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We just had our first encounter with the police yesterday and my wife is still a bit shaken up about it.

 

We were out caching on a country road and when we arrived to the GZ there was no shoulder and a car was coming from behind us. So she got out of the car and I drove ahead to where there was a shoulder so I could pull over safely. Instead of passing by, the truck stopped and asked if my wife was 'ok'. I saw the vehicle stopped so I turned around and drove back to my wife. She got back in the car and told me what had happened. At this point I noticed the truck had stopped again and was watching us. I didn't think too much about it and we went and grabbed one more cache and headed home.

 

Then, about 10 miles and another county later, I see police lights flashing in my rear view mirror. Wondering why I was being pulled over, I stopped and rolled down my window. Surprisingly, the police officer was approaching my car slowly and with his hand on his gun. To make a long story short, the driver of the truck had decided that my wife & I were having a fight. He followed me the whole time and called the police.

 

We explained to the first police officer we were geocaching, which he professed to not know what it was. Another officer there did know what it was and after we had been checked out he came up and said that he and his son geocache. Both officers were very polite and very professional but my wife was still unnerved by the whole experience. I suppose I was too, though probably more because of how it affected my wife.

 

Later, on the way home, my wife made the comment that it was good our geocaching injuries weren't more severe. I had banged myself in the eye lifting a plastic pipe and she had bent over and hit her face on a barbed wire fence retrieving a cache. A little bit more klutzy and the situation might have turned out different. ohmy.gif

 

I felt bad that the officers had to respond to what they though was a domestic violence call, which are very dangerous. My wife and I both wish the person in the truck hadn't of done what he done, but...if a loved was in a domestic situation we would certainly want someone to step in and help. So mixed feelings on that one.

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Another one that happened to me the other day. I was going to make an attempt on Ro (Augusta, Ga)

 

February 26 by cdwilliams05

Winding down the day, going down a winding dirt road. Made the find, very creative. As we were walking to the car, DSM Chemical Security approached their gate, and proceeded to explain to me that I was on private property. I explained to him, that I understand that the Property on his side of the fence is Private because those were the first signs/gates on the road to the cache, that mentions private property and these were the first signs explaining that. I explained to him, what we were doing, and he looked like he had no clue. I said, "I can show it to you, but We were done and heading out. I just wanted to let you know what we were doing, since we were close to the fence line, as a courtesy." He looked at me, and said "I'm fine with it, if you are heading out." And off we went. For the most part the guy was nice, I didn't like how he tried intimidating me claiming the access road we were on was private property (NO SIGNS, GATES, or POSTINGS). But it was very nice there, if you like swamps/wetland areas.

 

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I made the mistake of doing some urban caching during Democratic National Convention. Talk about heightened security.

 

We went for a cache along a bike path, several miles north of our downtown area. The bike path we were searching was bordered on one side by a river and a water treatment plant (which you couldn't see because of the trees). On the other side of the bike path, was small gravel area, then a public road, and then some sort of gas processing facility whose buildings were a good 1/2 mile from where we parked.

 

We weren't searching the bike path area for more than 5 minutes before all sorts of security showed up, acting very hostile and telling us that we couldn't be in that area (on a public bicycle path!?) We decided to not push the matter and left, but WOW talk about an intense couple of minutes!

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My brother and I were out on a day long caching run and were about to finish up shortly after dark. We pulled into a drive leading down to a cache called "3 locks". We were searching a gate with appropriatley 3 locks on it when we saw blue lights start flickering behind us. We headed up the drive to meet the officer half way. He simply said "can I help you with something?". We told him we were geocaching and he immediately said "Oh OK, after you find this one there is another one over there". Only after he left and we went back to searching did we notice the sign on the gate...FCC Communications Tower

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Had the following experience not to long ago. We had just finished finding this cache(GC2MPWK) and were waiting for the perfect mixture of 3G coverage and Sat Connections so that we could locate the next cache in our vicinity. I guess we were parked long enough to attract attention on the dead in road right down from a station house. He pulled behind us and sat there. I assume he ran our plates first. We just kept staring at the phone wishing it would hurry up as he walked up to us and asked what we were doing....

