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I was looking for Everett Park and Grab and I looked in a hole in the trunk of the tree but it was empty. I started to climb the tree when I notice a Police car pulling in to the park. I jumped down and the Police man rolled down the window of his believe it or not volkswagon beetle Police car and said "I hope you have better luck finding it then I did." Turns out he was a fellow Geocacher and he even help us look but we believe it was muggled.

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This morning I was out early went for a quick grab in Stop&Shop parking lot. Cache was behind fence. Lot was empty when I ducked around the fence for the find. I walk out fro mbehind the fence and there is a police car next to my car. The officer watched me come out and walk to the car but did not say anything. :anitongue:

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Funny this thread would pop up now. We had one last weekend where we saw the officer but figured he was too preoccupied with his latest victim. Well we were wrong and he spotted us looking around the parking lot. He drove up and asked if we needed help finging something. I could tell that was code for "you better have a good reason for looking around here because I know you didn't loose anything" so we filled him in on our mission for our sake and the sake of future cachers. a-town is notorious for overly suspicious and over zealous cops. Good thing he wasn't one of them!

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I got questioned an frisked by a cop yesterday while caching. The cache was near a very small bridge in a quiet area. He said he stopped because I was sitting in my car looking like I was up to something. Of course I was, I was firing up my GPSr! At first he didn't believe it when i told him what I was doing (looking for a cache), then he made me show him, so I took him to find that cache. :lol:

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I got questioned an frisked by a cop yesterday while caching. The cache was near a very small bridge in a quiet area. He said he stopped because I was sitting in my car looking like I was up to something. Of course I was, I was firing up my GPSr! At first he didn't believe it when i told him what I was doing (looking for a cache), then he made me show him, so I took him to find that cache. :lol:

 

So did you convert another Muggle to a Cacher???

 

Good stories guys...

 

I've not had anything more than a officer in a patrol car sit there and watch me for what seemed like forever...

 

Not sure why it kind of makes me nervous, I have a good respect for LEOs and was not doing anything wrong...

 

Guess its feelings lingering from my earlier years when some of my friends and I mighta been up to no good...

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mcrow--- probably a good thing that cache hadn't been muggled. :sad: I have been pretty lucky in regards to the police. A couple of times I thought I might get checked out after driving by them about 4 times in a half hour but never did. (really need to put the car unit in) :lol:

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I was geocaching in a subway station in Copenhagen, Denmark when we were stopped by a Danish police man. We explained what geocaching was and he looked suspicious but left us alone. 5 minutes later a different police man approached us and asked what we were doing. We explained ourselves again and then decided to leave when a third police man started eying us up. Danish police men must be very alert!

 

Another time we were looking for a 5 star difficulty micro on a pedestrian bridge at 11pm. A police man on duty patrolling the bridge passed us three times before he finally stopped and asked what we were doing. We explained geocaching and he stopped to help us look for awhile before going back to his patrol.

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After the police observed me on my belly feeling under a platform with my forehead 2 cm away from water, they stopped and asked what I was up to. I said geocaching and about 15 minutes later (so how do you find them, but how do you know about them, so who hides them, so do you take them away, who finds them, where are they, WHY?) they concluded I was cuckoo, but did offer to help if they weren't going home.

They were a couple of young fellas who were amused more than suspicious, and in suburban Canberra, Australia, a frumpy mum in her 30's on her belly on a platform isn't very threatening.

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I'm surprised the police are not more informed of geocaching.

 

We've only been stopped one time... so far. *fingers crossed* We were searching around a recycling center for a cache and didn't even notice the filling station for police cars next door. They sure spotted us though and after explanation of what we were doing.... they still didn't seem to understand. :D

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No run-ins with police (yet!), but while looking for cheap and good containers for my first hide, I asked my husband's best friend, a local police officer, if he could get me any ammo cans. This of course led to an explanation of geocaching, and him making me a deal that he'd keep me in ammo can supplies if I hid a cache in the park bordering his house, so he can have fun watching geocachers. Will be hiding my second cache soon, in that park as promised.

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I read this thread this morning, went out for a cache, and who would have guessed it - I got caught by the po' po'. He was very very handsome and if I had been a single lady, I might have clasped my wrists together and gotten him to arrest me, but I digress. I explained what it was, he wanted to see where it was but I couldn't find it. I had found it before and was coming to drop some TB's, and now that I got home, I see that it'd been moved, but I couldn't find it and he helped me look but not for too long. All in all a pretty pleasant experience.

