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Anyone ever find Cremated Ashes?


HarmonicaHead

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A couple weeks ago I found a cache that had the human remains of the owner's mother inside. The cremated ashes were in a tupperware container that read, "Please leave ashes in cache. Mom is not a trade item." I'm still pretty new to geocaching, but I'm wondering is this is a common form of tribute? Has anyone else come across this?

 

The cache description seemed to have a heartfelt and sincere dedication to "mom," but it would be nice to give some kind of clear warning, at least for the sake of people are bringing small children. Some of the log entries were negative. Quite a few people were creeped out or upset by the surprise. Many others were supportive. For me, it wasn't creepy at all, but I thought it seemed like bad taste. I'm wondering if it's even legal to do this with human remains? :D

Edited by HarmonicaHead
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For the most part, the legal requirement for disposal of a human body regarding cremation is just that, cremation.

Deposition or placement of the ashes typically has no legal requirement.

 

EDIT INFO: perhaps "mom" was an avid geocacher. It may be creepy to some, it may seem improper to others or even distasteful, but that may have been "mom's" wishes. 'Tis life (which includes death).

Edited by Gitchee-Gummee
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As a person who rarely gets offended by, well, anything, this wouldn't offend me, but I do think it is in poor taste. Its not well thought out for the sake of future finders either. Through reading the many threads on cemetery caches, we know that there are many people who think honoring of the dead and caching do not have a place in the same sentence, let alone the same location. There are people who aren't ready to explain death to their children as well. I don't know, the more I type, the more I am offending myself. It is in poor taste is all I meant to say.

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If one truly wanted to put cremated remains in a cache, i would suggest the following.

 

Get a LARGE ammo can. I'm not talking about a 50cal but a LARGE one. I have used an ammo can that is about 20 inches tall by 12 by 6 or so. It looks like a 3tall 50 cal.

 

Mix up some concrete and add the ashes in to the concrete mix (or put them in forst before you put the concrete in). Leave enough space at the top of the ammo can for the cache (mine has about as much room as a 50cal can.

 

Hide the cache.

 

Now, for the record, mine does not include human remains to the best of my knowledge but if I were to do a cremated remains cache, that is how I would do it.

 

Also, it's easier to hide a HUGE ammo can than you might think. Mine is hidden about 30 feet off of a trail and the few finders have commented on how well it is hidden. Getting a 100lb oversized concrete filled ammo can to a cache site is the hardest part.

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Later thought entered my cranial cavity just now (there's lots of left over space).........

 

It is just possible that the CO simply WANTS to freak people out. Some are like that, you know.

 

:rolleyes:

I considered that it might be a "shock cache" just because it seemed like such an eccentric thing to do as a tribute to someone. I also thought maybe this was someone who made the whole story up, put fake cremation ashes in a container, and thought it would be funny to see the reactions come in. :)

 

I honestly can't tell if it's fake or not, but it seemed pretty real to me. The backstory is that the mother wanted to be buried in an old cemetery nearby, which he couldn't afford. Therefore, he did the "next best thing" and laid her to rest (in an ammo box geocache) within an adjacent wooded park just a few feet away from the gates. To each his own, I guess. Seems to me, it would have made more sense to spread the ashes somewhere within the cemetery.

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I honestly can't tell if it's fake or not, but it seemed pretty real to me. The backstory is that the mother wanted to be buried in an old cemetery nearby, which he couldn't afford. Therefore, he did the "next best thing" and laid her to rest (in an ammo box geocache) within an adjacent wooded park just a few feet away from the gates. To each his own, I guess. Seems to me, it would have made more sense to spread the ashes somewhere within the cemetery.

So, it was obviously not the mother's wishes for her cremated remains to put in tupperware and added to the hobby of geocaching.

That's just plain sad & disrespectful of the person/her child who has her remains. (IMO)

I can understand not being able to afford her burial, but I agree her ashes could have been scattered in the cemetery she wished to be in.

If this really is the 'true story' it makes me very, very sad.

I'd rather donate some money for her burial than to know her ashes ended up in an ammo can.

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I really do hope it's a joke, and I'm starting to think that, too. Looking at the cache page for a second time, some of the details about asking mom for permission to geocache when you're 50 years old seems very odd. The D&D references and some of the other comments are very random. Also the fact that the owner hasn't had any recorded activity since January when the cache was placed seems somewhat suspicious.