 

2 of 14 found today. Quick PnG alots of wildlife for the location. Cell Phone GPS was still giving us issues left us parked there for a while long enough a friendly police officer pulled up to see what we were up to. Told him we were geocaching "I hope its not in the swamp" was his reply we assured him it wasn't and went on our way. I thought I was going to have to explain the game but I guess he got the memo it is right down from a police station. TFTC
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Actually, I learned of geocaching from cops. It seems it's extremely popular here with the police officers, people working at the fire department and even ambulance drivers. Well, I guess if you think about it, how many times would somebody have the cops called on them for looking suspicious for snooping around? Or accidentally going on private property due to a bad coordinate/typo?

Once you explain it to a cop, chances are they'll mention it to another officer. The word can spread from there.

 

So far, most of the cops I've known on patrol have heard of or actually do geocaching.

 

So luckily if you come across a cop that DOESN'T know about geocaching and doesn't understand or believe what you're saying, you can likely ask them to get on the radio and ask if any other officers know what geocaching is and can back you up. Chances are, there will be one that at least knows what it is.

 

Another excuse I use is "bird watching," "bug collecting," or "I thought I saw my cat run up this tree." if I don't want to get into a lengthy conversation about geocaching, ahah. Tends to work best for muggles, I wouldn't push it by telling an officer that in case he wants to still stick you with a trespassing fine for a typo/coordinate failure.

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Several months ago my wife, son, and I were out caching on a sunday morning looking for The Alphabet series letter Q. The cache was at a Quality Foods, and either the hint or the logs suggested it was hidden with/near a Quail. Well on Sunday morning the Quality Foods was cosed but we proceded behind the store to search for the cache in the edge of the woods. As we searched for the cache two City police cars pulled up, one from each direction, and blocked in our vehicle.

 

They got out and wanted to know what we were doing.... this is when the fun began...

 

I start explaining to one of the officers what Geocaching is while the other takes our licenses and runs them. The officer asks what we are looking for, and all I can think to say is, "I don't know. It could be anything from an ammo can..to..a pill bottle..."

Now the officer is on edge and says "so your telling me there could be an ammo can hidden in the woods and you don't know whats in it?!?"

 

After our names came back with no warrents, they let us start looking, then one asked if we were ready to move along to our next search. I stated if they were MAKING us leave we would, but we would continue searching if allowed and the officer pointed to a small quail figurine in a tree! The officer had another call, but asked where we were going to search next so he could meet us there and look also!!!

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I was searching for GCRX6F The Texas County Challenge. So I hopped on a flight from Houston to El Paso, figured i would hit about 12 counties from El Paso to Lubbock. The trip was going great I had done 12 caches in 5 counties and i saw a sign up ahead "ALL TRAFFIC MUST EXIT." i didnt think much about it maybe its just road construction on Interstate 10, so I exited at the appointed exit and found my self at a Border Patrol Check Point. The officer asked to see my drivers licence so I oblighed. Then came the questions.

1) If you are from Houston what brings you to this area?

I am attempting to find a geocache in every county in Texas.

2) Every County?

Yes all 254

3)Well Ive never heard of that, If this is true why are you in a car regestered in California?

Its a rental. I flew to El Paso from Houston and I am traveling to Lubbock.

All this is followed by the most serious and scary statement of the day. "Step out of the vehicle please, put your hands behind your back." "Are these handcuffs to tight?" No Officer, but will this take long? I have a flight to catch in about 8 hours in lubbock?

 

An hour later I was free to go and was givin a verbal appologie and the officer was reprimanded by his superior officer. All in a days travels.