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Month or so ago I did a park and ride cache, micro by a fence with my noncaching wife and 2 caching kids. Pulled in and saw two cops doing the chit-chat thing in the next parking lot. Wife asked what I was doing parking with cops right there knowing I don't do cache around people but cops what can they do. Parked the car and the fence is right by an off ramp from the major interstate. while looking on both sides of it and sure thing after 4 minutes in it and he comes. about 40 feet from me asked what I was doing, if there is a noise loader then someone speaking I have a very hard time hearing them. Told him to hang on while I come around and so he gets out of his car for what I don't have a clue. met me half way. Told him I was caching ( not a clue what I was talking about) showed him the GPS and asked me if that was my wife and kids in the car. Being the smart a@@ I am I thought of a couple of reply

1. Nope they are a decoy for my drug mulling disguise.

2. What you think that question going to trip me up piggy.

3. You seem me come in here and the people are in my car, now what the hell you think.

4. No what people in my care, O crap those people are trying to steal my car

But no told him the truth and he left after that. Wife thought it was funny saying I told you they were going to stop you ( they love saying the I told you so don't they)

 

So if you see a cop guess what, just cache and if stopped always tell the truth.

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Always tell the truth. I stop and quiz every cacher I see while on duty, I make them explain it then I say ok "thanks for the cache, singed log, took nothing left nothing" They always do a double take and then realize I cache myself.

 

Hehe, nice! :blink:

 

I have had just one run-in with the police, thank goodness. I was with some friends, and what better way to spend the night than grabbing a few park and grabs? However, just as we are approaching GZ we get stopped by the police. Granted, a group of teenagers definately looks suspicious wandering around at 11pm, so I completely understood his concern. After explaining geocaching to him and showing him my GPSr, I told him we'd be on our way, since he obviously didn't want us there. He didn't understand geocaching at all, and asked me whether I had any drugs on me, any alcohol on me, or any spray paint on me. After assuring him that I wasn't hiding anything illegal, we got out of there as fast as we could. Police officers always make me a little nervous (probably because I'm a teenager), and being questioned by one certainly shook me up a little. I have concluded that when I go geocaching (at least in my teens) I should probably bring my mom, or at least my dogs. :huh:

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One of our cachers placed one in the centre of town and the Police found out about it and closed off all surrounding roads and altered the Bomb Squad. Great fun, good laughs all round.

 

Another cacher told me how he has just crossed the motorway on a purpose built foot bridge and was looking for the cache on the otherside of that bridge . The traffic cops arrived and told him off for walking on the motorway, he explained he just crossed over on the bridge and was still on it, they told him not to Get Smart and drove off, nice guys, Not !

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funny thread

 

went too jail for the first time on memorial day weekend, (awesome) while looking for a cache... apparently I had a warrant...

 

still haven't been back too that one... :blink:

 

here locally there is a BART officer turned cacher... found the cache where she busted a guy, and now she does it... go figure LOL

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I got questioned an frisked by a cop yesterday while caching.

 

Sounds like your local cops are a tad on the Draconian side there.

 

An American police officer frisks you for just looking suspicious? Probable Cause is him seeing you huffing a crack pipe, wiping off a bloody blade. I can see questioning you, but frisking.....Jeez.

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My daughter and I were on the 4th stage of a multi at a state park. This police car pulls in right in front of us just as she was putting the film can cache back. We're trying to be sly at the time. This stern looking cop gets out, serious Poker-face and all and sternly asks what we're up to. As I'm fessing up he breaks into a smile. He explains that he and his boss both cache. The one we were working on was his boss's hide. He even helped us on a stage or two. Nice guy just having some fun.

 

Second time.....out near a local reservoir dam....my daughter doesn't want to hack through (20 yards) brambles to a cache. Just as soon as I'm 10 yards in the woods a Sheriff's car pulls in behind my parked car. Blue lights on. I walk over to explain caching to his bewildered face. He's running my tag and I notice the dash mounted laptop. He follows my instructions and looks at Geocaching.com. He's satisfied. Even shows some interest. He even gave me good directions to access a cache spot I'd just failed to find. Good guy just making sure I'm not dumping a body or checking the "crop".

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Friday, my friend and I were looking for a cache on a guardrail. We had parked in the wrong spot so we had scaled an embankment and were looking sort of suspicious. We saw a police car pull up below and was looking at us and I commented that we were going to get questioned, no big deal.

The cop yells out his window at us "That's a hard one!" and we laughed. I yelled back for a hint and he gave us one.

After the find we were headed back to the geomobile and the cops pulled up next to us and asked if we found it. Of course we had found it by then.

 

It was pretty funny and some good natured cops.

