Gurnee Illinois area geocachers:I have a cache for you

[gurnee124]

I am a police officer in Gurnee, Illinois. I got a call about suspicious activity on private property at a business in town. Numerous people were reported going to a bush, getting a container, putting things in it, and leaving. I found what looks like a very busy geocache. I took it because it was upsetting my complainants business.

 

I contacted geocache.com customer service and they allegedly sent an email to the person that started it, with instructions to call me at work and get it back. It has been a month now and he/she hasnt called. It has come time to do something with it. If there are any geocachers out there that want to get this cache and start it over, you can call me at 847-599-7124 to make arrangements to get it back. If no one wants it I am going to throw it away. I will check back here in one week from today and will not participate in any discussions about it.

 

Ofc. Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department

[+Markwell]

I would say if they haven't claimed it in a month, pitch it.

[+BrrrMo]

I am a police officer in Gurnee, Illinois. I got a call about suspicious activity on private property at a business in town. Numerous people were reported going to a bush, getting a container, putting things in it, and leaving. I found what looks like a very busy geocache. I took it because it was upsetting my complainants business.

 

I contacted geocache.com customer service and they allegedly sent an email to the person that started it, with instructions to call me at work and get it back. It has been a month now and he/she hasnt called. It has come time to do something with it. If there are any geocachers out there that want to get this cache and start it over, you can call me at 847-599-7124 to make arrangements to get it back. If no one wants it I am going to throw it away. I will check back here in one week from today and will not participate in any discussions about it.

 

Ofc. Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department

 

Sock Puppet? Curious minds want to know.

[+Markwell]

I doubt it's a sock puppet since the offer gave his badge name and number. he's probably trying to contact the owner in the best way possible.

[+Proud Soccer Mom]

I would say if they haven't claimed it in a month, pitch it.

 

Are there travel bugs in it? If so, ANY Gurnee area cacher should at least claim those to keep them in the game, even if the CO doesn't care about his cache.

[gurnee124]

There are three little metal tags that I think you would call travel bugs.

[+GeePa]

I just emailed a cacher in Gurnee that I know to see if he could look into it.

[+GeePa]

Cacher in Gurnee said he sent a PM to gurnee124 to find out more info on what cache it might be.

[+Gurnee Glenn]

Cacher in Gurnee said he sent a PM to gurnee124 to find out more info on what cache it might be.

 

Is it the one at Dilly's and Nation dr. in Gurnee? If so I don't know the owner but would be willing to get the travel bugs back in circulation.

[knowschad]

We have a number of law enforcement personnel around here that are very active geocachers. You've already got an account and a ready-to-go cache (assuming the owner doesn't respond). Have you got any interest in joining our little activity, by any chance?

[+Mosaic55]

I am a police officer in Gurnee, Illinois. I got a call about suspicious activity on private property at a business in town. Numerous people were reported going to a bush, getting a container, putting things in it, and leaving. I found what looks like a very busy geocache. I took it because it was upsetting my complainants business.

 

I contacted geocache.com customer service and they allegedly sent an email to the person that started it, with instructions to call me at work and get it back. It has been a month now and he/she hasnt called. It has come time to do something with it. If there are any geocachers out there that want to get this cache and start it over, you can call me at 847-599-7124 to make arrangements to get it back. If no one wants it I am going to throw it away. I will check back here in one week from today and will not participate in any discussions about it.

 

Ofc. Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department

 

I just want to say Thank You for posting here instead of simply pitching the cache.

[gurnee124]

Gurnee Glen, Yes it is from Dilleys/Nations. Ill keep it in my car. I work Wednesday and Thursday from 6 AM to 6 PM. You can come into the Gurnee Police Department at Washington and O'Plaine anytime during that time and Ill give it to you. Just ask for me.

 

As for joining, thank you for the invitation but no thank you. Just don't put your stuff where it will cause me aggravation.

[Mr.Yuck]

Gurnee Glen, Yes it is from Dilleys/Nations. Ill keep it in my car. I work Wednesday and Thursday from 6 AM to 6 PM. You can come into the Gurnee Police Department at Washington and O'Plaine anytime during that time and Ill give it to you. Just ask for me.

 

As for joining, thank you for the invitation but no thank you. Just don't put your stuff where it will cause me aggravation.

 

Then that would make it this cache I agree, not a good place for a cache, judging from sat. imagery. Appears to be an office complex, rather than retail.