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In Northwestern PA a friend of mine went to the County Welcome Center to place a cache for the PA AGT's. The welcome center approved of the cache 0placement art the welcome center, he then stopped by the police station to let the local LEO's know about the cache so as not to cause any concerns about the added traffic. The chief stated that ANYONE caught geocaching in Vernon Twp. will be jailed for trespassing, and risking a catastrophe. Geocaching in Vernon Twp. (PA) is illegal according to the chief of police. There are several caches in town, most of them in a local park, and available day time only. There is one cache available 24 hours in town, and we are planning an event at that location to see if we can set the worlds record for the most geocachers arrested in a single night at a single event. So, if you like a challenge, go cache in Vernon Twp. PA, see if the chief stands by his words, personally, I look forward to filing charges of false arrest and unlawful detention.

 

Guess this explains why Meadville doesn't have many caches!

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I have this on my dash.

 

geovehicle.jpg

 

 

One of those on the dash and back window might help a lot of those situations when the cop finds an empty car in a strang place. You could even add your cell phone number to it so they could call you directly.

 

 

I absolutely love this! I've saved it and printed off two...will laminate them and definitely keep them handy!!!! My car is pretty noticeable and kinda sticks out, so this will be helpful when folks see it parked somewhere odd. THANKS!

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I am just re-posting a link I posted before; don't know if anyone noticed it.

 

Vehicle placard

 

This will allow you to print out a placard that you can hang on your mirror. I like the idea of the other one that shadowmib posted but I don't know if someone would see it because it is white and you would place it on your dashboard. With this one it's green and you can write your info on it. On one side you would write your personal info (name, phone number) and then laminate it. This way your personal info is on there permanently. On the other side you would write the current GC code that you are on (after the placard is laminated, so you can wipe it off when done). Both are nice ideas to keep in your car when caching just so someone knows why there is an abandoned car.

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I've had 3 run ins with Johnny law during cache adventures. One time I was at the side of the road in Tx waiting on a call back from the owner of the cache. Patrolman actually pulled over to make sure I was ok. Another time in SD a patrol woman stopped to make sure my boys and I were ok. 3rd time I was stopped for making an illegal uturn because I passed the cache location. LOL

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I haven't run across any other cachers while I have been on duty. But the nice thing about looking for caches on duty is that pretty much nobody will bother a marked black and white. I have found plenty of caches late at night, while working a grave shift.

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I haven't run across any other cachers while I have been on duty. But the nice thing about looking for caches on duty is that pretty much nobody will bother a marked black and white. I have found plenty of caches late at night, while working a grave shift.

 

My Geofriend tells a great story. They are in a big parking log near the corner of two streets that are very busy during the day, but they are there at about 2:00am, trying to FTF on a small cache hanging in a dense tree. Here comes the LAPD B&W. After introductions and explanations, One of the officers starts looking with his high powered flashlight, while the other lights it up with patrol car's spotlight. At least they didn't call the air unit in.

 

BTW, I was FTF on a cache yesterday. I recovered the cache and walked back towards my car to open it when I see a LAPD motor unit lighting up a car. They pull over about 200' in front of me. The officer kept looking back at me, but I just continued on with my business, when he started back towards the offender to present them with their citation, I replaced the cache and went along with my business. The next new cache was .5mi ahead. I stopped and was fully prepared to have him pull over and ask what I was doing. When he passed me, he was racing after another offender.

Edited by Don_J
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I was out placing a cache at 2:30 AM, (don't Ask) I was just finishing up My hide when From behind me I heard a Voice "Can I help you?" I replied "No, I am Just finishing up" and I stood up and turned around to see who was talking to me. it was a city police officer. he asked me what I was doing and after explaining to him what geocaching was and showing him my cache, which by the way is one of the funniest caches I placed, GC2B3Y6 I get some great comments on it, he had me fill out some paper work because sombody had called me in and he needed to finish his report he told me to go home. About a week later, I was leaving work and there was a police car sitting next to my car in the parking lot. when I got up to my car the officer from that night got out of his car and walked over to me, then he asked me "will you go out caching with me tonight I just can't seem to figure out this new GPS, I was hoping you could help me?" and he handed me his brand new garmin. we went out that night and what do you know, we were stopped by another city officer cause he said we looked suspicious, lol and now I have been out caching with both of them.

