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The Tombstone Tent Has Been Opened


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So, A cache, has a tent near it for the last few years, no one has ever seen the owner of the tent, the cache is still there,undamaged, and just because there is some weed in the tent its now raising attention.

 

get real.

 

How do you know other cache locations aren't near drug locations - just because you don't see it at the time and place doesn't mean it doesn't happen there.

 

The guy living there might of had a real successful job, A nice wife, kids, nice car, they split up, kids is torn between 2 parents, he gets made redundant, can't afford to pay for the house, loses the car, out with friends and his mate offers him a smoke of weed, he enjoys it, forgets all the crap that's going on in his life and one thing leads to another and he ends up living in a tent, smoking weed, on a UNI campus which i'm sure is full of weed.

 

Not exactly the guys fault he lives next to a cache, how would he know that?

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Wow, based on the logs there's been a tent there for over 5 years! I don't know what I'd do. There have been at least three caches in the spot of a historic cemetery in Terre Haute where the graves had been moved out long ago. There was a business nearby that closed down leaving the area pretty isolated. People have lived there, but in that case the area was pretty nasty. There were bags of trash with weird things like Testers model glue left there and large pieces of cardboard that were probably used as beds. Indiana State University has since bought the area and the ISU police ran someone off who was looking for the most recent cache there that ended up being archived before it was found.

 

I don't know why, but this feels different. It doesn't sound like the area's being trashed. It's a tent instead of someone sleeping on trash. It's weed instead of glue sniffers. I still wouldn't feel too comfortable looking for a cache near there.

 

There's a log from 4/19 where a cacher ran into someone who might have been the tent owner: "As i approached the final coordinates and was looking around for the best approach, a guy came to me and said : "Are you one of these GPS guys ? I´ve seen many of them here, but whatever you´re looking for, it´s long gone. Does this thing you´re doing have any kind of feedback system ? Please let them know there´s nothing here !"

 

If that is the tent owner, he sounds pretty with it. Maybe this is his weekend getaway place where he goes to be one with the Earth. The more I think about it, the more I think I may need to set me up a tent somewhere. It will have to be somewhere with electricity so I can have a fridge full of craft beer, though.

Edited by deercreekth
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What's the difference in finding a cache near someone who lives in a tent, to walking down the high street past a loads of homeless people begging.

 

The guy in the tent might be like one of those hippies, who loves trees and rather sleep in a tent, being all eco like rather than living in a house.

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Wow, based on the logs there's been a tent there for over 5 years! I don't know what I'd do. There have been at least three caches in the spot of a historic cemetery in Terre Haute where the graves had been moved out long ago. There was a business nearby that closed down leaving the area pretty isolated. People have lived there, but in that case the area was pretty nasty. There were bags of trash with weird things like Testers model glue left there and large pieces of cardboard that were probably used as beds. Indiana State University has since bought the area and the ISU police ran someone off who was looking for the most recent cache there that ended up being archived before it was found.

 

I don't know why, but this feels different. It doesn't sound like the area's being trashed. It's a tent instead of someone sleeping on trash. It's weed instead of glue sniffers. I still wouldn't feel too comfortable looking for a cache near there.

 

My point is - I would not feel comfortable having a cache in a location where drug use may be on-going or marijuana cultivated. Some people involved with these activities can be most unpleasant, not all, but you don't know who you're dealing with here. Best to give them their space, or if you feel so inclined, alert the proper authorities.

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There's a log from 4/19 where a cacher ran into someone who might have been the tent owner: "As i approached the final coordinates and was looking around for the best approach, a guy came to me and said : "Are you one of these GPS guys ? I´ve seen many of them here, but whatever you´re looking for, it´s long gone. Does this thing you´re doing have any kind of feedback system ? Please let them know there´s nothing here !"

 

Not only is he aware of the cache, but he doesn't want it around, or to have anyone in the area looking for it. If he finds it, he most likely will grab it.

 

If the law considers that to be his home, then I suppose that the cache would require his permission? :ph34r:

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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So, A cache, has a tent near it for the last few years, no one has ever seen the owner of the tent, the cache is still there,undamaged, and just because there is some weed in the tent its now raising attention.

 

get real.

 

How do you know other cache locations aren't near drug locations - just because you don't see it at the time and place doesn't mean it doesn't happen there.

 

The guy living there might of had a real successful job, A nice wife, kids, nice car, they split up, kids is torn between 2 parents, he gets made redundant, can't afford to pay for the house, loses the car, out with friends and his mate offers him a smoke of weed, he enjoys it, forgets all the crap that's going on in his life and one thing leads to another and he ends up living in a tent, smoking weed, on a UNI campus which i'm sure is full of weed.