Edited May 18, 2010 by TheWhiteUrkel

[knowschad]

Gurnee Glen, Yes it is from Dilleys/Nations. Ill keep it in my car. I work Wednesday and Thursday from 6 AM to 6 PM. You can come into the Gurnee Police Department at Washington and O'Plaine anytime during that time and Ill give it to you. Just ask for me.

 

As for joining, thank you for the invitation but no thank you. Just don't put your stuff where it will cause me aggravation.

Begging your pardon, but is causing you aggravation against the law? The cache in question was apparently placed without adequate permission, and according to you, was removed for that reason, and that reason alone. But just because you get called out to investigate a cache, that aggrevates you is not sufficient legal grounds for you to remove it, is it? I really appreciate the effort that you've gone through to notify this cache owner that you have his cache... please don't misunderstand me... but I was a bit taken aback by what I read as "don't interrupt my dinner and your cache will be OK". Edited May 18, 2010 by knowschad

[ChefHazmat]

Gurnee Glen, Yes it is from Dilleys/Nations. Ill keep it in my car. I work Wednesday and Thursday from 6 AM to 6 PM. You can come into the Gurnee Police Department at Washington and O'Plaine anytime during that time and Ill give it to you. Just ask for me.

 

As for joining, thank you for the invitation but no thank you. Just don't put your stuff where it will cause me aggravation.

 

Then that would make it this cache I agree, not a good place for a cache, judging from sat. imagery. Appears to be an office complex, rather than retail.

 

yeah after seeing the sat images going to have to agree.

[gurnee124]

Despite my resolve to not get into discussion, I will. YES, as long as your game doesnt interrupt my dinner it will be fine. I dadgum sure have much better things to do than listen to office tenants tell me a ten minute story about drug dealing in their parking lot, picking up a game box that is placed stupidly, write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on, then come in off the road to give it to someone.

 

No good deed goes unpunished. Place your caches carefully, it won't happen this way again.

[drewmm]

I think everyone here respects what you've done a lot. Thank you for taking such good care of someoneone's property. I think all knowschad was trying to say is that if the cache is placed with permission of whoever owns or manages the land, then it's not really ok to move it. Of course, caches should be marked with detailed contact information so that finders can determine if it was, in fact, placed with permission. But that's a different story.

[ChefHazmat]

Despite my resolve to not get into discussion, I will. YES, as long as your game doesnt interrupt my dinner it will be fine. I dadgum sure have much better things to do than listen to office tenants tell me a ten minute story about drug dealing in their parking lot, picking up a game box that is placed stupidly, write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on, then come in off the road to give it to someone.

 

No good deed goes unpunished. Place your caches carefully, it won't happen this way again.

 

If you're mad about a call interpreting your dinner than you got into the wrong line of work.

[+BrrrMo]

Despite my resolve to not get into discussion, I will. YES, as long as your game doesnt interrupt my dinner it will be fine. I dadgum sure have much better things to do than listen to office tenants tell me a ten minute story about drug dealing in their parking lot, picking up a game box that is placed stupidly, write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on, then come in off the road to give it to someone.

 

No good deed goes unpunished. Place your caches carefully, it won't happen this way again.

 

If you're mad about a call interpreting your dinner than you got into the wrong line of work.

 

And I bet there are several out there who I considering him a snob for not joining. Why would he join a snippy group like this? Good job officer. Thanks

[+Gurnee Glenn]

I'm going to pick it up tomorrow and move the TB's. I will try to contact the owner. Time for this topic to fall of the list.

[knowschad]

And I bet there are several out there who I considering him a snob for not joining. Why would he join a snippy group like this? Good job officer. Thanks

I don't see any snippy comments here. If you are referring to mine, I think it was quite polite, respectful and pertinant. I, for one, would never consider anybody a "snob" for not becoming a geocacher, and I seriously doubt that any of us would.

[Mr.Yuck]

I think everyone here respects what you've done a lot. Thank you for taking such good care of someoneone's property. I think all knowschad was trying to say is that if the cache is placed with permission of whoever owns or manages the land, then it's not really ok to move it. Of course, caches should be marked with detailed contact information so that finders can determine if it was, in fact, placed with permission. But that's a different story.

