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Horrible News Article


M-T-P

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Oh, geeze!! You are right... that is a terrible story! But as bad as the reporter was for lack of fact-checking, Officer Anderson takes the cake with some of his claims.

 

"There could be some sicko out there that decides to leave something of nature that could harm you when you open the box. That's a possibility and always is," Steve Anderson, of the Waco Police Department said.
The same goes for your own mailbox.

 

I'm sure there are some people out there that do violate the law. They actually placed the geocaches" on private property and it shouldn't be there. Then it could turn into vandalism and theft," Anderson said.
It isn't violating any law until somebody files trespassing charges, as far as I know.

 

"There's always going to be that criminal element out there that's going to take something that's fun, enjoyable to thousands of people and turn it into bad," Anderson said.
So, somebody that places an LPC is part of "that criminal element"? :)

 

The article ends by stating, "News Channel 25 found two places where geocaches are currently illegally placed." I'd sure like to know what they meant by "illegally placed"!

Edited by knowschad
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I posted a message. It is waiting for the moderater.

 

I guess this "reporter" for lack of a better term is stuck behind a desk and read something about the activity.

 

The above comment about the mailbox is so true, just read about the FLQ in Quebec in the 1970's. Hey wait they didn't even have GPS's back then.

 

Her personal page at the TV Station is Loren Korn. She encourages people to email her at lkorn@kxxv.com.

 

I think that might be a good idea.

Edited by 42at42
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My response to the article:

 

There will be thousands of kids making their way to the beach next month for spring break. While the vast majority of them will be law abiding citizens, a percentage of them will be drinking under age.

 

Millions of drivers make it to their destinations daily without incident. However, some are car-jacked. Some have accidents. Some will die.

 

Millions of people go to the YMCA every day and among other activities, go swimming. Most of those people will survive this activity. Occasionally one drowns and does not come home.

 

What does this have to do with this article?

 

There are a lot of things that people do for recreation that "can" be dangerous and people "can" choose to do things illegal during the course of that activity.

 

Like many other hobbies, geocaching consists of people from a vast assortment of backgrounds. While most of the participants are law abiding, intelligent people who make every effort to make sure they are doing things right, there is a small subset that doesn't always think twice before they act.

 

These same people are just as likely to be driving, swimming, drinking while driving, falling on the sidewalk in the snow, contacting the flu, etc.

 

Life is dangerous. People are unpredictable.

 

However, most of us still choose to leave our house each day rather than cower behind our door afraid of the boogie man.

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Nonsense, or not, I am afraid this could be the wave of the future. In this modern day it is the minority that always rules. If a couple of people are upset about geocaching then that means that everyone must stop geocaching.

 

As drastic as this may sound, I predict that geocaching will eventually be banned in some communities.

 

I'm sure there are some people out there that do violate the law. They actually placed the geocaches on private property and it shouldn't be there. Then it could turn into vandalism and theft," Anderson said.

If I am truly going to vandalize, or steal on private property, I am going to do that regardless if a geocache is there or not. :)

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If you watch the video (located to the right of the article) it touches on the two 'illegal' caches - one in a walmart parking lot, and the other parking lot cache i couldn't identify from the businesses shown.

 

I also posted a comment and called the new station as well to complain about the apparent lack of research done on the article.

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If you watch the video (located to the right of the article) it touches on the two 'illegal' caches - one in a walmart parking lot, and the other parking lot cache i couldn't identify from the businesses shown.

I also posted a comment and called the new station as well to complain about the apparent lack of research done on the article.

What was illegal about the Walmart cache... did Walmart bring trespassing charges? And if so, weren't the TV station personell that found the cache also guilty? According to the LEO, they would be.
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I don't think it was a bad news story, it gets to the point that we as geocachers need to ask permission for every time we place one, nothing wrong with that at all

 

Joe

 

Another example of LPCs placed in parking lots sans permission, and the negative feedback coming from the media, and law enforcement. Does anyone else see the correlation between easy "numbers caches" (placed without permission) and how they are bad for geocaching?

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Well done KXXV. You got your controversial topic, even if you had to make up stuff and take things out of context.

A fine example of half-truths and falsehoods passing for responsible journalism. Deserves a prize.

If you liked that one, you're gonna love this one:http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?s=8082019&

 

Edited to correct link.