 

Not exactly the guys fault he lives next to a cache, how would he know that?

Very true. Or, he might have been a child molester that got released from prison and is evading his parole officer.

 

Some other caches probably are near drug locations. But if you don't know about them, you can't report them, right? I fail to see your logic.

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So, A cache, has a tent near it for the last few years, no one has ever seen the owner of the tent, the cache is still there,undamaged, and just because there is some weed in the tent its now raising attention.

 

get real.

 

How do you know other cache locations aren't near drug locations - just because you don't see it at the time and place doesn't mean it doesn't happen there.

 

The guy living there might of had a real successful job, A nice wife, kids, nice car, they split up, kids is torn between 2 parents, he gets made redundant, can't afford to pay for the house, loses the car, out with friends and his mate offers him a smoke of weed, he enjoys it, forgets all the crap that's going on in his life and one thing leads to another and he ends up living in a tent, smoking weed, on a UNI campus which i'm sure is full of weed.

 

Not exactly the guys fault he lives next to a cache, how would he know that?

Very true. Or, he might have been a child molester that got released from prison and is evading his parole officer.

 

Some other caches probably are near drug locations. But if you don't know about them, you can't report them, right? I fail to see your logic.

 

Well if he was a child molester don't they get new ID's and to live in a different area etc once they have paid there sentence? so they wouldn't need to be evading a parole officer. To evade an officer by living in a tent isn't exactly discreet.

 

Just because something might be slightly out of character doesn't mean it should be judged to be something terrible, granted that's hard these days with all what goes off in the world.

 

Indeed you failed to see the logic.

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I'm curious about how much trash the person in the tent has around it.

 

In the forests and parks around Central Coast California these sorts of tent habitations are usually trashy, rat infested and worse. All you need is the person in the tent to feel some geocacher is after their stash and you can have an unpleasant confrontation.

 

Our Pogonip was facing closure as it became tent-city to people who were moving on to stronger drugs. Finally the fences when up around the access points and the dump trucks were moved in and the tents, "furniture", mountains of trash and other unmentionable items were hauled out.

 

I'm a bit surprised the tent doesn't yet have neighbors.

 

Either disable the cache or alert the campus police. Doing nothing is waiting for something else which you may regret more than either action.

Where I live, clearing away a homeless camp would be considered a human rights violation (rightly or wrongly) So no organized effort to remove such would be undertaken.

Tents are a part of the hazards of caching, perhaps someone should suggest to Groundspeak an attribute for them, like we have for ticks and thorns and such... :ph34r:

 

First and foremost - Geocaching is supposed to be family and kid friendly. Do you feel comfortable with the idea of kids being near a known homeless encampment/drug den?

No I don't, but I try to bring my kids to caches with kid friendly attributes. I don't take them to cahces with the "throns" "dangerous animals" etc. That's what the attributes are for. not all caches are meant to be kid friendly

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So, A cache, has a tent near it for the last few years, no one has ever seen the owner of the tent, the cache is still there,undamaged, and just because there is some weed in the tent its now raising attention.

 

get real.

 

How do you know other cache locations aren't near drug locations - just because you don't see it at the time and place doesn't mean it doesn't happen there.

 

The guy living there might of had a real successful job, A nice wife, kids, nice car, they split up, kids is torn between 2 parents, he gets made redundant, can't afford to pay for the house, loses the car, out with friends and his mate offers him a smoke of weed, he enjoys it, forgets all the crap that's going on in his life and one thing leads to another and he ends up living in a tent, smoking weed, on a UNI campus which i'm sure is full of weed.

 

Not exactly the guys fault he lives next to a cache, how would he know that?

Very true. Or, he might have been a child molester that got released from prison and is evading his parole officer.

 

Some other caches probably are near drug locations. But if you don't know about them, you can't report them, right? I fail to see your logic.

 

Well if he was a child molester don't they get new ID's and to live in a different area etc once they have paid there sentence? so they wouldn't need to be evading a parole officer. To evade an officer by living in a tent isn't exactly discreet.

 

Just because something might be slightly out of character doesn't mean it should be judged to be something terrible, granted that's hard these days with all what goes off in the world.

 

Indeed you failed to see the logic.

 

In a perfect world, yes. Child molesters, in most states, at least, are required to be registered. That doesn't mean that they are, or even if they are that they were being tracked. They can be on parole at the same time. My point is that a PollyAnna attitude towards someone living in a tent in the woods may not be the best idea, in reality. Even if you asked them about their background, it doesn't mean that you aren't just getting a well-rehearsed sob story from a con.