 

Does this sound like a cache that was placed with permission? From the cache page:

 

I have not seen alot of Muggles in this location. During the weekend there is no one around at all. I do recommend nights and weekend, although it seems every tuesday night a guy in a Taxi parks in front of the cache, If you do attempt this one during the day when the surrounding businesses are working please use you stealth ninja skills ;-P.

 

Really, private property in the bushes of an office building? Who thinks we can play this game there? If this cache was published in my area, it would have been on my ignore list within 2 seconds of opening the Google sat view. That's probably just me though.

[drewmm]

I didn't mean to be referring to the specific cache, just other caches that could cause a hassle for police but are placed with permission. Cachers should try to make themselves inconspicuous so that overly-concerned muggles don't get suspicious, but that doesn't mean that legitimate, with-permission caches should be removed.

[knowschad]

I think everyone here respects what you've done a lot. Thank you for taking such good care of someoneone's property. I think all knowschad was trying to say is that if the cache is placed with permission of whoever owns or manages the land, then it's not really ok to move it. Of course, caches should be marked with detailed contact information so that finders can determine if it was, in fact, placed with permission. But that's a different story.

 

Does this sound like a cache that was placed with permission? From the cache page:

 

I have not seen alot of Muggles in this location. During the weekend there is no one around at all. I do recommend nights and weekend, although it seems every tuesday night a guy in a Taxi parks in front of the cache, If you do attempt this one during the day when the surrounding businesses are working please use you stealth ninja skills ;-P.

 

Really, private property in the bushes of an office building? Who thinks we can play this game there? If this cache was published in my area, it would have been on my ignore list within 2 seconds of opening the Google sat view. That's probably just me though.

I think you misread what I and drewmm were saying, WU. Neither of us is defending the cache mentioned by the OP. We were referring to hypothetical "other" caches that the OP might hypothetically get called about. We're saying that just because the law gets called, that it doesn't necessarily mean the cache was placed without permission and should be taken.

[ChefHazmat]

And I bet there are several out there who I considering him a snob for not joining. Why would he join a snippy group like this? Good job officer. Thanks

I don't see any snippy comments here. If you are referring to mine, I think it was quite polite, respectful and pertinant. I, for one, would never consider anybody a "snob" for not becoming a geocacher, and I seriously doubt that any of us would.

 

I agree 100% on that. Don't get me wrong I highly respect all officers, heck I'm going to school to become one. The dinner comment though I guess just rubbed me the wrong way.

[knowschad]

I agree 100% on that. Don't get me wrong I highly respect all officers, heck I'm going to school to become one. The dinner comment though I guess just rubbed me the wrong way.

I made the "dinner comment" because this comment by the OP rubbed me the wrong way: "Just don't put your stuff where it will cause me aggravation."

[+Team Cotati]

I am a police officer in Gurnee, Illinois. I got a call about suspicious activity on private property at a business in town. Numerous people were reported going to a bush, getting a container, putting things in it, and leaving. I found what looks like a very busy geocache. I took it because it was upsetting my complainants business.

 

I contacted geocache.com customer service and they allegedly sent an email to the person that started it, with instructions to call me at work and get it back. It has been a month now and he/she hasnt called. It has come time to do something with it. If there are any geocachers out there that want to get this cache and start it over, you can call me at 847-599-7124 to make arrangements to get it back. If no one wants it I am going to throw it away. I will check back here in one week from today and will not participate in any discussions about it.

 

Ofc. Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department

 

Thank you very much for your efforts.

 

It is however fairly sad that members of law enforcement are becoming increasingly distracted from the more important aspects of their duties.

[ChefHazmat]

I agree 100% on that. Don't get me wrong I highly respect all officers, heck I'm going to school to become one. The dinner comment though I guess just rubbed me the wrong way.

I made the "dinner comment" because this comment by the OP rubbed me the wrong way: "Just don't put your stuff where it will cause me aggravation."

 

Talking about the dinner comment I made.

[+Car54]

Thank you, officer, for the trouble you have taken to avoid throwing away this cache. More importantly, thank you for doing a job that could require a lot more of you than an interrupted dinner!

 

Mrs. Car54

[ChefHazmat]

Thank you, officer, for the trouble you have taken to avoid throwing away this cache. More importantly, thank you for doing a job that could require a lot more of you than an interrupted dinner!

 

Mrs. Car54

 

Ditto

[+thistleRacers]

HERE HERE! I am with Mrs. Car54!

 

Thank you Officer!

[+badlands]

Just adding my thank you Ofc. Olds #124. "Thanks!"