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Found this forum tonight and read through some of the stories. We are new to GC and are just figuring out things. Was trying the GPS on my phone and went to try it on a nearby cache and wouldn't you know it the police went by, turned around and came to check us out. We were honest with him and he said he was just checking to see that we weren't having trouble. I asked him if he knew what GC was and he said he did and then he was on his way.

 

We were afraid of snakes in the dark so we will go back and look tomorrow.

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Found this forum tonight and read through some of the stories. We are new to GC and are just figuring out things. Was trying the GPS on my phone and went to try it on a nearby cache and wouldn't you know it the police went by, turned around and came to check us out. We were honest with him and he said he was just checking to see that we weren't having trouble. I asked him if he knew what GC was and he said he did and then he was on his way.

 

We were afraid of snakes in the dark so we will go back and look tomorrow.

 

Most of the time the Police do know what geocaching is, it is the muggles that call them that are the big problem, Happened to me today, I better work on my ninja skill's :ph34r:

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I said hi to a couple of PCSOs (UK not quite police who are employed by the police mainly for traffic management and crime prevention (they cant arrest anyone but they can require you to stay with them while they radio for a real police officer to come and arrest you) ) while searching under some railings on a bike path for a magnetic micro... They just asked if I was OK, spent a few minutes explaining geocahing and they seemed quite interested.

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I had 2 run-ins this past week with officers.

 

First one was. A cache owner thought some gas meters would make for a good place to plant a cache. But I felt uneasy walking up to it. It took me a few moments to spot what didn't fit in, but as soon as I did, owner of the building popped out on me inquiring about what I was doing. Then called police. I explained to her & officers about it. One of the 2 officers that pulled up knew what geocaching was mentioning similar incident happened at a nearby funeral home, then drove off. The other officer was taking it more seriously going by the book & wrote down information. But I removed cache container from location & posted note for owner to retire that cache.

 

Last night after I finished helping my dad move, I geocached all the way home. Since I don't have much reason or opportunity to go out to IN very often. After hitting a cache in a park, I was sitting in car for moment checking where next nearest cache was. Officer pulled up to inquire about it. Since it looked suspicious being out there near midnight. He hadn't heard of it before so I schooled him on it. We had good few laughs.

 

I'm just mildly disappointed I didn't get a cavity search out of it. thinking.png

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Has something happen tonight I at work that went along with this and made me laugh. I work for at a 911 center so you can figure all the "great" calls we get. Tonight I received a good one. I had a male caller telling me about some suspicious people looking all around a tree with flash lights, "they are doing a drug drop". I knew the area and the cache seeing as I found it about a year ago. I had to put the 911 call but when I hung up with the male I yelled over to the police dispatcher and told her that they were probably GeoCaching and to tell the officer responding. I found this funny and thought I would share. I don't know if they cachers found the cache or not.

 

Have fun and be safe!!!

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I actually thought about creating a geocaching event for this very reason. I thought I'd invite officers from local police departments so we can do a mini seminar type thing that would educate them on the geocaching sport and they could meet and talk to local cachers. The more officers that are informed..the easier it will be on us. It would also help to provide them with a list of geocaches in their patrol area so they don't mistake them for bombs or harass people unneccesarily.

