Run-ins with police, rangers, etc?

[+TreasureFerret]

While reading the comments on some of the cache pages I saw a few where people had met up with police or park rangers who were suspicious of what they were doing. I was wondering how common it is to run into police, rangers, etc? Also, are they usually pretty understanding or are they familiar with what geocaching is? I haven't started geocaching yet (waiting for my gps) but I live in the Washington D.C. area and I know police in the capital area tend to be especially paranoid.

[+Ike 13]

I have had quite a few run ins with security never an actual cop. I once had a ranger point out a No Parking sign and point me to the correct parking (he was a little rude, but I understand and was gracious that he stopped us instead of just writing a ticket). I always tell them exactly what I'm doing. If they seem upset I apologize and let them know I will contact the owner and make sure the cache has permission. If you're honest and direct there will be no issues.

[+WRASTRO]

We have encountered police and security only a handfull of times in 7+ years. We always tell them what we are doing and have only been run off a couple of times. Most recently we went after a LPC and the security guard was on us as soon as we were out of the car. Told him what we were doing. He said leave. We did. The cache was archived by the end of the day due to multiple similar encounters.

[+DanOCan]

I have only had one encounter with any sort of law enforcement in almost 7.5 years, and that was with the Transit Police because a friend and I were looking for a cache in a bunch of trees near the light rail transit line.

 

They were quite understanding once we explained what we were doing and we even asked them if we could borrow their pen to sign the micro. We offered to let them sign as well but they declined -- I think they thought we were nuts.

 

A lot will depend on your area and the types of caches you do. It also depends on you -- I have walked away from or put caches on my Ignore list when I felt the opportunity for a law enforcement run-in was going to be too high. You don't need to find every cache and if the situation is likely to draw attention to you there is nothing wrong with leaving without even looking.

[+Mick-n-Nick]

We've been approached every so often by the common Joe (sometimes just making sure we hadn't broken down.) The only time we were approached by someone 'official' was in a state park and the ranger drove up to us as we got out of the car and very nicely chatted with us for a minute and we told her what we were doing and chatted back. She left seemingly satisfied and we found out later at the ranger station that they were on the look-out for a poacher. That's been it, though. I find that a gps in your hand lends a look of authenticity even to people who are clueless about geocaching.

[+BigAl437]

I have been caching for about 2 years and I had my first run in with a Park Ranger last night. I was taking my son and daughter and one of her friends out to find one cache at the state park. It had gotten late enough that by the time we got everything ready to go a ranger pulled up. He asked what we were doing so I explained it to him. He was really interested. He asked if we were done, and knowing the park closes at dark, I said we were finishing up. He then started asking lots of questions about it and we talked for about 20 minutes. I explained everything from A to Z and then some to him and he wanted to know what site to check out. He did not even realize there were so many caches in the park. He thanked me and then left. I made sure we left to and we went to another area where I know we could do a night cache. My daughters friend really liked going out and may go out again in the daytime with us.

[+jmw61]

I have lunch with one on a pretty regular basis but I've never had one approach me while out hunting. The best approach when it happens is a simple explanation of what you are doing.

[+popokiiti]

Never been approached by the police, but have been by a neighbour who was wondering if our activity was due to a drug drop. We explained geocaching, showed him the printed sheet and map, the travel bug on my car and he seemed OK with it. That was our third attempt at a nano in ivy....we haven't been back!

[twitchii]

I've just started caching in the D.C. area and I can understand what you mean. The first few caching trips I took where I had to go through a the back woods of a neighborhood or a restaurant felt kinda weird. I don't know if it's that a sorta 'social contract' that keeps 'normal' people from not going off the beaten path, but I definitely felt a sorta invisible resistance (let me know if I'm crazy or if anyone else felt this the first few times).

 

In fact the first time I dragged a few friends along they kept saying, 'In a neighborhood? we aren't going in a neighborhood right?' Anyway, don't know if that's just the Northern Virginia suburbs thing or if that's common throughout the states...