 

We have also run into cops that were clueless about geocaching but we educate them.

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It wasn't the police, but we had to explain caching to a postal employee. We were in a new area with just a short amount of extra time to cache. We had to pass on cache after cache because of muggles and/or construction. Finally we found a cache in the parking area of a park. A mail truck was parked about eight feet away from GZ... we waited and waited for him to leave, but finally gave up and went for it. He, of course, was alarmed by our "tinkering" with an electrical outlet (HELLOOOOO... There are no wires going to it!) so I had to explain the game to him. He seemed quite suspicious, but then I showed him the log and he wrote down the Geocaching.com web address. Who knows.... maybe he caches now, too!

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About a month ago, I decided I would try to find this cache on a Friday night, about 6:30 pm, before I went to the grocery store. As I am driving around, trying to find it, and end up driving through a not-so-good neighborhood. Finally, I find the spot to park, get out of the car and walk down the trail. There are no cars and nobody around. I get to the sign, figure out the coordinates, and am walking through the tall weeds, about 50 feet from gz, when I hear a police siren blurb. I knew it came from where I parked my car, so I go running out of the woods. Sure enough, there is a police car behind mine, with one officer still in the car, and the other is walking around my car checking it out. I run out, waving my arms and shouting, "I'm right here!". He, of course, asks me what I am doing, so I explain all about geocaching to him. He doesn't seem confused or perplexed by it, so perhaps he had heard of it before. He tells me that they patrol regularly around here, as it is not a very safe area, and they have had problems before. He also tells me that they got a call of shots fired about 20 minutes beforehand, and someone mentioned a red Cavalier driving around. (I was driving a red cavalier). I am visibly shaken, but he tells me it is alright, that I could go back down if I wanted to. By now, I am spooked, so I just got in my car and left. Did not post a DNF on that one, since I didn't get close enough to look. I will go back, but I will bring my geocaching buddy and my husband for this one!

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I was looking for some caches recently in an upscale rural neighborhood outside Pittsburgh during the G-20 summit. I was trying to get OUT of the city because of the G-20, and ironically the G-20 found me. The area is essentially a mix of opulent mansions and lush, beautiful woodlands. I accidentally entered a nature trail that was closed down by the authorities because Michelle Obama and Theresa Heinz Kerry were hosting an event for the G-20 wives in a mansion above the woods.

 

The police were waiting for me at my car in the roadside parking lot. Needless to say, I must have looked very suspicious to them dressed in my olive-drab pants, paramilitary boots, and with my GPS in hand. I tried to explain the game of geocaching to them, and I only got blank stares and more questions. They proceeded to inform me that I had entered a "Restricted Presidential Area" and that they had to report anything suspicious to Federal agents up the command chain. As they searched my car for "evidence," I continued to explain that I was just a guy on a recreational treasure-hunting game who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After several minutes of taking notes, obtaining my phone number, asking about the game of geocaching, and searching my car for any contraband, they finally decided to let me go. I guess they determined my GPS unit was not a threat to the first lady or the G-20 wives. They kicked me out with just a mild warning and asked for the GPS coordinates for the cache.

 

I can just imagine a Federal Agent in a suit and tie searching through the woods for the mystery cache to make sure it's all clear -- "Yes, sir. We found the device. It's just a tupperware container with junky toys and a soggy notepad inside. The area is secure." :) Come to think of it, I can't remember if I gave them the correct coordinates or not. :D

 

All joking aside, this situation could have been much worse. I was lucky that the cops were pretty cool and were just following their procedure. They could have kept me longer if they really wanted to. It just goes to show that sometimes honesty is the best policy when it comes to geocaching and the police.

Edited by HarmonicaHead
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I just show him my Badge B):)

Nice!! :)

 

I haven't run across any in a while, but I have started a collection of pictures while caching. None of them wanted to be "in" the picture but they were more than happy to take my picture of me and the car with my GPS after explaining WTH I was doing. LOL! The Wheatland cop was a moron, it was during GWVI and he had no idea there was an event that tripled the population of his town?? The Yuba sherriff on the other hand was well aware of GW and was super cool. :)

Here's some of them:

6faf47c6-361a-408b-b25e-53995e9f2d76.jpg

aa5fb374-dbe1-4fd3-8546-838a23ab7453.jpg

af6e0b55-a5ab-4648-8642-61690913640d.jpg

Edited by LostinReno
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I went looking for an urban cache the other day. I was only there for about five minutes, and when I came back there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket.

 

So I went up to him and said, 'Come on buddy, how about giving a guy a break?' He ignored me and continued writing the ticket.

 

So I called him a stupid idiot. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having bald tires!