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This morning (7:45am) I went to try placing a cache in a tree next to a sidewalk with tall wood fences on both sides of it. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to place it, so I stood there a minute and decided to just cover it in the tree bowl with leaves. Just before I leave, a woman comes out with her dog from the houses across the fence right by the tree, so I quickly walk away and think nothing of it. A minute later, I make it back to my car and there is an angry man looking right at me and he begins to question me in an assertive tone. I lie and say I went for a walk (bad idea) and then I try to explain geocaching. He assumes since he's never heard of it that i'm lieing and trying to 'hide drugs for kids to find'. Yes, a 21 year old dressed in casual business wear and driving a 2003 impala is just walking around town dropping drugs in trees. He yelled at me, saying, "you've got 2 minutes to get whatever you dropped or else i'm calling the cops!". Being a runner, I easily ran and grabbed it in less than 2 minutes, but of course when I got back, he was already on the phone describing my car to the 911 operator. I show him what it is and he tells me to back off. The cop shows up literally 2 minutes later (not enough time for even an awkward pause). The cop isn't too bad. I try to explain him and he doesn't really get it and searches my car and finds nothing, but calls in a second cop, who stands by me and says nothing. So I say to the second cop, "ever hear of geocaching?" and he replies, "yeah, my son does it in boy scouts". That was a nice sigh of relief and I explain that's exactly what happened here. So the second explains it to the first and I head out on my way. For some reason, I was super freaked out about it. 10 minutes late to work.

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We had our run in with the police while sitting at a Sonic drive-in. We had been out caching during the morning when we stopped for GC2TEFZ. Unknown to us we had drawn attention as this is an approach road to a Wally World location. It is hard to be stealthy on an entrance road guard rail. We left this location and circled the block to the rear of the store. It was another guard rail hide, GC2YH1Q. Ok, that's all we're getting around here so let's grab lunch. We drove a couple of miles up the road to the Sonic drive-in, placed our order and waited for the food to arrive. Our food is finally delivered, we're talking 25 to 30 minutes after the last cache, when a local officer walks up to the truck. "Could I ask you folks some questions?" Sure we say, with a pretty good idea of what was to come. "This vehicle was reported to be placing pipe bombs in the guard rail at Wal-Mart. Was that you?" Oh no we say. There were no bombs and immediately begin telling about Geo Caching. It turns out this officer didn't know about it so we quickly explained, my wife showed him the C:Geo app on her phone and I started dropping names, and badge numbers, of fellow cachers that worked in a nearby police department. He checked our ids and thankfully we were negative 29 (Wants and Warrants). Then my wife drops the bomb back on him, didn't we just see you in the park a few minutes ago? We were caching there as well. As he left we gave him our local cache group card with our contact info and the web address for further research. My hot dog didn't even get cold. The strange thing is, the only way we could have been tracked to our location would have been for the Samaritan that spotted us to have been following the entire time and led po po right to us. We did a quick 360 but no one looked suspicious to us. I guess they need a GPSr in one hand and a pill bottle in the other for us to spot 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. :)

:lostsignal:

I wonder if he became a Geo-nut after that!!!

 

Someone was about to jump out of their car and hike to the top of a snow berm to find my nano (stuck to a stop sign) and juuuust as they reached for the door handle, a copper rolled by. They waited for him to leave before acting suspicious... like they were "up to something"....

 

Wait a minute, stop signs are made of aluminum, magnets won't stick to them.

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I haven't run across any other cachers while I have been on duty. But the nice thing about looking for caches on duty is that pretty much nobody will bother a marked black and white. I have found plenty of caches late at night, while working a grave shift.

 

I am a alarm response mobile security officer and I do the same no one says anything about a marked security car driving around at night great way to pass the long boring night!

 

Glen

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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. :)

:lostsignal:

I wonder if he became a Geo-nut after that!!!

 

Someone was about to jump out of their car and hike to the top of a snow berm to find my nano (stuck to a stop sign) and juuuust as they reached for the door handle, a copper rolled by. They waited for him to leave before acting suspicious... like they were "up to something"....

 

Wait a minute, stop signs are made of aluminum, magnets won't stick to them.

 

The posts are steel, at least in PA

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While out caching with the fam yesterday early evening, I was signing the log on a P&G micro that was on a fence in the middle of some waist high bushes. with my back to the road, I hear a vehicle pull in behind me and my wife call my name; next thing I hear is "You better be looking for the cache and not takin' a whiz." I turn around and it's an FWP officer. I show him the case, he waves and takes off.