 

that's actually one reason i love this sport, it's really nice to explore the world in a way i would never have done in my normal daily life!

Edited April 12, 2011 by twitchii

[+geodarts]

Most of my "run ins" have been with private security or angry property owners who did not appreciate a cache on their land. Those situations are fairly easy to resolve. But there are a number of factors that may make me uncomfortable looking for a particular cache - private property with no indication of permission, yapping dogs, small children in a playground -- and I generally just move on.

 

Law enforcement officers have left me alone. Rangers have signed logs for some of the caches I have on various types of park land.

 

Neighbors have looked at me in a funny way, employees have wondered why people keep approaching a particular spot on store property, various people have stopped ask about what I am doing. But I always explain caching to them and have not had a problem.

[+softballmom19]

I have been caching for a little over a year. I had two run ins with police and one with a angry fisherman. The first run in with the police was because the cache was located near an abandoned building. The neighbor near by noticed more people around and called police about the activity. When I was approached by the police I told them what I was doing. They asked me to check with the cache owner to make sure they had the right to have the cache there. I did that and this owner was good enough to make sure all was ok. The owner even made sure the local police were now aware that that cache was there. The second run in with police was a cache placed on the porch of the police station. Walking back and forth trying to get a reading on the gps had a officer coming out and asking me what I was doing. I explained and then he pointed me in the right direction. The fisherman I had woken up when I came crashing through the underbrush looking for a cache. I never saw a person jump and grab a fishing pole is a defensive move as this guy did. I didn't find that cache until a later date since he pretty much chewed me up and spit me out. Didn't what to even deal with that angry bear.

[+PapaMinion]

We have only had a run-in with the police once in the 9 months we've been doing this. It was actually on our 2nd day of caching. The cache was located in a tree on the property line between an old abandoned (and since demolished) house and a corn field. The road is a dead end so we parked off the road at the barrier and I went for the cache while my wife and kids stayed by the car since it looked a little rough in this area for them. After about 5 minutes of searching I get a phone call from my wife saying that a cop had pulled up behind and was asking what we were doing. I had just found the cache at this point but forgot to grab a pen so I decided to just take it back with me to explain what was happening. After a brief introduction to geocaching and information on the website itself, he wished us luck and left. He did mention that he thinks the cache might be in violation of the terms because the property has been abandoned and is now considered city property and is pretty sure no one asked the town for permission to hide, but he didn't make too much of a ruckus. I had suggested that the department should monitor the site so they can become familiar with the vast amount of geocaches in our town so that if they see someone who looks to be up to no good, they'd be better informed of what's happening. I think that as long as you can explain what it is you're doing and show that you're not being destructive or a nuisance that you shouldn't have too much trouble with the police. The biggest issue is definitely with muggles who think everyone is a terrorist and the last thing we need is a bunch of LPCs being detonated by bomb squads.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Howard_Family

[+briansnat]

I've only had an interaction with the police while geocaching once in 10 years and that was to make sure we weren't planning on walking along the shoulder of the Garden State Parkway (which is illegal). We were in a field about 50 yards from the parkway and he stopped and called us over.

 

I guess its largely a matter of the kinds of caches you hunt. I usually stick to the woods. Someone who does urban and suburban caches is probably more likely to encounter the law.

[+Castle Mischief]

I'm coming up on my 5th year of caching and so far I've only had one encounter with the police and it was very positive.

 

I wouldn't worry about it if you're caching the remaining Virtual caches in DC, as you won't be doing anything stranger than anybody else that's there.

 

As for the outlying areas, jsut remember two things: always be honest if you do encounter a LEO and if you feel uncomfortable about the direction your GPS unit is pointing you, then you can always opt out of the search.

[+A & J Tooling]

2 days ago, I was trying to find a parking spot at a park in the middle of a small town and since it was 86 degrees outside, every possible spot was taken. The third trip around, I picked up a patrol car. I left the area and pulled into a gas station at which point he stopped following me. I'll wait for nasty weather before going after that cache again.