 

Then I really got angry at him. He finished the second ticket and put it on the car with the first.

 

Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

 

I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner.

 

No, not a true story

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I went looking for an urban cache the other day. I was only there for about five minutes, and when I came back there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket.

 

So I went up to him and said, 'Come on buddy, how about giving a guy a break?' He ignored me and continued writing the ticket.

 

So I called him a stupid idiot. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having bald tires!

 

Then I really got angry at him. He finished the second ticket and put it on the car with the first.

 

Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

 

I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner.

 

No, not a true story

 

Real classy.

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I went looking for an urban cache the other day. I was only there for about five minutes, and when I came back there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket.

 

So I went up to him and said, 'Come on buddy, how about giving a guy a break?' He ignored me and continued writing the ticket.

 

So I called him a stupid idiot. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having bald tires!

 

Then I really got angry at him. He finished the second ticket and put it on the car with the first.

 

Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

 

I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner.

 

"No, not a true story"

 

Real classy.

 

I thought so.

 

Highlight the text in the quote

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I have only been caching for a few weeks, but this was the news paper article that got me interested in the first place. I have since found a few, and I got a buddy into it as well.

 

CARLYN RAY MITCHELL

THE GAZETTE

The Colorado Springs police bomb squad blew up a suspicious package left near the Pikes Peak Community College Rampart Range campus that turned out to be a collection of toys used in geocaching, a GPS hide-and-seek game, where players leave items for others to find.

 

Access to the east side of the campus was blocked for more than two hours after a campus police officer saw a car pulled off to the side of the road about 1,500 yards away from the college and two people carefully handling a rectangular box near a ditch.

 

When the officer approached the car, the people jumped in and took off, said campus police chief Ken Hilte.

 

“There is certainly the potential that this could be something as innocent as a scavenger hunt of sorts,” Hilte said. “In this day and age with what we’re reading in the paper and seeing on the news, you need to exercise caution and due diligence.”

 

Classes continued on schedule, with traffic diverted to the west side of campus, Hilte said.

 

(if you are interested in seeing the article, check here: http://www.gazette.com/articles/range-6294...ge-campus.html)

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Nothing funny or unusual, but it was my first encounter with the police while caching. So, a bit of a milestone.

 

I had parked in front of a small cemetery on a rural road, and was looking for the cache that was hidden in some trees about 200ft behind the cemetery. It was just about midnight. The cache had been published less than half an hour earlier, and I was going for a FTF.

 

When I saw a car spin a U-turn and pull up behind my car my first thought was, "Another FTF hound." Then a spotlight started sweeping the cemetery and I knew it was the police. I stayed still and waited while the officer checked out my car and walked through the cemetery. The brush was pretty thick back where I was, so I knew I was well hidden.

 

I hoped he would leave when he got back in his squad car. Nope. He sat there for a good ten minutes, probably checking me out on his computer, so I decided to head out and say hello. I came out onto the road in front of him with both hands in plain view, waving my flashlight to make sure I didn't surprise him.

 

He came barreling out of his vehicle with both guns blazing. No, I made that part up. Actually he just asked if the car was mine and what was I doing. When I said I was looking for a geocache, he visibly relaxed and said, Oh yeah, I've heard of you guys."

 

It was smooth sailing after that. We chatted a minute or two, he went on his way, and I headed back into the brush. Got my FTF, too. It's funny that he didn't question why I was geocaching behind a cemetery at midnight. I guess he's met a few cachers before and understands that we are just harmless oddities in the world.

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i have only had one run in with the cops, it goes like this: i went looking for "uffda's micro" which really is a great cache, hit it up if you ever get to central MN. I have the find come to the show the sidekick the pictures i took of the great container and then crossed it off my sheet and was getting ready for the next hunt, but here comes a truck passing by and then slams on the breaks whips around and parks right behind me (got me pretty nervous being off the beaten path and all) out jumps a guy in full sherrif's attire (that got my heart racing a bit) so i roll down my window, leans down, looks around (freaking out in my head, what the hell did i get into) he then grins and asks if i found HIS geocache (sigh of releif) we then talk and go our seperate ways. but yeah that was my cop story...have a great day.

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Almot a year ago I did This Is Vermont: Alburgh in the snow in a cemetery and got questioned by the Border Patrol. I guess they had a guy from Massachusetts in custody and he was getting calls on his phone that they had. They wanted to know if I was calling him. I said no and he asked for my phone number. I started to give it to him and he said "No, show me on your phone" so I did and he was satisfied. Never got the chance to explain Geocaching but I did promptly find the cache after he left.