[+power69]

At least he didn't get the bomb squad involved.

[Clan Riffster]

Officer Olds, as a fellow Brother in Blue, (well, green in my case), I know what a PITA suspicious container calls can be. Many of my peers, uneducated about the game of caching, would have pitched that thing in the nearest dumpster once they determined what it was. Thank you for taking the time to reunite the cache with the owner. Be safe out there!

-Sean

[+Gurnee Glenn]

I picked up the container this am and will log the TB's later today and send a note to the cache owner.

 

Thank You gurnee124 for all your help.

[+knabino]

I picked up the container this am and will log the TB's later today and send a note to the cache owner.

 

Thank You gurnee124 for all your help.

 

Thanks Glenn and thanks to the Gurnee Officer. Its nice to know that some in the area are willing to go that extra mile

[RobCache8]

I picked up the container this am and will log the TB's later today and send a note to the cache owner.

 

Thank You gurnee124 for all your help.

 

Thanks Glenn and thanks to the Gurnee Officer. Its nice to know that some in the area are willing to go that extra mile

 

I guess this is my Fault. I apologize to everyone. When the cache was placed I was very new to the game. I was not aware of any issues. I did not receive an email from Geocaching if I did I have misplaced it. I apologize to the officer that had to go out of his way for it and it was labeled with how to get a hold of me. So not sure were that information went to. Gurnee Glenn thank you for picking it up. I am currently in Puerto Rico I should be back late this week.

 

Thanks again.

 

Robcache8

[+EscapeFromFlatland]

If anyone can get a copy of the police log from the local paper for this, I would be much obliged.

I grew up in a small town in Iowa and the police log always provided entertainment to me.

[knowschad]

I very much appreciate that Officer. Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department saved the cache, and took the time and trouble to create an account, post this thread, and make every effort to return the cache to its rightful owner. Please do not get me wrong about that. Very few LEOs involved in a situation like this would have gone through all that trouble.

 

Where I still have a problem is with this statement:

 

YES, as long as your game doesn't interrupt my dinner it will be fine. I dadgum sure have much better things to do than listen to office tenants tell me a ten minute story about drug dealing in their parking lot, picking up a game box that is placed stupidly, write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on, then come in off the road to give it to someone.

The issue in that statement has nothing to do with a geocache. It has everything to do with office tenants that are afraid of something that they don't understand. There was no bomb. There was no drug dealing. There was nothing covert going on here. There was nothing but some adults having fun. This is a ten year-old activity, not something that just popped up last night. It should not be a surprise to any law enforcement agency after that much time. That any law enforcement agency doesn't know about an activity that has been going on in their jurisdiction for ten years should be a shocking revelation to the taxpayers and a terrible embarrassment to the police force that just now learned about it. Let me repeat: TEN YEARS. But most of all, if you find yourself having to "write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on", then please be p'd off at the idiot that called it in as suspicious activity in the first place.

[+cx1]

-snip

 

Where I still have a problem is with this statement:

 

-snip

 

Dude, I'm not really sure what your issue is with this. The officer went way way beyond what most cachers would hope for if a cache is found by anyone outside of geocaching.

 

Instead of simply thanking that man for his time and trouble you insist on making some point based on his use of a single word; "aggravation"

 

So are you trying to say that it is fine if geocaches cause aggravation for other people including law enforcement? Is this the attitude Groundspeak is trying to foster in the non-geocaching community?

[+brslk]

I very much appreciate that Officer. Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department saved the cache, and took the time and trouble to create an account, post this thread, and make every effort to return the cache to its rightful owner. Please do not get me wrong about that. Very few LEOs involved in a situation like this would have gone through all that trouble.

 

Where I still have a problem is with this statement:

 

YES, as long as your game doesn't interrupt my dinner it will be fine. I dadgum sure have much better things to do than listen to office tenants tell me a ten minute story about drug dealing in their parking lot, picking up a game box that is placed stupidly, write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on, then come in off the road to give it to someone.