 

With all the stories I've read about how a poor location for a cache turns out bad for the finder, I thought I had some 'splaining to do to keep from getting some new silver bracelets.

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I actually thought about creating a geocaching event for this very reason. I thought I'd invite officers from local police departments so we can do a mini seminar type thing that would educate them on the geocaching sport and they could meet and talk to local cachers. The more officers that are informed..the easier it will be on us. It would also help to provide them with a list of geocaches in their patrol area so they don't mistake them for bombs or harass people unneccesarily.

In an event cache nearby, Geocachers brought typical cache containers and the bomb squad brought typical bomb containers. According to attended logs they said that both types were very similar. I guess Its better to take precuation.

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A couple weeks ago I went to do a cache down a bike path and just off in the woods a bit. I decided to do it at night. While signing the log I noticed a flashlight glaring through the woods. I just played cool because at this time I am by myself and have NO idea who it is. Signed the log and walked 1/4 mile down the path. As I went to the jeep he threw his lights on and drove up to me. I took my time getting in the car so he would know I am not in a rush. He asked me if I was working! HUH? 10:00pm at night and my car is parked in the middle of nowhere at the end of an unlit bike trail and the best he can come up with is "are you working" Anyway, I get it. Maybe he was joking. I put on a stupid smile, put my head down and said "I'm geocaching at night" He said, "good enough. Have a good night" and left. I have a feeling I will have more stories soon. This was within my first 10 caches.

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I was geocaching with a friend in the middle of the night on campus for one of my University's "official caches". We were signing the logbook when a University Police officer pulls up and demands to know what we were doing in the bushes at 4AM. [We weren't surprised he was suspicious....who wouldn't be? Those darn college kids.]

 

We calmly explained that we were geocaching. He suddenly got all excited and [practically screamed] "Did you read the pamphlets?!"

 

Another time my geocaching group was on campus hunting down a cache [once again after dark, but not nearly that late] when another officer approached us. Once again, we explain that we are geocaching. [it wasn't an official University cache] He actually helped us look for it! [it was a DNF--turned out to be muggled. :[ ]

 

The campus cops were very awesome, if you can't tell.

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Second night of caching with my friends "We always cache at night just seems more fun." We were in a buisness area and a rent-a-cop rolled up to us next to the buisness sign. Rolled down his window and said look under the rock in the front. It was right underneth it.

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I am just wondering if anyone has thought of contacting their local police department and inviting the chief to an event to they learn what geocaching is all about and he/she can explain it ot the rest of their department?

 

Edit: disregard. I did not get to page four before posting this and seeing someone has done just that.

Edited by GermanyBert
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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.

 

But yes, just fess up tell the truth and you will go about your way.

 

Oh, that's so mean.. but pretty funny!

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I was out placing a cache at 2:30 AM, (don't Ask) I was just finishing up My hide when From behind me I heard a Voice "Can I help you?" I replied "No, I am Just finishing up" and I stood up and turned around to see who was talking to me. it was a city police officer. he asked me what I was doing and after explaining to him what geocaching was and showing him my cache, which by the way is one of the funniest caches I placed, GC2B3Y6 I get some great comments on it, he had me fill out some paper work because sombody had called me in and he needed to finish his report he told me to go home. About a week later, I was leaving work and there was a police car sitting next to my car in the parking lot. when I got up to my car the officer from that night got out of his car and walked over to me, then he asked me "will you go out caching with me tonight I just can't seem to figure out this new GPS, I was hoping you could help me?" and he handed me his brand new garmin. we went out that night and what do you know, we were stopped by another city officer cause he said we looked suspicious, lol and now I have been out caching with both of them.

 

Awesome!

