! Thanks for listening!

 

First, you did not tell us in your post where you are located, nor does your forum thingie tell us where you are located, since you did not fill out that part of your profile. I therefore needed to go to your profile (hoping, by the way, that I would not encounter bare-naked pictures) and explore your recent finds to figure out where you live, as I simply do not know off the top of my hear where "Mulhollad Road" is located. and it seems, from perusal of your finds, that you may live in California, and perhaps in the Los Angeles area, although that is less certain at this time. Nest time you tell us a tale like this, it would help me a lot if you would simply tell us explicitly where in the country you are located, and even more specifically, exactly where within a named city or county your adventure took place. For the remainder of my reply, I will assume, for the moment, based upon my earlier-mentioned sleuthing, that the site of your adventure was in Los Angeles, California, and will proceed accordingly.

 

Based upon what you have told us, and particularly upon the incident with the flashing dome light, it is entirely possible that you had a near-encounter with either a gay male sex cruiser (on some rural roadways and even in deserted areas of some cities, they cruise on certain pre-designated roads in cars) or, alternatively, with a mobile drug dealer who customarily does his/her business with clients via casual rendezvous with them in vehicles along the roadway in question. To my best knowledge, the behavior exhibited by your would-be "friend", including the flashing dome light, indicate strongly that the encounter was likely one of these two scenarios.

 

And yes, you may wish to send a note to the cache owner, suggesting that they may wish to put a note warning about the possibility of such encounters on the cache listing page, or you may simply wish to post your own log note about the matter on the cache listing page. Beyond that, I would not bother to get obsessed about the matter, for, at least in my worldview, such bizarre encounters are simply part and parcel of modern urban life, and they are even more common at night than during daytime.

Edited October 19, 2008 by Jaebird82

[+Jaebird82]

I went back during the day... he pulled up behind me while I was signing the log book....

 

Nest time you tell us a tale like this, it would help me a lot if you would simply tell us explicitly where in the country you are located, and even more specifically, exactly where within a named city or county your adventure took place.

 

I would even say more... Where in the WORLD you are located. I'm in Belgium and if the OP used other locations I may not have known where he was. Fortunately I visited CA (that's California USA ) and was aware of Mulholland and PCH (Pacific Coast Highway).

 

Remember that the world is bigger than LA, CA, USA some people (mostly US) seem to forget that.

 

As for an explanation on who/what happened I guess Vinnie&Sue might be correct. Maybe the caches Jaebird82 went for are best done during daylight hours (and then some). The owner may know better about the area.

[+on4bam]

I went back during the day... he pulled up behind me while I was signing the log book....

 

Looks like he "really" likes you

[+m.austin]

Hmmm, I guess I'm pretty small town. I had no clue about the flashing dome lights or any of that other stuff. I had assumed that he was a scary creepy pervert who was 1) making himself happy & wanted to be sure I knew this, or 2) was wanting me to know he was going to do evil creepy things to me. I would have driven right to the police station & filed a report. But then again, I am a scaredy cat sissy.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

.. the same white van pulls behind my car.

 

I personally would report such behavior to the police/sheriff. Now of course they would probably do nothing more than take the report and thank me, but at least it would be on record. (Who knows maybe they got a report about me snooping around the area).

 

Then I would take a few buddies back out there and be very conspicuous, maybe get a license plate number. I certainly wouldn't confront this person but it would send a message that I and others see you. Bad guys don't like getting too much attention.

Golly gee gosh! Your post makes it sound as if there might be something immoral or wrong or illegal about the motives or behavior of the person in the SUV! Has it not occurred to you that the person in the vehicle in question may simply have been an ordinary citizen engaged in one of the following innocent wholesome practices often witnessed in urban wasteland areas at night? -- list below:

• it may have been an enterprising and entrepreneurial street-based multi-level marketing (MLM) vendor offering unmarked and untraceable handguns for sale.
  
• since this did happen in LA, I would be remiss if I did not mention that it may have been an enterprising and entrepreneurial street-based multi-level marketing (MLM) vendor offering a fascinating assortment of entertainment pharmaceuticals for sale.
  
• it may have been a freelance contract drive-by shooter looking to find a new customer, wherein she/he would have explained their tradecraft to the OP and the OP would have been offered the opportunity to hire them for about $125 per "job".
  
• it may have been a freelance contract hit man looking to find a new customer, wherein she/he would have explained their tradecraft to the OP and the OP would have been offered the opportunity to hire them for about $750 per "job".
  
• it may have been an extremely well-balanced and sane male driver who was making himself happy & wanted to be sure that the OP knew this (exact concept borrowed from M.Austin with thanks)
  
• it may have been someone who wanted the OP to know that he/she was gonna do creepy things to the OP (exact concept borrowed from M.Austin with thanks)
  
• it may have been a wholesome, self-actualized and successful serial killer, along the lines of Mr. Brooks (depicted most excellently in the excellent film Mr. Brooks), simply looking for his/her latest victim, and hoping that the OP might be wiling to cooperate.
  