The issue in that statement has nothing to do with a geocache. It has everything to do with office tenants that are afraid of something that they don't understand. There was no bomb. There was no drug dealing. There was nothing covert going on here. There was nothing but some adults having fun. This is a ten year-old activity, not something that just popped up last night. It should not be a surprise to any law enforcement agency after that much time. That any law enforcement agency doesn't know about an activity that has been going on in their jurisdiction for ten years should be a shocking revelation to the taxpayers and a terrible embarrassment to the police force that just now learned about it. Let me repeat: TEN YEARS. But most of all, if you find yourself having to "write an incident report about the whole mess, spend time on the phone to customer service, cart it around for a month, then join a forum that I have absolutely NO interest in, listen to someone bark about legality on a forum I have NO interest in being on", then please be p'd off at the idiot that called it in as suspicious activity in the first place.

 

While I agree with what you are saying. Maybe you just shouldn't have said it. The officer went out of his way to return the cache.

I highly doubt he will do that again.

Sometimes it's better to just bite your tongue for the greater good of all concerned. (not that I am good at that myself)

[+Chokecherry]

Prior to geocaching and even now if there was something placed in the bushes by a building I worked in that attracted intermittent adult attention in which people seemed to be pulling stuff out of and dropping stuff into a hidden container I would have certainly called the police about suspicious activity. It has nothing to do with understanding a game. The police are not required to understand the game. They are required to act on suspicious activity and I would expect nothing less of them.

 

And if this activity is on private property behind some sort of business I would expect nothing less of them than to remove the piece of offending "garbage" because lets face it our caches are only treasures to us and garbage to general society.

 

He attempted to do a nice thing by investigating the game and returning this instead of simply throwing it away. This whole charade was due to someone placing a cache incredibly poorly and it did take time out of his day in which he probably had bigger issues to deal with than someones little game. I would be aggravated too and request thusly that this game flew under my radar if I was having to clean up the messes that were made due to it. I don't think it's that much for him to ask honestly and I take no issue with how he worded it as I would not have worded it differently.

 

Looking back on it he should have just thrown it out and made no further attempts to rehome that cache and it would have saved him extra grief.

[RobCache8]

Prior to geocaching and even now if there was something placed in the bushes by a building I worked in that attracted intermittent adult attention in which people seemed to be pulling stuff out of and dropping stuff into a hidden container I would have certainly called the police about suspicious activity. It has nothing to do with understanding a game. The police are not required to understand the game. They are required to act on suspicious activity and I would expect nothing less of them.

 

And if this activity is on private property behind some sort of business I would expect nothing less of them than to remove the piece of offending "garbage" because lets face it our caches are only treasures to us and garbage to general society.

 

He attempted to do a nice thing by investigating the game and returning this instead of simply throwing it away. This whole charade was due to someone placing a cache incredibly poorly and it did take time out of his day in which he probably had bigger issues to deal with than someones little game. I would be aggravated too and request thusly that this game flew under my radar if I was having to clean up the messes that were made due to it. I don't think it's that much for him to ask honestly and I take no issue with how he worded it as I would not have worded it differently.

 

Looking back on it he should have just thrown it out and made no further attempts to rehome that cache and it would have saved him extra grief.

 

Well lets put the matter to rest.. If it were anyone knowledge of the game or not some of us would make the call and some of us would check it out because of our curiousity. So the officer went out of his way and I thank him for that. What is done is done and it can not be overturned.

 

I did business with some of the businesses in the two buildings in the area, so I did not think of it as being private just as a great spot for weekend traffic to drop off TBs.

 

I apologize to anyone that is upset. I think it is time to layoff the officer and thank him for going out of his way.

[+wimseyguy]

I think it is time to layoff the officer and thank him for going out of his way.

 

You think he should lose his job over this incident?

Edited May 20, 2010 by wimseyguy

[+DragonsWest]

I see an officer who has done a good deed and a herd of cats discussing whether it was a good thing or they need to cough up a hairball on muggles or the police.

 

Seriously, sounds like a police officer who could become a geocacher with encouragement. I contemplated sending him money to ship the thing out to me if nobody spoke up for it. I'd hate to see someone's cache die and lose trackables in the act because some people observed other people going in and out of bushes.

 

Where I worked we had homeless nesting beside the building and had their trash left when they moved on, sometimes involving needles. What are the occupants of the building to think?

[+GeoGeeBee]

Prior to geocaching and even now if there was something placed in the bushes by a building I worked in that attracted intermittent adult attention in which people seemed to be pulling stuff out of and dropping stuff into a hidden container I would have certainly called the police about suspicious activity.

 

I must be stupid. If I was in the situation you described, I'd go have a look inside the container myself. And yes, I would have done that before I ever heard of geocaching.