 

Scott

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Always tell the truth. I stop and quiz every cacher I see while on duty, I make them explain it then I say ok "thanks for the cache, singed log, took nothing left nothing" They always do a double take and then realize I cache myself.

You tried to set a log on fire? That'll bring the police your way quite quickly. :P

 

(Yes, I know you made a typo, but I just couldn't resist. Sorry. ;))

 

((Yes, yes, I know this response came three months after the original post, but I only just now found it.))

Edited by DENelson83
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While out on a red eye run in Oak Ridge with Muddtaters. We parked at at a public building right next to a doe building and we were out looking for the cache when I noticed flash lights being pointed on the building windows and doors. I flashed my light a few times to let them know where we were at because I knew it was either the city police or doe trying to find out what was going on. upon talking to the officers and explaining what we were doing he reply was. "geocaching at 3am?" LOL I answered yea and he rolled his eyes and told us to park over in the park parking lot next time and left. :laughing:

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1. Cop pulled over and talked to my wife while we were down the bank, looking for a cache. No worries.

 

2. Sheriff pulled over while were were leaving a cache, to see if we had broken down. we explained geocaching, and had a friend who is a customs officer along. No worries.

 

3. US border guard asked me why I was going to Point Roberts, WA. I told him tourism, rather than long winded geocaching explanation. He asks "What is there to see in Point Roberts?! So I start to explain geocaching, and he smiles and hands me a map :laughing:.

 

All in all, no worries!

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I was out caching along a public path that ran through a neighborhood. Little did I know that a home in the area had been robbed only a few days before. Understandably the residence in the area were scared and paranoid at this point. I showed up to the cache site in the middle of the day with two other cachers and begin to dig around in the bushes and reach into the trees to feel for the cache. Anyone watching this may wonder what the heck I'm doing, but it would be very obvious that rummaging though the bushes is by no means the same as breaking into a house. Well, someone was watching. Shortly after we made the find and began to drive off, two of Boise's finest quickly pulled up behind us. They had a whole plethora of questions for us. This is a moment that is very important as a geocacher; It's easy to forget sometimes that as a geocacher, you're an ambassador for the game/sport. So how you conduct yourself towards others, esp. law enforcement and other powers to be can really have an effect on the caching community in a given area. Anyway, after some questions and a few answers we were free to go. The law enforcement in my are well educated about caching, so it's rarely ever a problem here when it comes to the police. There's even a sheriff's deputy in this area that's a cacher. I have only heard of one cacher hating cop in my area and he patrols one of the neighboring counties.

Edited by Team Idasam
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I was out caching along a public path ...<snip>... I have only heard of one cacher hating cop in my area and he patrols one of the neighboring counties.

 

Any peace officer who even harbors any element of 'hate' for someone who engages in something so small as a scavenger hunt game should not be a peace officer. All it takes is One Overinflated Ego, A Badge, A Gun (this element is the main issue and problem), and Broad Authority, and everything for the unarmed, peaceful, average citizen goes to hell in a handbasket from an overzealous basket case.

 

There are some of these types that you can't talk to, no matter what. I would heartily recommend that if any geocacher gets arrested and taken into custody by one of these nuts, that a lawsuit immediately be filed, and hate crime charges be brought against the officer immediately!

 

Here's hoping that nothing like this ever happens.

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I haven't been at this long enough to have encountered "The Old Bill" but the thread got me thinking. Obviously I will do most of my caching in the UK, and I usually vacation in the USA, where they speak a language that is very close to English :angry:; certainly closer than they speak in some English counties. My travels sometimes take me to parts of Europe where my command of the local tongue is usually just enough to buy a beer. I would like to do some caching on my travels, but what if I get pulled by some foreign cop? Maybe it would be a good idea to printout a stash label in the local language to handover if questioned. :o

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No encounters while caching yet, but did get pulled over today right after leaving a F2F. Apparently I was covering too much latitude in too short a time. The officer was friendly though, I explained that I was excited about the F2F and just missed the speed limit change. He laughed and told me to slow down and let me on my way.

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Just yesterday we were out on The Bradshaw Trail, a 70-mile long 4x4 road through the Southern California desert and we had the opportunity to "chat" with 3 different Border Patrol agents in vehicles along the trail. We had another pull up as we were searching for the last one. He had heard of geocaching but had not found one yet. He aided us in our search but came up empty. After he left, we made the find.

 

After we got home, my wife and I were grabbing a few in our town when a black and white drove by v e r y s l o w l y. I smiled and waved.

 

I think that 5 encounters in a single day are a personal record. :D

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