 

Don't get me wrong... I fully realize that there are a LOT of homeless people out there for the reasons you state. But there are also a lot that are there because their criminal backgrounds, addictions, or mental problems prevent them from getting or keeping gainful employment. To approach a tent in the woods without considering those possibilities would be foolish.

Edited by knowschad
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Lets see a show of hands of how many cachers engage in less than legal activities when they're out caching or shoot lets even go for adult activities. How many sit down and have a drink of an adult beverage at a cache after a long hike?

 

I would guess there are cachers who also smoke reefer (call me far fetched but it's just an inkling I have).

 

There's at least one who caches nude (which is a sex offense in some areas to be wandering around with nothing covering the bits and pieces).

 

I'm guessing many people have wandered by any number of pieces of drug paraphernalia when out caching especially those that do it in walmart parking lots or behind stores or parks in a city. I would be bet people have also found caches around people doing illicit things in cars, tents, the forest or just plain old shooting up on a bench but you never noticed.

 

For goodness sake this tent has been there for awhile. It smelled like reefer on this occasion... it is not the end of the caching world. The world is not a kid friendly place. Some caches are just not going to be kid friendly either. In fact really if you boil it down many caches are not kid friendly for one reason or another.

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'Disreputable areas'. Hmm... I know the bridge people live under the bridge. (I wonder where they are staying while the bride is being rebuilt?) I was considering hiding a cache in a talus cave, until I saw the bedroll.

Someone called us the most fearless cachers aroung, until we got concerned about the cache mobile in a drug-dealing neighborhood.

Where have we found caches? Crumbling piers on the river. Didn't look like the homeless person had been there in a while. But we didn't want to check under his mattress. And the rats were larger than some dogs we've seen. DNF.

Cche in a stone wall outside an historic site. First two searchers found a butcher knife. Cache was moved.

Cache in stone wall. Six months after we found it, a cacher found a gun. Reported it to the police. Cache was missing.

Two miles in from the nearest road, bushwhacking between caches, found a tarp over a branch. Didn't look like anyone lived there in years.

Similar, but with a 200' climb. Also looked abandoned.

Guess I'm jaded. These places exist. Avoid inetraction with the peope who live there.

Oh! Abandoned rest stop on the highway. With the door locked, the only way into the mens room was a fifteen foot climb up a rock wall. The rope hanging out the window should have warned us. The homeless person was driven out by the drug dealers. Oh, well. It was archived.

Guess I'm a bit jaded.

Wanna seemy picture of a homeless person sleeping in a tree? Or did I post that already. Needed to take a bearing from the tree.

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You all are wrong, and a bunch of hippie fools. The tent was actually erected by kids at the college who were studying environmental science, and the 'weed' is really part of a herb garden that's close by. The man found wandering nearby in April, is really Clint Eastwood, who was using method acting to practice his " I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for you meddling kids" part in a new Scooby Doobie Doo movie that's coming out soon. This conficts with the OP, who was planning to use the tent as a command post for creating a bunch of computer generated series of crop circles, despite being warned by extraterrestrials that he was making them look bad. There are also members of the OTO who wish to confiscate the container quietly, and use it for ritual worship in a secret effort to get Texas to succeed from the Union. Some of the logs on the cache are also really from the FBI who is involved, but only due to an erroneous report that the area was being used as a "dead drop" for corporate spies, who in turn are working for China to steal the herbal garden technology for Walmart. Since you morons don't listen to the Charlie Sheen tweets, you miss out on plenty. Wait till Snookie and the Gay Mafia get involved, then you all will be sorry!!! :mad:

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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Wow, I really missed something the first time I read this thread... I thought the OP's "container" with drugs must be one of those portable meth labs or something, since it required the immediate archival of the cache.

 

Now it turns out that we're talking about a tent that has been there for a number of years, with no harm to either the tent resident, the cache, or any of the cachers.

 

And the deadly drug in question is a harmless weed? Some people really need to chill.

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Lets see a show of hands of how many cachers engage in less than legal activities when they're out caching or shoot lets even go for adult activities. How many sit down and have a drink of an adult beverage at a cache after a long hike?

 

Wow, I really missed something the first time I read this thread... I thought the OP's "container" with drugs must be one of those portable meth labs or something, since it required the immediate archival of the cache.Now it turns out that we're talking about a tent that has been there for a number of years, with no harm to either the tent resident, the cache, or any of the cachers.And the deadly drug in question is a harmless weed? Some people really need to chill.

 

The governments of the United States and the State of Texas beg to differ with the two of you on these points. Slight difference between alcohol and cannabis. Sorry to harsh your buzz, man.