• there is also the possibility that the OP may have unknowingly ventured onto a road which is "owned" (aka "pwned") by one or more gangs, or where the road is the subject of a turf war between two gangs, and thus the vehicle may have been an SUV filled with members of one of the gangs in question, who were assuming that the OP must have belonged to a rival gang, and who were thus wishing to offer him some "discipline" and "taming".
  
• since it was LA, there is always the possibility that the SUV may have been driven by an itinerant mobile SUV-based street preacher whose practice it is to accost drivers along lonely urban roads at odd hours of day and night and to preach his/her own version of the Word of God to them.
  
• to revisit a real-world case which happened for real a few years ago just a short distance from our home on the rural road on which we live in the mountains of Western Maryland, it may have been a personal escort from a different part of LA, who was unfamiliar with the area and who had therefore gotten lost while trying to find a client's home and was desperately trying to get directions from the OP, particularly if she had noticed from afar that he had a GPS receiver in his hands. Gee, after reading this scenario, it strikes me that this particular possibility about the escort also sounds like something right out of David Lynch's film "Mulholland Drive"!
  
• it may have been a third-rate psychic who had been the recipient of a "vision" in the previous twelve hours, telling her or him to drive up and down the road in question, where he/she had been told (i.e., in the vision) that they would meet an interdimensional traveler who would be driving a vehicle identical to that driven by the OP.
  
• it may have been one of those Meals-on-Wheels vans which are dedicated to providing fee meals to people who are essentially homeless and who are living in and sleeping in their cars, and, for quite obvious reasons, the driver may have assumed that the OP was one of those persons who is/was living from their car and sleeping in their car.
  

Hope this helps to put it all into very benign perspective!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

[+Jaebird82]

Vinny,

 

You are hilarious. I wasn't shocked or amazed. I was merely telling my story, which I thought was especially appropriate with Halloween right around the corner. If you read my post knowing that I kept GeoCaching even though one of two things could have happened to me - ( I might have gotten lucky OR might have gotten thrown in the back of the van, gotten lucky, then killed) - then you know I have absolutely no common sense. =)

 

The main reason why I asked if I should report this to the cache owner or make a note on the cache page is because I didn't want to scare people into not finding the cache. I didn't want the owner to over-react and take the cache down. Just wanted some advice.. with bullet points...and I got both.

 

Best,

Jaebird

 

P.S. I'll let the cache owner know. Thanks!

 

 

Vinny, you disappoint me. It took me only as far as the first paragraph to deduce it was California and immediately thought to ask OP, "Do you understand the concept of 'Pickle Park'??

 

\not that there isn't anything not wrong with that.

 

~*

Well, I largely agree, but really, it seems to be more like "pickle road in an unpopulated and somewhat abandoned area of an urban megalopolis", in the current case!

 

Frankly, I too was a bit amazed that the OP did not figure out instantly that it the incident was either gay sex cruising-related or drug-sales-related (or illegal handgun sales-related, although the probability of that is rather low...), and I am still even more amazed that the OP acted surprised and shocked that such an encounter could happen in a desolate part of an urban area, and at night, to boot. However, when I start getting a bit critical about this level of shock and incredulity, my charitable side kicks in and reminds me that it is entirely possible that one of the following hypotheses are true about the OP:

• she/he grew up in a tiny town in the New Jersey Pine Barrens with a population of 13 persons, and lived there for their entire life until one week ago, when they moved to Los Angeles, California, whereupon they immediately took up the dubious pastime of hunting caches in abandoned and desolate urban areas late at night.
  
• he/she was born in a tiny monastery in upstate NY, on the NY/Canadian border, and grew up in the monastery and lived on the monastery grounds for their entire life until one week ago, when they moved to Los Angeles, California, whereupon they immediately took up the dubious pastime of hunting caches in abandoned and desolate urban areas late at night.
  
• she/he was abducted by aliens as a tiny child, and has lived on the mother ship (hovering in geostationary orbit over the Sahara Desert) for their entire life, and was returned to earth's surface only one week ago, and happened to have been set free in Los Angeles, California, whereupon they immediately took up the dubious pastime of hunting caches in abandoned and desolate urban areas late at night..
  

This all reminds me of something which is somewhat relevant:

My admittedly very extreme and unreal Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis is located in an aging and long-neglected abandoned fort located in an aging and long-neglected and underfunded urban park located on the very desolate and abandoned outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. And, as is true of all such parks worldwide in such locales, a number of activities are rampant in the park. Because I was well aware of this when I placed the cache -- largely from having read the disgusted find log entries logged by past finders over the previous three years of a virtual cache that was located in the same park (and which did NOT bear any cautions or reminders on the cache listing page about the types of activities that one could reasonably expect to find in the park -- I decided to do something rather radically different when creating the cache listing page for this cache:

 

I listed in large bold font on the cache listing page a rather comprehensive warning statement and list of just some of the more common activities that one could reasonably expect to witness in this park (and in most other neglected urban parks around the world), and the page and list included the following:

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WELCOME TO EXTREME GEOCACHING, AND TO PSYCHO URBAN CACHES!

