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what to do when a muggle notices you


3isamagic#

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Immediately freeze. Drop any cache papers or anything with a GC logo that you may have in your hand. Remain perfectly still until the muggle no longer takes interest in you.

 

While it is true that a muggle's eyesight is mainly based on movement, strong smells can set them off, too. Try not to wear DEET or strong smelling sunscreen while out urban caching.

 

If all else fails, and it appears the muggle is about to charge, wave your GPS high above your head in a frantic manner yelling, "Don't come near! I've finally maged to contact them, and the mothership is landing right here!!!" You will not be bothered. At least not immediately. Be aware of anyone approaching in a white coat approaching shortly after that, though.

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Uhh, not much help. I would never say aliens are here or try to hide my geocache papers. I'd want them to check out the website and get them to join. Tell them how fun it is, and other things. If I'm running on a roll, i usually have some extra "geocaching everything you need to know" booklets around.

 

So, my advise, just tell them about it and what to do. Who knows they may help other geocachers find that cache, join geocaching, and other things. Lots of people have joined by seeing a geocacher get a cache.

 

I hope this information helped you out, and hope your a better recruiter than i am.

-Team Brantley

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Look at the muggle and utter a nice "hello" then suddenly turn away (towards thin air) and speak firmly "No! Now go away!" then turn back to the muggle and say "Can I help you?" then turn back to thin air and repeat "Not now. I'm talking to this nice lady (or gentleman) here."

 

Chances are the muggle will turn and leave all on their own :P

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I almost always just tell them what we are doing. I go with my first instinct to decide what to do. Sometimes I am pretty vague at first and only tell them more if they really seem interested or concerned.

 

The one time I was nervous about it was the time some kids discovered us looking for a cache at "their" swimming hole. We told them about it and showed them how to use the gps units and they ended up making the find. Some of their friends even showed up while we were at it, and they explained it to the friends (Who looked at them like they had lost their minds, until they got to hold the gps, too). We had them all sign.

 

I was nervous because they were young, and I thought they might spread the word to other friends who might compromise the cache. But it was just a 35 mm canister anyway, so easy enough to replace. And they were so fascinated.

 

I watched the cache for months after that, and all was well. In fact, it's still there today, three years later. I think one of the boys that was there that day tried some caching for a few months, too. I have forgotten what his name is now, or I'd look to see if he is still caching, too.

 

I carry around a small business card size mini-brochure and a large pamphlet size one too. Those are good to pull out to hand to either the very concerned or the very interested folks. I laminate them, so they look very "official" like advertising. That goes a long way to making geocaching seem innocent and legitimate.

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Depends on a lot of things. If I am off the trail, (but close to it) and actively looking, I tend to ignore the muggles, and they often just ignore me. I'm obviously looking for *something*, and they just assume that I'm looking for something I dropped, like sunglasses, or a lens cap, or keys. If I am on the trail, I usually just give a "hello" and continue on my way. I have had Muggles come up and ask "You seem to be looking for something." To which I reply, "Well, yes, actually I am." and go on to explain what geocaching is. A few times, they knew what geocaching was, although they did not do it themselves (yet :rolleyes: ).

 

I have pretended to be using my GPSr as a cell phone when I was beside a road, and thought it would look too suspicious to duck into the woods beside the road, near a bridge. Once there were no cars driving by, I ducked in. I like the solitude, and I try to cache in areas and at times that aren't busy. My meetings with muggles (other than passing on the trail) are limited.

 

Adamsloco

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Well first off I flip them the secret Hand-Sign, if this goes unacknowledged, I then go into my invisible-mode, or do a bit of shape-shifting, what ever works at the time or place..............recomend one gets their "Muggle" Shots to avoid infection or worse (becoming-one)

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"What the heck? Why is that person holding that GPS like a mobile phone and talking to themselves?"

 

Especially hilarious when you see the size of my GPS. Bottom right.

1113255_797311_magellan.jpg

 

Gee, you have an XL that still works? I gave up on mine after it froze up for the umpteenth time. Service from Magellan took three months and several phone calls the one time I sent it in.

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If I have binoculars around my neck, and I often do, I just revert to birding mode which I am usually doing anyway.

 

But I also often explain what I am doing and hand out a brochure if I have one with me.. I have made a couple converts that way.

 

I really see no reason why Geocaching should be a clandestine secretive activity.

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One of our locals was having a hard time replacing a micro cache he had found at a busy shopping mall one day. He managed to get it and sign it OK but before he could replace it, a gaggle of high school girls moved in and showed no signs of moving from the area.

After about 20 minutes he was getting tired of waiting as they still showed no sign of moving on. He decided he would pretend to be picking his nose, as he looked right at them.

They stormed off in disgust and a minute later he was replacing the cache! :rolleyes:

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Gee, you have an XL that still works? I gave up on mine after it froze up for the umpteenth time. Service from Magellan took three months and several phone calls the one time I sent it in.

Actually it stopped working about three weeks ago. It totally stopped tracking sats. I get none. Tried 2 more firmwares- nothing.

 

You got service from Magellan? It's a miracle!