Edited by knowschad
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Another example of LPCs placed in parking lots sans permission, and the negative feedback coming from the media, and law enforcement. Does anyone else see the correlation between easy "numbers caches" (placed without permission) and how they are bad for geocaching?
No, I don't see the correlation, and no, that was not another example of LPCs placed in parking lots sans permission. That was another example of terrible journalism and senseless fear-mongering Your ammo boxes up in the mountains are just as succeptable to "some sicko" placing dangerous things in them. Imagine if the Ted Kaczynski had some across an ammo can geocache while wandering around his little cabin in Montana, for example.
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If you have time, please vote this garbage down by giving it 1 star and leaving comments as you desire. So far, they are rejecting all comments, but at least they see our stars.

 

http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?s=11890676

 

I just read 4 pages of interesting comments. Click on the See all comments link near the bottom of the article's page.

Edited by Lone R
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Nonsense, or not, I am afraid this could be the wave of the future. In this modern day it is the minority that always rules. If a couple of people are upset about geocaching then that means that everyone must stop geocaching.

 

As drastic as this may sound, I predict that geocaching will eventually be banned in some communities.

 

There are very positive articles published every day about geocaching and how communities are embracing geocaching to promote family friendly activities. I usually get a handful every week in my inbox via Google News.

 

You just don't see those talked about here.

 

The sky is not falling. There are also positive media reports about caching and they usually outnumber the moronic tripe like the article in the OP.

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Just a thought. how often do cachers go looking for a cache and help out the law enforcement by finding pot plantations, unresponsive homeless people, stolen items, etc....There are plenty of stories on the forum of what people have turned into the local police department. And this is how they repay. Negative light!

 

I don't think that the officer in the article speaks for the majority of LEOs. He's not repaying anybody anything.

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If you have time, please vote this garbage down by giving it 1 star and leaving comments as you desire. So far, they are rejecting all comments, but at least they see our stars.

 

http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?s=11890676

 

After watching the video, the screen ended with a still shot of the cache page, clearly showing the coords. Not good. Does anyone know if the CO has been made aware of this?

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Just a thought. how often do cachers go looking for a cache and help out the law enforcement by finding pot plantations, unresponsive homeless people, stolen items, etc....There are plenty of stories on the forum of what people have turned into the local police department. And this is how they repay. Negative light!

 

I don't think that the officer in the article speaks for the majority of LEOs. He's not repaying anybody anything.

 

Whats a LEO?

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No, I don't see the correlation, and no, that was not another example of LPCs placed in parking lots sans permission.

I'm gonna have to kinda side with Kit on this one. When the officer played the "illegal" card, I'm assuming he was referring to an item being left on someone else's property without permission? Not sure how else he could twist reality to make a cache "illegal" in a location that people were allowed to be in. His stance seemed to be "It doesn't belong there", as if a film can could be charged with trespassing. If the cache had been placed with permission, it would, by definition, belong there. If the officer's complaint had focused on littering instead of trespassing, explicit permission would've trumped that as well. I think that the article is primarily about fear mongering, based upon an utter lack of facts, however Kit's post does have some relevance. In reading these forums, the number of times a privately owned business parking lot cache gets unwanted attention far outweighs the number of times a cache miles deep in the wilderness does.

 

The Kaczynski angle doesn't hold much water, as his devices were built to satisfy a specific need. Had his needs included an ammo can, I'm sure he could've obtained one, considering his ability to travel and acquire all the other items necessary for his silliness. I guess we should all be thankful that Ted was angry at the Government, and not mad at remote woodlands.

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What a marvelous piece of journalism... starting with the headline:

 

"Popular past time can turn dangerous and illegal"

 

Past time? Like in "Geocaching used to be popular, but that was long ago, in past times?"

 

Or maybe they meant "pastime."

 

Sheesh.

 

We have a journalist here who displays basic incompetence in his own field, so why should we expect him to know anything about geocaching, or anything else? The idiot can't even write proper English.

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I can't find it, but wasn't there a thread about somebody potentially hiding a cache just to lure people to their doom just yesterday? I can't help but notice the similarity to the start of this article.
You are thinking of this thread started by Bittsen, which involves a friend of his with an overactive imagination and not much knowledge of geocaching.
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What a marvelous piece of journalism... starting with the headline:

"Popular past time can turn dangerous and illegal"

Past time? Like in "Geocaching used to be popular, but that was long ago, in past times?"

Or maybe they meant "pastime."

Sheesh.

We have a journalist here who displays basic incompetence in his own field, so why should we expect him to know anything about geocaching, or anything else? The idiot can't even write proper English.