 

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS CACHE ALONE! BE SURE TO BRING ALONG ONE OR MORE PARTNERS AND SAFETY PERSONS, FOR SEVERAL REASONS! THIS CACHE IS BEST SUITED ONLY FOR A TEAM EFFORT.

YOU MUST READ THE FULL LISTING AND DISCLAIMER BELOW BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS CACHE!

 

CAUTION! This is a very sick and very tough cache located in an urban park; the odds are great that you will fail to find the cache even after a three-hour search. Despite the fact that a beatiful aging citadel is located at this park, ALL of the realities of modern urban parks are present here in plentitude, including:

 

* trash and litter, including beer bottles, liquor bottles and empty syringes

* graffiti

* large rats

* feral cats

* sometimes-deranged elderly men and women who drop by to visit the cats and give them food and water

* urban homeless people

* "street people", sometimes called "transients"; at least a few would be called "derelicts"

* drug and alcohol use onsite by some park visitors, particularly some street people

* tens of thousands of hungry cave crickets

* drug dealing

* drug users

* gay sex cruising

* straight sex cruising

* ongoing graffiti creation and tagging by "taggers" and graffiti artists

* prostitution by male hustlers

* history buffs with cameras

* prostitution by female hookers

* thousands of big spiders

* pimps

* johns looking for (straight) sex

* panhandling by transients and street people

* sightings of Sioneva

* paintball skirmishes by paintballers

* hungry and curious cave crickets

* puddles of possibly tainted human blood, urine, feces and other body fluids

* used condoms

* pale and tattooed bored and stoned "Gothic scene" teenagers dressed all in black

* bored and jaded tourists who are sightseeing

* teenage lovers in customized "monster" pickpup trucks

* recreational boaters (using boat loading ramp and docks)

* broken beer bottles, liquor bottles and empty syringes

* hungry and vicious cave crickets

* spiders (yes, I know that I already listed spiders above...! But, spiders, for some people, are a big deal!)

 

These factors all contribute to making this cache even FAR more "psycho" than it would be otherwise! We advise you of these phenomena in advance, so that you may better manage any situations which you may encounter.

...if any of these types of people, things, activities, people or critters offend you, or if you do not wish to witness such activities or critters, then we suggest that you may wish to skip this cache, even if the Difficulty 5 or Terrain 5 ratings do not deter you.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

To me, it was simply an act of commonsense courtesy to emplace that warning on the cache listing page. However, the reaction of the geocaching community -- and this includes not just local geocachers, but also geocachers from across the USA and from across the world -- while unexpected, has been impressive. I have, in the 2.6 years since placing that cache, heard from numerous geocachers around the world, including many seekers of the cache, thanking me profusely for being thoughtful enough to have placed these caveats on the cache listing page.

 

Some of these cachers told me that they are urban residents, and do most of their caching in urban areas, and so technically they should have known all these facts already, but that they still found it comforting that someone took the time to remind them that all these phenomena do exist, in case they had been blocking out such realities of modern urban life, or in case they had been totally spacing out that day. Others told me that they lived in very rural areas, and only rarely ventured into urban settings such as this one to seek a cache, and that they had been rather unaware of any and all of these realities of modern urban life, and they thanked me for the reminders!

 

.

[+mfamilee]

Something pretty freaky happend to me. What do I do? Bare (Bear) with me and read my story.

Wow, what a story.

Just for the record... we would definitely be freaked out too!

[+coggins]

At this point.. im standing in the middle of the trail fully exposed.

Is there some sort of double meaning here?. If so, that might be why you were being followed. That and the Elysian Institute has been closed for a while now up there in Topanga Canyon.

[+Jaebird82]

Lol. I totally set myself up for that one.

 

Jaebird82

 

At this point.. im standing in the middle of the trail fully exposed.

Is there some sort of double meaning here?. If so, that might be why you were being followed. That and the Elysian Institute has been closed for a while now up there in Topanga Canyon.

[+Don_J]

 

He followed me up the entire long windey road from the PCH. Then, a week or two later he's back pulling behind my car in plain day light.

 

It's possible that he lives up there and was concerned about what you were doing. The people in that area are freaked out that someone is going to come up there and burn their mountain down, either by accident, or intentionally. Don't forget that it was late night partiers that burned down 100 homes in Corral Canyon, last year. Heck, if the residents of Malibu had their way, they would close the town off from the rest of the world, just to keep themselves safe.

 

Gay crusing, drug dealing or gun running would be the last thing to expect in that area.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Vinny,

 

You are hilarious. I wasn't shocked or amazed. I was merely telling my story, which I thought was especially appropriate with Halloween right around the corner. If you read my post knowing that I kept GeoCaching even though one of two things could have happened to me - ( I might have gotten lucky OR might have gotten thrown in the back of the van, gotten lucky, then killed) - then you know I have absolutely no common sense. =)

 

The main reason why I asked if I should report this to the cache owner or make a note on the cache page is because I didn't want to scare people into not finding the cache. I didn't want the owner to over-react and take the cache down. Just wanted some advice.. with bullet points...and I got both.