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Fine... since everyone else has a good one, here's mine: I cache in San Antonio, so I went looking for a TB Hotel near Seaworld. I parked in a McDonald's, had lunch, grabbed my GPS, and headed into the woods. We actually, I walked around the woods to the cache. I get the cache, head back to my car. I place my GPS and notepad on my hood and start making notes. Drop this bug, took that one, etc... Next thing I know I have two cop cars behind me, two officers, one asking me if I need anything. Not thinking to turn around, I say no, only to hear the loud speaker tell me to place my hands on the top of my head. I look back, thinking something was going on, on to realize I now have four cars, 7 cops, and a police helicopter flying overhead. I get patted down, asked questions, only to give name, rank, serial number, and date of birth. (military training paid of here) They call their Lt to the scene of the perp, telling him everything in route, as they run a ID's and look for crap in my past. This is where is gets funny.... The Lt gets out of his car, walks over to my truck, looks down at my Oregon 300 and asks "Is the accuracy on the better than the 60cs?" I could only start laughing, which to him meant yes. He turns to all the other officers and states "He is geocaching you s***heads, what the hell is your problem?" He looks at me only to say, "Sorry Tank, rookies and idiots never cease to amaze. Oh, did you find that TB hotel, I cant find it!" Well once all the probes and morons left, he tells me a lady passing by called in a man with a gun, walking out of the woods, with blood on him. I look at my arm, sure enough, I have a 1" cut on my elbow, that was bleeding. As for the gun, I guess an Iphone and GPS sure do make a distinctive feature. Only thing I can think it would shoot is digital information. Oh, on an other note, they did lock down McDonald's while this was happening. Employees are still jittery when I go there to eat.

 

A Gun?? Seriously?? Dear Lord, hope that never happens to me! Think she needs to get her eyes checked.

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I work security at a Dept of Energy site in southeast Washington State. We have quite a few geocaches that are within a half mile of our boundries. We have lots of government buildings we check that area close to our site. I am hoping to find some poor unsuspecting cacher near our site that I can have some fun with. I told this story at our local cachers meeting last night and there were some local cachers that came to their first meeting. They have been caching for quite a while but decided it was time to meet some other locals. They said now they are going to be paranoid that I will sneak up on them and light um up. I thought I had one last week but he was just walking his dog. Funny thing is years ago I asked my wife to bring out a pizza. When she got within a mile of our site I pulled her over. Needless to say I never asked her again!!!

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I have this on my dash.

 

geovehicle.jpg

 

 

One of those on the dash and back window might help a lot of those situations when the cop finds an empty car in a strang place. You could even add your cell phone number to it so they could call you directly.

LMAO at these stories. Since we got hooked on this I quickly concluded that someobody up north must have created this game because down here in Texas, anybody lingering or driving back & forth on country roads may not just be met by Sherriffs or other LOE, but they may be confronted directly by armed land owners (I know I have on my dead end road, scare the crap out of the cable man!!) Anyways, I was just thinking that maybe a DON'T CALL THE LAW, I'M JUST GEOCACHING bumpersticker might work... We haven't been rousted yet, but it's just a matter of time.

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Some funny posts. Being in the LEO field I've run across some fellow cachers looking for geocaches. Most of the time I'll start to question them about what their doing, then let them know I'm a fellow cacher. The most interesting caching story I've got came when we were dispatched to a house that being burglarized. When we arrived we found three juveniles in the act of the crime. After a short foot chase we caught the three and took them into custody. While going through one of the kids pockets, I found a bison tube. Thinking there was weed inside, I was surprised it contained a find log. After grilling the kid. He said he found it at a park and had seen someone take it out of a tree and put it back. After chewing his butt about stealing, I had the privilege of taking him to jail. Hopefully he doesn't muggle any more caches. After doing some research I was able to return the cache to it's owner.