 

If it's not a joke, I certainly hope "Mom" gave permission to be stored in an ammo can. :)

Edited by HarmonicaHead
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I really do hope it's a joke, and I'm starting to think that, too. Looking at the cache page for a second time, some of the details about asking mom for permission to geocache when you're 50 years old seems very odd. The D&D references and some of the other comments are very random. Also the fact that the owner hasn't had any recorded activity since January when the cache was placed seems somewhat suspicious.

 

If it's not a joke, I certainly hope "Mom" gave permission to be stored in an ammo can. :P

 

Yes, the cache description seems to have been written from the perspective of a 50 yr. old live at home with Mom loser who never left the nest. There are D&D references, I'm surprised there are no Star Wars references. :) Perhaps it's a jab at a local Geocacher, and they may even be cool with it, and in on the joke. Most of the long time well established Pittsburgh area Geocachers finding the cache seem to be taking it as a joke. Also the cache owners only find is a nearby micro, and in their find log from last January, they talk about being headed to the Library for story time, and wish Mom could have been there.

 

I'd suspect the ashes are from the backyard grill. Humor is humor I suppose, and I wouldn't be particularly offended. Man, you'd get about 10 pages on this in the Geocaching Topics forum! But I guess this is the right place for the discussion.

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Found the travel bug - TB3E05

 

Lol, funny! :ph34r:

"Uncle Elwyn" is a hoax.

 

From encryption on TB page~

Yes, this is a joke. Uncle Elwyn came from a Barenaked Ladies skit while on concert and be heard on their 1996 release "Rock Spectacle". Yes, I know this is morbid can and not funny. Yes, I know I am a bad bad Geocacher for doing this. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then we went past the point of no return.

But I agree. It is funny! :laughing:

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A couple weeks ago I found a cache that had the human remains of the owner's mother inside. The cremated ashes were in a tupperware container that read, "Please leave ashes in cache. Mom is not a trade item." I'm still pretty new to geocaching, but I'm wondering is this is a common form of tribute? Has anyone else come across this?

 

The cache description seemed to have a heartfelt and sincere dedication to "mom," but it would be nice to give some kind of clear warning, at least for the sake of people are bringing small children. Some of the log entries were negative. Quite a few people were creeped out or upset by the surprise. Many others were supportive. For me, it wasn't creepy at all, but I thought it seemed like bad taste. I'm wondering if it's even legal to do this with human remains? :ph34r:

 

1) You have to store ashes somewhere.

2) If this is how they chose to honor mom, amen.

3) What does small kinds have to do wtih anything? Parents should be up to the task of explaining all things that life will throw at them to the level that the child can understand. If not, it's good practice to get to that poitn.

4) Not sure I'd be confortable with it either, but given #3, I'd manage.

5) No it's not common, but it is common to stash ashes in all kinds of locations that any one of us wouldn't have considered.

6) Never seen it, but the forums have stories about #5.

7) No idea about legal but if the let us create ashes they sort of need to let us store them somewhere. Inside personal property (a cache) seems like one location that would be legit. In a park (in a cache) maybe not.

8) Could be all made up. It's halloween season after all.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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"Uncle Elwyn" is a hoax.

 

From encryption on TB page~

Yes, this is a joke. Uncle Elwyn came from a Barenaked Ladies skit while on concert and be heard on their 1996 release "Rock Spectacle". Yes, I know this is morbid can and not funny. Yes, I know I am a bad bad Geocacher for doing this. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then we went past the point of no return.

But I agree. It is funny! :(

 

I'm a BNL fan, so I got it right off the bat, no hint needed.. Reading the page for it was even funnier! :D

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Well I found one "Aunt Emma", with about a half cup of her ashes in Montana last summer. The owner wrote a very nice "eulogy" about her and I certainly wasn't upset by it. I thought it a nice tribute to a lady who never got a chance to travel in her life. I dropped it in a cache in Wisconsin a little later and judging by the recent logs, it's still moving around that state. Of the numerous logs I checked, very few had any negative comments.

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I was searching for a geocache in a meadow in one of the local parks overlooking a lake near some trees. I was a pretty new geocacher (probably under 100 finds at that point), so when I came to a grey container near where the coordinates were, I assumed that was the cache. Imagine my surprise when there were some ashes in a plastic bag inside. :rolleyes: Apparently that was a favorite vista of someone and the person in charge of their ashes decided to place the ash container there....within about 10 feet of the cache! I warned other people about it in my found log. Strange that they wouldn't have just spread the ashes around instead of just leaving the whole box there.

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