 

Best,

Jaebird

 

P.S. I'll let the cache owner know. Thanks!

Thanks for your note. Well, you see it takes some of the wind, and some of the fun, out of my theories if you were not at all shocked and amazed at this happening, so couldn't you at least pretend that you were a tiny bit shocked and amazed by the appearance of your night stalker?

 

And, I simply assumed that you kept on geocaching, despite the persistent attentions of your fan club/follower, because you are/were likely entirely obsessive compulsive about geocaching, and I speak here from vast experience, as my wife and several of my friends and geo-friends are extremely obsessive-compulsive geocachers (one has almost thirty thousand finds to her name), and none of them would let a nearby nuclear blast, nor a band of hardened psychopathic killers, nor even an all-out attack by a band of Immortal Indestructible Radioactive Infected Vampire Killer Zombies from Hell (IIRIZKVH), slow them down in their cache hunting activities for even one second!!

 

And, as I have stated in at least a couple of my prior posts in this thread, I would, were I in our shoes, want to remind other seekers of the realities of geocaching in desolate urban areas -- and all the more so because it seems to be a bizarre but well-entrenched cultural custom in the geo world to NEVER mention such possibilities on cache listing pages (other than my earlier-mentioned PUC #10, that is...!) -- and therefore I would definitely post a log note telling about my experience, and I might also perhaps suggest to the cache owner that they may wish to include a similar brief caution about urban caching hazards on the cache listing page.

 

However, I want to warn you, much as I have already referenced above, that there is a weird but well-entrenched convention in the geo world to NEVER offer cautions about such urban phenomena on cache listing pages, even if the cache in question is located in the middle of the most notorious pickle park, or drug park, or death park, in the universe, and thus most cache owners blatantly refuse to emplace such caveats or warnings on their cache listing pages! So, despite your request/suggestion, be advised that the cache owner may well decide not to put a warning on the cache listing page!

[+WatchDog2020]

even if the cache in question is located in the middle of the most notorious pickle park, or drug park, or death park

 

What a great idea for a Multi.

 

Stage 1 - Coords written on Restroom stall at a 'truck stop'

Stage 2 - Hide a key in Adult book store, 'movie' booth number 3

Stage 3 - micro in bathroom of gay bar

 

Humm...Where to put Final?

[+sbell111]

Am I the only one who thought that the other guy might have been night caching, also?

[+Star*Hopper]

Am I the only one who thought that the other guy might have been night caching, also?

 

No. But that's nowhere near as funny as the stuff we came up with.

 

~*

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Oops! Double post due to forum software burp!

Edited October 20, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

even if the cache in question is located in the middle of the most notorious pickle park, or drug park, or death park

 

What a great idea for a Multi.

 

Stage 1 - Coords written on Restroom stall at a 'truck stop'

Stage 2 - Hide a key in Adult book store, 'movie' booth number 3

Stage 3 - micro in bathroom of gay bar

 

Humm...Where to put Final?

Sorry, I don't mean to insult your suggestion, but it is rather boring, limited and one-dimensional as it is -- I would suggest the addition of the following intermediate signage stages, at a minimum, with coordinates or other clue information displayed on small decal signage placed at, in or on:

• an inconspicuous corner of the window of a small liquor store located on a street-corner infamous for lots of drive-by shootings.
  
• an inconspicuous corner of the window of a small toy store which is a front for drug-dealing enterprise, on a street made infamous by the large volume of drug-related activity and drug-dealing which takes place there.
  
• near a pay phone located on the meanest street in the red light district of a large city (i.e., Baltimore, DC, Boston, East St. Louis, etc.)
  
• on the underside of the mailbox at the entrance to the heavily-fortified and heavily-guarded rural enclave -- complete with numerous signs announcing "Trespassers Will be Shot on Sight" and "Death to All Who Have Not Taken Our Vow of Obedience" and patrolled by psychotic heavily-tattooed skinheads high on meth -- of a radical hate-everyone/hate-everything white-supremacist militia group which is also currently under investigation for launching attacks by hired skinhead assassins on local law enforcement officers, judges, elected officials and all the neighbors of the compound.
  
• at the entrance to the chapel inside the heavily-fortified and heavily-guarded compound of a radical armed polygamous breakaway splinter Mormon sect which is already under indictment for killing off leaders of rival breakaway polygamous Mormon splinter sects.
  
• on a small laminated placard which the cache hunter will receive only between the wee hours of 11 PM and 4 AM, after dialing a toll-free number (divulged at an earlier stage, along with instructions) and then arriving a half-hour later at a designated pull-off area located along a very desolate area of Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles (and just a few miles east of the PCH), whereupon a white van (already immortalized in another thread on this forum) will pull up and park behind the cacher's vehicle, and after the driver of the white van flashes his dome lights twice, the cacher will leave their vehicle and walk back to the white van, whereupon the van driver will hand them the laminated signage placard.
  
• under the "UFO Captain's Altar" inside the heavily-guarded UFO chapel located inside the heavily-fortified and heavily-guarded compound of a radical doomsday UFO cult which is already under indictment for killing off leaders of rival radical UFO doomsday cults.
  