 

Then after I knew what was in the container, I could make a reasonable decision on how to proceed. "It's full of drugs and ammo, call the police." Or "It's just some kind of a game, let the rest of the office know it's harmless." Or even, "It's some kind of a stupid game, let's contact the person who left it here and ask them to move it so these idiots won't keep coming back."

[knowschad]

Seriously, sounds like a police officer who could become a geocacher with encouragement.

Not according to his Post #16

 

Where I worked we had homeless nesting beside the building and had their trash left when they moved on, sometimes involving needles. What are the occupants of the building to think?

Did those homeless people drive up (generally in nice, reasonably new cars and SUVs) get out, duck into the woods for a few minutes, then get back in their cars and leave? If I were an occupant of the building, I'd be wondering what all those people were doing. I'd probably try to stop one to ask them. I would not be calling the police.

[+ThePetersTrio]

Police officers often have a thankless job and I think the majority of us posting here wouldn't want to ever add any additional level of stress to them as they go about their busy days. I'd like to thank the officer who posted the thread here for taking the time to handle the issue with professionalism when he very easily could have just dumped the cache in the garbage and thought nothing more of it.

 

That was above and beyond and you have my deepest appreciation for your service officer.

 

I certainly hope you won't let a nit-picker or 2 around here turn you off to geocachers and geocaching from this point forward.

[+DragonsWest]

Seriously, sounds like a police officer who could become a geocacher with encouragement.

Not according to his Post #16

 

Where I worked we had homeless nesting beside the building and had their trash left when they moved on, sometimes involving needles. What are the occupants of the building to think?

Did those homeless people drive up (generally in nice, reasonably new cars and SUVs) get out, duck into the woods for a few minutes, then get back in their cars and leave? If I were an occupant of the building, I'd be wondering what all those people were doing. I'd probably try to stop one to ask them. I would not be calling the police.

Your description sounds like you've never lived in an urban area with drugs and serendipitous rendezvous locations. There are heroin camps in Pogonip, in Santa Cruz, CA, and one cache in Marina, CA, with a tree decorated with condoms.

 

When performing CITO around central coastal California there are generally specific instructions on what to do (or not pick up) when someone finds a needle, condom, rubber gloves or homeless encampments. Such is life.

[knowschad]

Seriously, sounds like a police officer who could become a geocacher with encouragement.

Not according to his Post #16

 

Where I worked we had homeless nesting beside the building and had their trash left when they moved on, sometimes involving needles. What are the occupants of the building to think?

Did those homeless people drive up (generally in nice, reasonably new cars and SUVs) get out, duck into the woods for a few minutes, then get back in their cars and leave? If I were an occupant of the building, I'd be wondering what all those people were doing. I'd probably try to stop one to ask them. I would not be calling the police.

Your description sounds like you've never lived in an urban area with drugs and serendipitous rendezvous locations. There are heroin camps in Pogonip, in Santa Cruz, CA, and one cache in Marina, CA, with a tree decorated with condoms.

 

When performing CITO around central coastal California there are generally specific instructions on what to do (or not pick up) when someone finds a needle, condom, rubber gloves or homeless encampments. Such is life.

 

I wish that everyone that is responding to my posts first re-read these parts of my posts:

 

My original post:

We have a number of law enforcement personnel around here that are very active geocachers. You've already got an account and a ready-to-go cache (assuming the owner doesn't respond). Have you got any interest in joining our little activity, by any chance?

 

To which I (we) received a rather gruff reply that said essentially that as long as we don't bother him, he won't bother us.

 

My next post attempted to address that attitude, but I was not just K/A when I prefaced my resply with:

 

I very much appreciate that Officer Olds #124 Gurnee Police Department saved the cache, and took the time and trouble to create an account, post this thread, and make every effort to return the cache to its rightful owner. Please do not get me wrong about that. Very few LEOs involved in a situation like this would have gone through all that trouble.

 

I sincerely meant that. He did a good thing. But that doesn't excuse an attitude that blames geocachers for what ignorant civilians report as "suspicious activity" and says that as long as we don't annoy him, he won't be removing our caches. Well, I'm sorry, but annoying a LEO is not in itself against the law, and any LEO that gets annoyed by having to do his job is something that concerns me. Doing a good deed does not excuse future bad behavior, no matter who we are talking about. I didn't like that "don't annoy me" attitude, and I speak as a citizen of the United States when I say that, not as a geocacher.