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Mrs. MULLY and I were out a few weeks back looking for a micro near the parking lot of the Tamiya plastic model factory here in Shizuoka, Japan. We were pulled over on the side of the road and I was across the street going over the fence line. Lo and behold I turn around an there are 2 cops sitting in their car watching me. Now, imagine you are a Japanese cop and you see a 6'1 350lb+ biker looking American searching around the fence line of a major company. What do you do? They just smiled and drove away. hahaha!!! I honestly don't know if they were intimidated by me or just didn't give a dadgum about what I was doing. Either way, first run in with the law became nothing........and I didn't find the cache.

MULLY

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I'm actually BRAND NEW to Geocaching and have only a handful of finds. It's funny, I always feel super sketchy and like a suspicious person when I'm looking for a cache. Today, I pulled over on a rural road and was looking for one that was presumably somewhere in a tree. I was there for less than five minutes when a police car pulled up next to my car. I walked over and they asked if everything was ok. I said I was fine, thanks, and they drove off. But it scared me enough to immediately ditch the site! I'm glad I found this thread because I was debating whether or not to tell them about geocaching or just say I thought I saw a kitten or was checking my tires, lol. Fortunately I probably looked more like I needed help than like I was up to something, but it still shook me. Later that day I went to a cache behind a bank and abandoned it pretty quickly because I felt SO sketchy digging around at the back of a bank with security cameras on me.

 

edited: just saw the post above that said it's more dangerous in TX, lol, yep. That's where I was! And the cache was hidden near a barbed wire fence that marked someone's property. Yikes!

Edited by Beccajack
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First, I would like to say to SHADOWMIB...Thank you so much for the sign. Awesome idea.

 

The Just Us League refers to our police encounters as: Imperial Entanglements.

We were on our first night patrol at local hospital when their police person arrived. The gentleman rolled down his window and smiled warmly at us. "What'cha doing?," he asked with some mirth in his voice. Not wanting to really let the cat out of the bag I responded with, "Uhhh treasure hunting sir." He simply nodded and said as he rolled up his window, "Okay, yall have a nice night." We were rather stunned in to silence.

 

Same night as above, we were stopping to get a smiley at a bus stop. Now, as you all know, sometimes bus stops are not always placed in a convenient spot for parking. The team was forced to make a U-turn via the local parking lot behind the bus stop. Having lived in the area ALL MY LIFE, and given the fact that I was concentrating on the smiley, I did not give any real thought as to what the establishment was. And as I am about to pull back out in to traffic, a local police officer whips in front of my car. The team looked at each other in mild confusion. The officer exited his vehicle with a scowl. He brought forth his flashlight as I rolled down my window and shut off the car. He is peering around inside the car as he asks in stern voice, "What are you doing?" I smiled and said, "U-turning so we can make it to the bus stop." He looks at the bus stop.

"Why do you need to get to the bus stop, it's 9:30?," asks the officer.

"Well, we're treasure hunting and there's a hint at the bus stop that we need," I said.

"What?"

"Uhh geocaching; it's like treasure hunting."

The officer's scowl lessened and he put his attention directly on me. "Are you aware that you're on school property? And you're in the shadows which looks suspicious, that gives me every right to detain you and ask questions," he said sternly.

"Uhh well, we were not parking sir, we were U-turning, and it's shadowy cause the lamp is out. We were not going to stay," I said with apology in my tone.

"Alright, well I suggest you no longer drive on school lots at night, and you should stay away from parking lots of businesses that are closed. Otherwise people may think you guys are up to no good," he continues to inform.

"Yes sir."

And he left without so much as another word.

 

We hit one more spot that night and decided not to push our luck any further. We agreed that we did not know if the last three spots may solicit similar responses.

 

-Until next time: Keep searching!

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My run in with the police was really funny. I, (DJM) was caching with EKT which is my girlfriend and my best friend. My friend is a mexican, and the cache was in front of a Greyhound bus stop. It was after hours, when 2 policeman with a prisoner in tow pull up. One of them walks up to me and asks if i had seen a mexican wearing blue jeans. My friend was standing right next to me wearing blue jeans, and i replied to the officer, "No sir I haven't." He said thanks and walked off. My friend hasn't been caching with us since!

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