• located under the cash register drawer of a tiny pizzeria located on Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, where the pizzeria is widely-known by all the locals to be heavily Mob-connected, and where the pizzeria is a "family pizzeria", that is, it is only patronized by "made" members of the mob and their immediate families, and the owner of the pizzeria and the heavily-tattooed cash register clerk are both "made" mob hit men.
  
• located near the top of the gold dome of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, which, because it is considered to be a prime strategic target, is heavily guarded twenty-four hours a day by armed secret service agents, Capitol police, and members of an elite Army infantry squad; trespassers on the roof and dome are arrested or shot on sight.
  
• located in an inconspicuous spot on the underside of the lower wooden frame of the bed located in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House, which is heavily guarded twenty-four hours a day by armed secret service agents and Capitol police, and trespassers are arrested or shot on sight.
  
• located on the underside of the fourteen-ton marble slab which forms the base of one of four side altars located in the innermost adytum of the most sacred and secret innermost chapel located inside the fabled House of the Temple owned by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, on Sixteenth Street in Washington, DC, where access to the innermost adytum in the chapel is limited only to certain 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Freemasons. Strangely, it seems that Maryland Geocaching Society and the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry will be hosting a geocaching event at this same temple on Saturday, November 1, 2008; click here for more details..., and it is widely-rumored that some very strange, astounding and heretefore secret information will be revealed at this event. And, I have just learned that there is already a cache located on the outside of the House of the Temple; it is GC1GXVM, Masonic House of the Temple.
  
• located under the seat of the guardhouse for the main driveway to Camp David in Thurmont, MD; this federal compound is heavily-fortified and heavily-guarded twenty-four hours a day by armed secret service agents, Capitol police, and members of an elite Army infantry squad, and trespassers are arrested or shot on sight.
  

These ideas will help to spice up the cache considerably and will also raise the bar in terms of Difficulty and Terrain rating!

Edited October 20, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+WatchDog2020]

Vinny - Thanks for the ideas and knowing you're 200 miles South East of me allows me to sleep well at night

[Mag Magician]

Well, you guys, that is starting to sound like an interesting multi. About the only suggestion I could add might be an ALR? To log the final, one must submit a picture of the finder signing a U.S. 100 dollar bill while in the presence of a nekkid same sex hooker.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Vinny - Thanks for the ideas and knowing you're 200 miles South East of me allows me to sleep well at night

Do not feel too safe just yet! Strangely, I have visited Horseheads, NY, and, when I worked in management in the corporate world back in the late 1990s, the VP to whom I reported was a man named Jim who had grown up in Horseheads, NY, and he is still a friend to this day.

 

And, for some strange reason that one one can understand, the Horseheads, NY area has always figured prominently in UFO mythology, almost to the extent that Pine Bush NY -- located further downstate -- has always served as a nexus for UFO sightings and strange activities. In fact, a quick Google search on the terms [horseheads NY OR "new york" UFO] yields almost three thousand webpages! And, to briefly excerpt from just one such page, from a page called "UFO ROUNDUP Volume 10 Number 10":

"On April 8, 1950, a UFO was sighted by many in Horseheads. "In a pasture just outside Horseheads, N.Y., 'a slim circular object only three feet (0.9 meters) .

 

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

[*] on the underside of the mailbox at the entrance to the heavily-fortified and heavily-guarded rural enclave -- complete with numerous signs announcing "Trespassers Will be Shot on Sight" and "Death to All Who Have Not Taken Our Vow of Obedience" and patrolled by psychotic heavily-tattooed skinheads high on meth -- of a radical hate-everyone/hate-everything white-supremacist militia group which is also currently under investigation for launching attacks by hired skinhead assassins on local law enforcement officers, judges, elected officials and all the neighbors of the compound.

Don't mess with my mailbox!

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Well, you guys, that is starting to sound like an interesting multi. About the only suggestion I could add might be an ALR? To log the final, one must submit a picture of the finder signing a U.S. 100 dollar bill while in the presence of a nekkid same sex hooker.

Pretty please, with sugar and spice and icing on top, won't you also allow a nekkid opposite-sex hooker, or at least a very passable transsexual hooker? Please? Or how about a nekkid radioactive vampire cannibal cheerleader on crack?

Edited October 20, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[Mag Magician]

Well, you guys, that is starting to sound like an interesting multi. About the only suggestion I could add might be an ALR? To log the final, one must submit a picture of the finder signing a U.S. 100 dollar bill while in the presence of a nekkid same sex hooker.

Pretty please, with sugar and spice and icing on top, won't you also allow a nekkid opposite-sex hooker, or at least a very passable TS? Please?

 

Vinny, Vinny, Vinny...........What would Sue think? You would be safer with a same sex hooker.

[+PhxChem]

even if the cache in question is located in the middle of the most notorious pickle park, or drug park, or death park

 

What a great idea for a Multi.