Edited by Knight2000
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Isn't it strange how when hunting a cache we feel so vulnerable, guilty or as if we just got caught making out when we were 16?

 

Got 'busted' the other day by a family of 3. We had just recovered our cache find and retreated away from the hide site to sit on a downed tree to explore the goodies. Then suddenly only 10 feet away on the trail they just appeared. We never hear them coming up behind us. Scared me.

 

We just continued on as if we were supposed to be there. Besides we were - we had the coords and they put is spot on GZ.

 

On the way out the other other vehicle at the trail head was a park rangers SUV that wasn't there when we went in. None of them were in uniform but I'm sure that was their truck - may have even been their cache or other cachers. . .

 

They continued on as most do. I always talk up the hobby if someone bothers stopping and talking. It's a great way to get people interested. I have a Geocaching.com sticker on my truck's rear window (got it from a cache in 2002 - custom made - ohhh yeahhhh :)). It's a conversation starter all the time.

Edited by andynshe
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:D

So, maybe the homeless people I see digging around are Premium members that have secret caches they are looking for that I don't know about <_<

 

Not Premium members. Only Platinum members have secret caches that you don't know about.

:D And yes it is the "Platinum-Members" that are the real "Spy-Guys" :D

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Having a camera seems to alleviate most people's questions. When muggles come along, point the camera at something close by and pretend to take pictures. On our very first find a policeman came up behind us and asked "how many people have signed that thing?" Seems he was watching when it was hid three years earlier, but he scared the liver outta us. On one find, in a very high muggle area, we (covertly as possible) drove around to get an idea of where the cache was located. Then I would drive by, push her out (not literally) and drive off, she retrieved it, I drove back by, she got in, we drove around the parking lot again, signed the log, drove by GZ, tossed her out again and made another lap and picked her up on the return trip. The whole time the parking lot attendant was about 15 feet away and never noticed a thing!

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So, even if we are stealthy, we still get caught...

 

Can you share some stories about how you handle it?

Today was our first successful hunt. At one location I was seen searching with the boys and was asked if I was looking for something (guess we were obvious) and I looked at her like a deer in headlights.. " uh... no" was what I mustered out. I felt bad for lying, but read to be carefull of a muggle spotting.. "the grass here was much taller" I said and we walked away.

 

I will definatly tell anyone to come to the site in the future! That is a great idea! :-)

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Think I'll try answering the question.

 

Most people are a whole less interested in what you are doing than you think. If you act like you belong there they'll leave yoju alone.f you're going to a playground you'd better bring the kids along. I had a hide that was in a playground and my kids weren't with me, but a parent and child were there . Spend 20 minutes chatting about stuff. Wouldn't leave, so I left.

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Point at them, wink, smile, and then start rubbing yourself suggestively. They will either move away quickly, or approach you looking interested. Unfortunately, I've never had any females do the latter, only the former :unsure:

 

:D Seriously, the "pretend to be taking pics" has served me well. Occasionally I pretend my GPSr is a cell phone. But the one that always works is a combination of pretending to take pics, then scribbling something on a piece of paper. People quickly lose interest when they see that :D

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Make sure if caching in twos or more, your answer to the muggle's question is the same - "Are you microbiologists?" got a yes and a no...but I was further away so my answer was unheard. I think we were tracked down to ask this as one of us was attempting (in waders, in a lake) to find a non-existent cache for which the clue read "The cache resides slighly offshore inside a duck." 1 1/2 hours in the water and the same on land failed to yield the cache, or a FTF (cache "placed" about a year ago) so the muggles were our only "find."

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So, even if we are stealthy, we still get caught...

 

Can you share some stories about how you handle it?

I usually bring a trash picker and a bag - and as long as mugglers are around I pick trash. No one pays attention except when that little old lady stops by to tell me what a marvellous job I'm doing :(

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I use my Pocket PC with a bluetooth GPS receiver for my caching hunts. The Pocket PC is a perfect cover as I often would have the GPSr hidden from view and use the Pocket PC and make it look like I'm going through files when actually I'm looking at the coordinates on the Beeline program. As I get closer, I look for muggles, then do my search if there is none. If there are some muggles, I pretend to drop something then make it look like I'm looking for what I drop.

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The last time I took my dog (Cocker Spaniel) I ended up 36 miles from home geocaching. I gotout to locate the cache, left the truck running as it was cook and the wind was blowing. When I returned within a few minutes, I found my truck locked. and no extra key. Also my cell phone was inside. I could not convince the dog to unlock the door. :lol::sad::D:angry::ph34r::(

Ended up walking 1/2 mile to a house to call the wife for help! Now I have 2 extra sets of key's on the truck somewhere.

 

Also when I run across a muggle, I finnish what I am doing and the show them the cache and explain it to them. No problems yet..

 

Twins18

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Most people are a whole less interested in what you are doing than you think. If you act like you belong there they'll leave yoju alone.

 

 

This is SO true. Acting like you know what you are doing will dispel most people's curiousity.