[+Thrak]

I've had maybe 7 or 8 (or 9?) encounters with law enforcement while geocaching. Some know what it is and some don't Only once did the officer run my driver's license and my vehicle plates. He was professional about it and not at all unpleasant. I had explained what I was doing and I wasn't breaking any laws but he had his job to do and I didn't have a problem with him running my info. I've never had a problem when encountering law enforcement. The first time was a surprise - 2 cars, 3 officers, LOTS of lights. I stepped out of my truck laughing with the cache in my hand, showed it to them, and explained what I was doing. They hadn't heard of geocaching but they could see I wasn't doing anything wrong. They asked where I had found it and watched me put it back. The cache was found by a lot of other people after me so the officers obviously didn't disturb it. (At first I wondered why there were so many of them but then realized there's a popular doughnut shop right across the street. )

 

As long as you aren't breaking the law you should be fine if questioned by the police. Private security guards, however, may be a different story. Many rent-a-cops and other "security" people seem to feel the need to demonstrate their authority so you may see some officious behavior from those quarters. On the other hand, I did encounter a local "patrol" guy who was intrigued when I told him what I was doing and he helped me look for the cache.

[sdarken]

I've said a couple of times that one of the most useful things I ever learned from these forums is that if you're stopped by the police, be honest. Tell them what you are doing and you shouldn't have any problems as long as you're not knowingly breaking some kind of law (eg: being in a park after hours for example). If you start to lie to a police officer, you'll most likely just make them suspicious. Private security firms and the like are more difficult as I don't always want to tell them there's a cache in their patrol area (for fear of having the cache removed) though, since geocaches are supposed to be placed with permission, it should be perfectly OK to be honest with them also.

[+StarBrand]

I've had exactly 4 encounters with LEO's in 9+ years and over 1100 finds of Geocaching. Not common at all. # of those 4 were buy pure chance on my part and their part.

[+autigerman]

I'm relatively new and have only had one encounter. It was with a campus security officer. He asked if we had lost something and we said we were geocaching. He said it sounded like fun and talked to us about how good the fishing was in the nearby creek. He then drove off and left us to finish caching.

[+Stargazer22]

We've been caching over 4 years now and have only had one experience where we ran into a ranger while we were caching. We were pulled over on the side of the road looking for the cache. I saw him from some distance away as he slowed down and pulled in behind us. I thought, uh-oh, here we go. He asked us what we were doing, so I explained caching to him. He had never heard of it, but thought it was a pretty humorous thing to do. We hadn't found the cache yet and invited him to help us look for it. He smiled and said he only had one question for us, and that was if we signed the sign-in sheet at the kiosk when we came into the area. I told him we had, and even noted that our purpose for the day was geocaching. He thanked us very nicely for signing, saying that his biggest problem was people using the area for day use but not signing in. He drove away and we found the cache shortly after.

As long as you are truthful about what you are doing, you should have no troubles with police or rangers.

[ajacobs]

I have been caching for about 2 years and I had my first run in with a Park Ranger last night. I was taking my son and daughter and one of her friends out to find one cache at the state park. It had gotten late enough that by the time we got everything ready to go a ranger pulled up. He asked what we were doing so I explained it to him. He was really interested. He asked if we were done, and knowing the park closes at dark, I said we were finishing up. He then started asking lots of questions about it and we talked for about 20 minutes. I explained everything from A to Z and then some to him and he wanted to know what site to check out. He did not even realize there were so many caches in the park. He thanked me and then left. I made sure we left to and we went to another area where I know we could do a night cache. My daughters friend really liked going out and may go out again in the daytime with us.

 

As a Park Ranger myself that sounds like a fantastic interaction. I guess I am surprised at other states where the Rangers are unaware of geocaching. We have a state policy on it.

 

I do think though that this a huge loss of opportunity on the part of the cache placers. They are supposed to be asking permission to place the cache and that is when the have the opportunity to be ambassadors for the caching community. Park staff want people out enjoying their parks in every manor that doesn't damage it. Who knows what would come of it if they had approached them before placing the cache. Heck in my state we started giving classes on it years ago.