 

Stage 1 - Coords written on Restroom stall at a 'truck stop'

Stage 2 - Hide a key in Adult book store, 'movie' booth number 3

Stage 3 - micro in bathroom of gay bar

 

Humm...Where to put Final?

 

I'll just leave that one alone....

[+Jaebird82]

This could be a possibility; however, I really doubt it. If he was really that suspicious or concerened he would have called the cops. I was on the road for a very long time, they would have gotten to me before I had left the area. Plus, if he worked for the cops or was a concerned neighbor, he had more than enough chances to pull up to me and ask me what I was doing, which I would have done if I was protecting my children, family, and friends from arsonists.

 

And.. gay cruising happens in places you would never believe. I gew up in Los Angeles. Mulholland and that area is no exception. As far as gun dealers go, perhaps squirt guns wouldn't be such a bad idea in that area. Bad joke.

 

Jaebird82

 

 

He followed me up the entire long windey road from the PCH. Then, a week or two later he's back pulling behind my car in plain day light.

 

It's possible that he lives up there and was concerned about what you were doing. The people in that area are freaked out that someone is going to come up there and burn their mountain down, either by accident, or intentionally. Don't forget that it was late night partiers that burned down 100 homes in Corral Canyon, last year. Heck, if the residents of Malibu had their way, they would close the town off from the rest of the world, just to keep themselves safe.

 

Gay crusing, drug dealing or gun running would be the last thing to expect in that area.

[+Jaebird82]

The way he flew back down the canyon after slowly pulling next to my car tells me otherwise - just erratic behavior. Plus, every place he parked at waiting for me to catch up had absolutely no GeoCaches as I had all of them in that area on my hand-held. Trust me, if you there you would have gotten the feeling he was following you and hiding, following you and parking, etc. That one time he was parked on the side road I could just see the front of his van with his dome light on. Plus, what are the odds that I see him two 1-2 weeks later pulling up behind my car again? Same GeoCacher? Don't think so.

 

ANyway, LOL to where this post has taken us. Same sex hookers, Skinheads and Incomplete multi-caches, OH MY!

 

 

 

Am I the only one who thought that the other guy might have been night caching, also?

Edited October 20, 2008 by Jaebird82

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Am I the only one who thought that the other guy might have been night caching, also?

The way he flew back down the canyon after slowly pulling next to my car tells me otherwise - just erratic behavior. Plus, every place he parked at waiting for me to catch up had absolutely no GeoCaches as I had all of them in that area on my hand-held. Trust me, if you there you would have gotten the feeling he was following you and hiding, following you and parking, etc. That one time he was parked on the side road I could just see the front of his van with his dome light on. Plus, what are the odds that I see him two 1-2 weeks later pulling up behind my car again? Same GeoCacher? Don't think so.

 

ANyway, LOL to where this post has taken us. Same sex hookers, Skinheads and Incomplete multi-caches, OH MY!

First, I much agree with you that it your stalker was not a geocacher, and I also suspect strongly that it was not a local homeowner. Rather, I suspect that it was one of the possibilities outlined in one of my earlier posts, with the greatest chance that it was a gay sex cruiser, followed by mobile drug dealer, followed by serial killer, with a few other probable scenarios intermixed in that brief list.

 

And, I have rendered in bold font the most relevant text in the post above. This thread has turned out to be very much fun, and, among other things, we have come up with a skeletal design for the first 20/20 Difficulty/Terrain rated multi-stage ALR/mystery cache in the world!

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

It's possible that he lives up there and was concerned about what you were doing. The people in that area are freaked out that someone is going to come up there and burn their mountain down, either by accident, or intentionally. Don't forget that it was late night partiers that burned down 100 homes in Corral Canyon, last year. Heck, if the residents of Malibu had their way, they would close the town off from the rest of the world, just to keep themselves safe.

 

Gay crusing, drug dealing or gun running would be the last thing to expect in that area.

This could be a possibility; however, I really doubt it. If he was really that suspicious or concerened he would have called the cops. I was on the road for a very long time, they would have gotten to me before I had left the area. Plus, if he worked for the cops or was a concerned neighbor, he had more than enough chances to pull up to me and ask me what I was doing, which I would have done if I was protecting my children, family, and friends from arsonists.

 

And.. gay cruising happens in places you would never believe. I gew up in Los Angeles. Mulholland and that area is no exception. As far as gun dealers go, perhaps squirt guns wouldn't be such a bad idea in that area. Bad joke.

 

Jaebird82

I disagree strongly, for many reasons, with the contention by the earlier poster, Don_J, that "...Gay crusing (sic), drug dealing or gun running would be the last thing to expect in that area." Rather, much as you have pointed out, there is no reason to claim that the lonelier stretches of Mulholland Drive and surrounding areas are, for some reason, immune to the incursion of phenomena common to almost all desolate areas within cities.

[+sbell111]

If you think that's freaky, listen to this. Not too long ago, I was nightcaching. I was driving my van on Mulholland grabbing a bunch of quick and easy ones when I discovered this car tailing me. It seamed that every time I stopped to log a cache, I'd see this guy in the area. I thought that I had ditched him when I pulled off to get a cache in a semi-secluded area. Shockingly, his car was there!!!