 

Once when I was a senior in high school I went to visit my brother who was attending college at the time and working in a local grocer. We were talking about acting like you know what you are doing and that most people will take no notice of you if you do. As a demonstration, he asked me to follow him into another grocery store (not the one he worked for but a competitor). As I followed on his heels, he walked right in, and we went right into the back store room, acting exactly as if we knew what we were doing. There was a crew there unloading a newly arrived shipment of produce from pallets and it needed to be put into the cooler. We heard them talking about it and one of the guys said he would round up some people to help move the load.

My brother and I just pitched in and started moving the pallets into the cooler for them. Several people looked at us, smiled, waved, and even said hello to us. No one questioned who we were or why we were moving their produce for them.

We got the cooler loaded for them and walked back out, waving and smiling at people the whole time.

They never realized their unnamed benefactors didn't even work for them! :D

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We've had fewer problems since my wife started dressing like a tree when we go caching:

 

DSC00107-COPY.jpg

 

Photo taken at the Opryland Hotel in October 2008 - it was actually quite interesting to watch this woman pose and move along in her costume. She stood about 9 feet tall (about 14 feet tall with arms, or limbs, extended above her head).

 

If she stood still long enough the crowds would disperse and then she would freak people out when she started moving again.

 

:D

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i don't explain unless asked.

 

i also don't try to act sneaky.

 

people trying to look sneaky attract scads of attention.

 

under almost every circumstance nobody cares if you look under that bench or lamppost skirt. they don't even care if you march into a playground if you look purposeful.

 

most people can't pull of real stealth, but if you're determined to try, don't look around to see if people are watching. don't look back after you put the cache back. guilty people do those things.

 

don't pretend your GPS is a camera or a phone. this won't even fool a two -year old, and then you look like a sneaky idiot, which attracts attention.

 

don't pretend to take pictures. take pictures or don't, but chances are you can't pull off pretending to do anything in order to cover.

 

don't pretend to be interested in shrubbery, rocks, or birds unless you ARE interested in shrubbery, rocks, or birds. people can spot fake behaviors a mile away. they may not know what exactly about you is fake, but they'll know SOMETHING is, and they'll notice you.

 

DO behave as if you have every right to be there, and as if whatever you're doing is boring and normal. if you get caught putting the film cannister back under the lamp post skirt, just act like you do it all the time, which you probably do anyway, so it shouldn't tax your nearly nonexistent acting skills.

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Point at them, wink, smile, and then start rubbing yourself suggestively. They will either move away quickly, or approach you looking interested. Unfortunately, I've never had any females do the latter, only the former :D

 

:D Seriously, the "pretend to be taking pics" has served me well. Occasionally I pretend my GPSr is a cell phone. But the one that always works is a combination of pretending to take pics, then scribbling something on a piece of paper. People quickly lose interest when they see that :D

 

Hiya, I'm a geocaching newbie, but I spend a bit of time in the field collecting data (environmental scientist). You're right...people ignore me and get on with their business when I start taking photos of the environment and writing notes...especially if I start panning my camera in their direction :D So I'm counting on the same sort of reaction whilst caching. Maybe I'll use my dog Shea for cover on caches close to home, but I can't suffer her in the car with me on an away trip...she always insists on driving...and its just not a good look with a 60kg Irish Wolfhound at the wheel of mah 4x :o

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Most people are a whole less interested in what you are doing than you think. If you act like you belong there they'll leave yoju alone.

 

 

This is SO true. Acting like you know what you are doing will dispel most people's curiousity.

 

Once when I was a senior in high school I went to visit my brother who was attending college at the time and working in a local grocer. We were talking about acting like you know what you are doing and that most people will take no notice of you if you do. As a demonstration, he asked me to follow him into another grocery store (not the one he worked for but a competitor). As I followed on his heels, he walked right in, and we went right into the back store room, acting exactly as if we knew what we were doing. There was a crew there unloading a newly arrived shipment of produce from pallets and it needed to be put into the cooler. We heard them talking about it and one of the guys said he would round up some people to help move the load.

My brother and I just pitched in and started moving the pallets into the cooler for them. Several people looked at us, smiled, waved, and even said hello to us. No one questioned who we were or why we were moving their produce for them.

We got the cooler loaded for them and walked back out, waving and smiling at people the whole time.

They never realized their unnamed benefactors didn't even work for them! :D

 

I had a similar experiance at The American Royal horse show in Kansas City. Had some spare time so went to the arena from Downtown KC. They wanted way too much for a ticket, so I was wandering around outside and they had huge double doors that the horses used to enter the arena. They was a broom leaning against the wall I picked it up and went right in. While walking around the outer edge of the arena this guy said come here and help roll out the red carpet for the American Farm Family to walk out on. Very interesting standing in the middle of the arena looking up at the crowd. :D

Edited by BrrrMo
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I had a similar experiance at The American Royal horse show in Kansas City. Had some spare time so went to the arena from Downtown KC. They wanted way too much for a ticket, so I was wandering around outside and they had huge double doors that the horses used to enter the arena. They was a broom leaning against the wall I picked it up and went right in. While walking around the outer edge of the arena this guy said come here and help roll out the red carpet for the American Farm Family to walk out on. Very interesting standing in the middle of the arena looking up at the crowd. :D

 

wow. sounds like a whopping failure of integrity to me.

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