Glad you mentioned that. I noticed it, but totally forgot about it after seeing the rest of the mess.
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Just a thought. how often do cachers go looking for a cache and help out the law enforcement by finding pot plantations, unresponsive homeless people, stolen items, etc....There are plenty of stories on the forum of what people have turned into the local police department. And this is how they repay. Negative light!

 

Good news doesn't sell newspapers, magazines, or draw in TV ratings.

 

Bad news does...so they made it up.

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What a marvelous piece of journalism... starting with the headline:

"Popular past time can turn dangerous and illegal"

Past time? Like in "Geocaching used to be popular, but that was long ago, in past times?"

Or maybe they meant "pastime."

Sheesh.

We have a journalist here who displays basic incompetence in his own field, so why should we expect him to know anything about geocaching, or anything else? The idiot can't even write proper English.

Glad you mentioned that. I noticed it, but totally forgot about it after seeing the rest of the mess.

I especially love the part about landing "in behind bars"

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This article has 84 negative votes so far. The 2nd and 3rd place "hot items" contain 5 votes and 4 votes respectively.

 

KXXV has apparently stopped approving new comments again, but please keep those 1-star votes coming. http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?s=11890676

 

If you'd like to email Loren, do so at lkorn@kxxv.com. If you'd like to call the station, do so at 254.754.2525. If you'd like to email the station, do so at ideas@kxxv.com. (All email addresses and phone numbers were obtained on KXXV's public website http://www.kxxv.com.)

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The Kaczynski angle doesn't hold much water,
Obviously, I was only using Kaczynski as a well known example. There have been enough stories of modern "so-called" mountain men, hermits, and so on causing problems in them thar hills to say that a remote ammo can is not immune to the sort of issues the LEO in the story is talking about.
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For a second there, it occurred to me that, as bad as that story is, that the author could possibly have made up the source, Officer Steve Anderson, of the Waco Police Department. I thought, "Steve Anderson", huh? Sure... sounds more plausible than Office John Smith, anyway.

 

... until I googled the name:

 

 

Ofc. Steve Anderson #10

Public Information Officer

721 N. 4th

Waco, TX 76701

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You'll have to forgive me if I put my righteous indignation on the shelf for a bit, but..

 

What exactly in the article is not true? We all know there are risks associated with caching. We all know there are caches placed on private property without permission. Sure the "behind bars" and "criminal element" seem to used for hyperbole, but I don't see anything that is blatantly false.

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You'll have to forgive me if I put my righteous indignation on the shelf for a bit, but..

What exactly in the article is not true? We all know there are risks associated with caching. We all know there are caches placed on private property without permission. Sure the "behind bars" and "criminal element" seem to used for hyperbole, but I don't see anything that is blatantly false.

Its all hyperbole.

 

1) Just driving to the cache is much more of a risk than opening one.

 

2) Finding a cache that was placed on private property without permission is not a crime. It could become one if the property owner chose to press charges, and even then only if a judge upheld the conviction. And what was that part about "vandalism"?

 

3) "There could be some sicko out there"... SICKO? This is from the police Information Officer? "Sicko"? No fear mongering hyperbole going on there, nope.

 

 

"There's always going to be that criminal element fear monger out there that's going to take something that's fun, enjoyable to thousands of people and turn it into bad," Anderson said.

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2) Finding a cache that was placed on private property without permission is not a crime. It could become one if the property owner chose to press charges, and even then only if a judge upheld the conviction. And what was that part about "vandalism"?

 

That's sort of like saying "robbing a bank is only a crime if I get caught". :) (My turn to use hyperbole!)

 

And, I know of a local cache that was a micro on a Wal-Mart sign. Cache was placed with permission (for a change!) but so many cachers searching around the sign damaged the post cover and the manager requested that the cache be removed. Again, "vandalism" is a bit extreme, but there is the fact that in some cases cachers cause damage.

 

I didn't say the article was fair and balanced, I'm just saying that if you ignore the hyperbole everything in it is true to some extent.

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You'll have to forgive me if I put my righteous indignation on the shelf for a bit, but..

 

What exactly in the article is not true? We all know there are risks associated with caching. We all know there are caches placed on private property without permission. Sure the "behind bars" and "criminal element" seem to used for hyperbole, but I don't see anything that is blatantly false.

 

...the grammar?

 

Blatantly false? Maybe not. Blown out of proportion and speculative? Absolutely.

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That's sort of like saying "robbing a bank is only a crime if I get caught". :) (My turn to use hyperbole!)

When the neighbor kid cuts across the corner of your yard, is he breaking the law? If a salesman rings your doorbell, is he breaking the law? He is, if you tell him to leave and not come back. Edited by knowschad
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