 

I peeled out of there FAST and made for home. Luckily, I got away before he could follow me.

[+sbell111]

The way he flew back down the canyon after slowly pulling next to my car tells me otherwise - just erratic behavior.

You're right. Geocachers would never be accused of erratic behavior.

Plus, every place he parked at waiting for me to catch up had absolutely no GeoCaches as I had all of them in that area on my hand-held.

Maybe he was using a magellan.

[knowschad]

Lol. I totally set myself up for that one.

 

Jaebird82

 

At this point.. im standing in the middle of the trail fully exposed.

Is there some sort of double meaning here?. If so, that might be why you were being followed. That and the Elysian Institute has been closed for a while now up there in Topanga Canyon.

 

You totally set yourself up for that when you chose the name Jaebird!

[+ryetronics]

I had a similar experience on a cache recently, which I detailed in the log for GC16ZP8. Upon reflection, I'm pretty sure he saw me lock my car doors, and assumed I was unlocking them for him, as he was looking for a gay sex hookup. It reads as follows...

 

The real excitement happened afterwards. I jumped back in my car and headed west on the frontage road, only to be stopped b/c of a passing train. A tall man starts walking across the street, making eye contact with me, and then makes a bee line to my car. As he passes, he attempts to open my passenger side door, to which I accelerate a few feet away from him. He gets behind my car and just stands there resting his arms on my trunk, so what do i do? Put her in reverse of course and scare the s**t out of him! I then drove off and he looked disappointed. Very weird and very creepy, to say the least, so watch your back next time you're hanging around a DART station!

[+Jaebird82]

Yikes! That's scary! Although, going along with the theories of a few people on this post, he could have just been a GeoCacher with tired arms using your truck as an arm rest.

 

I had a similar experience on a cache recently, which I detailed in the log for GC16ZP8. Upon reflection, I'm pretty sure he saw me lock my car doors, and assumed I was unlocking them for him, as he was looking for a gay sex hookup. It reads as follows...

 

The real excitement happened afterwards. I jumped back in my car and headed west on the frontage road, only to be stopped b/c of a passing train. A tall man starts walking across the street, making eye contact with me, and then makes a bee line to my car. As he passes, he attempts to open my passenger side door, to which I accelerate a few feet away from him. He gets behind my car and just stands there resting his arms on my trunk, so what do i do? Put her in reverse of course and scare the s**t out of him! I then drove off and he looked disappointed. Very weird and very creepy, to say the least, so watch your back next time you're hanging around a DART station!

[+Jaebird82]

never tailed him and wasn't ever close to a cache

 

If you think that's freaky, listen to this. Not too long ago, I was nightcaching. I was driving my van on Mulholland grabbing a bunch of quick and easy ones when I discovered this car tailing me. It seamed that every time I stopped to log a cache, I'd see this guy in the area. I thought that I had ditched him when I pulled off to get a cache in a semi-secluded area. Shockingly, his car was there!!!

 

I peeled out of there FAST and made for home. Luckily, I got away before he could follow me.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

...Trust me, if you there you would have gotten the feeling he was following you and hiding, following you and parking, etc. That one time he was parked on the side road I could just see the front of his van with his dome light on. Plus, what are the odds that I see him two 1-2 weeks later pulling up behind my car again? Same GeoCacher? Don't think so.

 

ANyway, LOL to where this post has taken us. Same sex hookers, Skinheads and Incomplete multi-caches, OH MY!

Jaebird82, have you gotten curious enough yet about this matter to seriously consider driving back to that road, finding that white van, waiting for it to stop again, and asking the driver what he or she wants/wanted? After all, the worst that could happen is that you might be killed, and that kind of trivial possibility does not usually seem to daunt a real geoacher at all!

 

Anyway, please let us know what you find out when you return to the road and ask the driver what they wanted! Thanks for doing the needful!

[4wheelin_fool]

 

I notice this white work type van (not a Mini Van), driving around back and fourth,

 

Sounds like a cable TV installer.

 

[+sbell111]

If you think that's freaky, listen to this. Not too long ago, I was nightcaching. I was driving my van on Mulholland grabbing a bunch of quick and easy ones when I discovered this car tailing me. It seamed that every time I stopped to log a cache, I'd see this guy in the area. I thought that I had ditched him when I pulled off to get a cache in a semi-secluded area. Shockingly, his car was there!!!

 

I peeled out of there FAST and made for home. Luckily, I got away before he could follow me.

never tailed him and wasn't ever close to a cache

What's that have to do with my story? Edited October 22, 2008 by sbell111

[+goonybird]

First, you did not tell us in your post where you are located, nor does your forum thingie tell us where you are located, since you did not fill out that part of your profile. I therefore needed to go to your profile (hoping, by the way, that I would not encounter bare-naked pictures) and explore your recent finds to figure out where you live, as I simply do not know off the top of my hear where "Mulhollad Road" is located. and it seems, from perusal of your finds, that you may live in California, and perhaps in the Los Angeles area, altho

 

 

That's gotta be LA. Its actually Mullholand DRIVE in LA, but close enough. It fits the description. It runs through some of the canyons down to ...Malibu? (which PCH - Pacific Coast Highway - runs through) Lot of hills and park land in that area...so lots of isolated areas. Would creap the f............out of me. First thing i would think of would be the Manson Murders. True, the area is very Rural, with houses few and far between, but its very close to LA, and the few places that do have houses are super expensive. (Im guessing $2mil +) and frankly the only people that can afford houses out there are Rock stars and TV producers, along with the occasional spoiled jorja fox Hollywood brat. So my first though would be a Manson murder thing, although, now that I think about it while I'm writing this post, I'm thinking that - odds are, the dude was a Paparazzi out looking for a money shot. Still though, the dude was acting creepy - and it would probably be a good idea to not only drop a note to thhis cache owner, but maybe try and drop a note to anyone that owns a cache in the area.

[+tozainamboku]

Since everyone else has speculated on what happened I'll put in my two cents.

 

I think this was a police undercover van. He is stopping at various places along the road looking for suspicious activity. Maybe just looking for drunk drivers or speeders. This time of year they are sometimes looking for arsonists. After seeing the same car go by him a few times, he gets curious when his sees it again parked at the side of the road. He parks across the street and gets out to look around and examine the suspicious car. He doesn't see any sign of criminal activity so he gets in his van and drives off or perhaps he got a call on his radio and left in a hurry. A few days later he sees the same car parked on the side of the road and gets out again only this time during the day. Perhaps he does spot the OP signing the log and perhaps he knows about geocaching. The mystery is solved for him so he pulls away and heads back down the highway.

 

Maybe it doesn't make as good a story but I figure it's as likely as any of the other ones that have been suggested.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Since everyone else has speculated on what happened I'll put in my two cents.

 

I think this was a police undercover van. He is stopping at various places along the road looking for suspicious activity. Maybe just looking for drunk drivers or speeders. This time of year they are sometimes looking for arsonists. After seeing the same car go by him a few times, he gets curious when his sees it again parked at the side of the road. He parks across the street and gets out to look around and examine the suspicious car. He doesn't see any sign of criminal activity so he gets in his van and drives off or perhaps he got a call on his radio and left in a hurry. A few days later he sees the same car parked on the side of the road and gets out again only this time during the day. Perhaps he does spot the OP signing the log and perhaps he knows about geocaching. The mystery is solved for him so he pulls away and heads back down the highway.

 

Maybe it doesn't make as good a story but I figure it's as likely as any of the other ones that have been suggested.

I agree with you, and this alternate explanation occurred to me from the start, but since it was far less exiting and dramatic than the other options, I deliberately chose to suppress publication of if -- in other words, yellow-journalism at its worst, with gratuitous slanting of the news! And, it wonder if the driver of the undercover vehicle may even had had a pair of night vision goggles with them as well, allowing them to see in the dark!

 

Of course, only the OP was present at the scene, and he may be offer details of suspicious behavior that would tend to rule out it having been an undercover police officer.

[+Sioneva]

 

<snip>

WELCOME TO EXTREME GEOCACHING, AND TO PSYCHO URBAN CACHES!

 

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS CACHE ALONE! BE SURE TO BRING ALONG ONE OR MORE PARTNERS AND SAFETY PERSONS, FOR SEVERAL REASONS! THIS CACHE IS BEST SUITED ONLY FOR A TEAM EFFORT.

YOU MUST READ THE FULL LISTING AND DISCLAIMER BELOW BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS CACHE!

 

CAUTION! This is a very sick and very tough cache located in an urban park; the odds are great that you will fail to find the cache even after a three-hour search. Despite the fact that a beatiful aging citadel is located at this park, ALL of the realities of modern urban parks are present here in plentitude, including:

 

<snip>

* sightings of Sioneva

<snip>

These factors all contribute to making this cache even FAR more "psycho" than it would be otherwise! We advise you of these phenomena in advance, so that you may better manage any situations which you may encounter.

...if any of these types of people, things, activities, people or critters offend you, or if you do not wish to witness such activities or critters, then we suggest that you may wish to skip this cache, even if the Difficulty 5 or Terrain 5 ratings do not deter you.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hey, I resemble that remark! You can't prove it was me that day! I hired the best muggers I could find to steal your camera! I wasn't even on the Knoll! It was my evil twin! I was Framed! It was a set up! This isn't the Sioneva you're looking for! I'm running out of exclamation marks!

[+vw_k]

Now I don't know what it's like in the area concerned but where I live if you park a car in a deserted layby in certain areas and go off into the woods there's a chance you could come back to find your car broken into and your stereo/satnav/other car contents stolen, or if you're really unlucky and they are expensive and shiny enough your wheels might even go missing!

 

Perhaps this person was looking for unattended cars with visible valuables left inside.

 

Even if they weren't, it's a reminder not to leave valuables on display when you park your vehicles, and clean the dirty circle mark off your windscreen that indicates you mount a GPSr there!