 

Side note, I wonder how y'all would feel about the TB hotel I found outside of Nuremberg, Germany, that was right next to two parked vans. I didn't think anything about them until one of the van's drivers solicited me for sex -- turns out they were both mobile prostitution businesses. If it was my cache, I'd move or archive it, but the owner feels that a short disclaimer is all that's needed: "Don't be surprised if you see a couple of minibuses with waiting women pursuing their 'business' at the parking area."

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The governments of the United States and the State of Texas beg to differ with the two of you on these points. Slight difference between alcohol and cannabis. Sorry to harsh your buzz, man.

I could (or could not, take your pick) care less what those sources say. Been there, done that, wore both t-shirts.

 

Edit: You are apparently referring to the legal ramifications, not the medical aspects.

Edited by knowschad
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Lets see a show of hands of how many cachers engage in less than legal activities when they're out caching or shoot lets even go for adult activities. How many sit down and have a drink of an adult beverage at a cache after a long hike?

 

Wow, I really missed something the first time I read this thread... I thought the OP's "container" with drugs must be one of those portable meth labs or something, since it required the immediate archival of the cache.Now it turns out that we're talking about a tent that has been there for a number of years, with no harm to either the tent resident, the cache, or any of the cachers.And the deadly drug in question is a harmless weed? Some people really need to chill.

 

The governments of the United States and the State of Texas beg to differ with the two of you on these points. Slight difference between alcohol and cannabis. Sorry to harsh your buzz, man.

 

Yes, I understand that marijuana is illegal. Pot is bad, mmmkay...

 

But why does the presence of marijuana in someone's tent, some distance from the cache, make it necessary to archive the cache? Are you going to archive all the caches that are on college campuses? Or in parks that host music festivals?

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I'm curious about how much trash the person in the tent has around it.

 

In the forests and parks around Central Coast California these sorts of tent habitations are usually trashy, rat infested and worse. All you need is the person in the tent to feel some geocacher is after their stash and you can have an unpleasant confrontation.

 

Our Pogonip was facing closure as it became tent-city to people who were moving on to stronger drugs. Finally the fences when up around the access points and the dump trucks were moved in and the tents, "furniture", mountains of trash and other unmentionable items were hauled out.

 

I'm a bit surprised the tent doesn't yet have neighbors.

 

Either disable the cache or alert the campus police. Doing nothing is waiting for something else which you may regret more than either action.

 

From what I've seen, in 3 visits to Tombstone, I have seen no other trash than a t-shirt, a cigarette, and an old portable CD player. I think with all the cachers in the area, there's a lot of CITO going on! :)

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Wow, based on the logs there's been a tent there for over 5 years! I don't know what I'd do. There have been at least three caches in the spot of a historic cemetery in Terre Haute where the graves had been moved out long ago. There was a business nearby that closed down leaving the area pretty isolated. People have lived there, but in that case the area was pretty nasty. There were bags of trash with weird things like Testers model glue left there and large pieces of cardboard that were probably used as beds. Indiana State University has since bought the area and the ISU police ran someone off who was looking for the most recent cache there that ended up being archived before it was found.

 

I don't know why, but this feels different. It doesn't sound like the area's being trashed. It's a tent instead of someone sleeping on trash. It's weed instead of glue sniffers. I still wouldn't feel too comfortable looking for a cache near there.

 

There's a log from 4/19 where a cacher ran into someone who might have been the tent owner: "As i approached the final coordinates and was looking around for the best approach, a guy came to me and said : "Are you one of these GPS guys ? I´ve seen many of them here, but whatever you´re looking for, it´s long gone. Does this thing you´re doing have any kind of feedback system ? Please let them know there´s nothing here !"

 

If that is the tent owner, he sounds pretty with it. Maybe this is his weekend getaway place where he goes to be one with the Earth. The more I think about it, the more I think I may need to set me up a tent somewhere. It will have to be somewhere with electricity so I can have a fridge full of craft beer, though.

 

Thanks for your input on the situation, Deercreekth. I'm wondering what area of Terre Haute you're talking about, but you can tell me that elsewhere. I'm not sure the location of Tombstone would be considered a nice "getaway" location though. It's on the southwest corner of campus, and while it is in a patch of dense brush/woods, it's a relatively small patch. A very busy street is no more than a tenth of a mile away, and the cache itself is only about 15 yards into the woods, which makes the tent about 20 yards in.

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Just e-mailed this to the CO:

 

- - -

 

Hi HackAttack,

 

I'm sure you're aware of the recent log on the Tombstone cache that mentioned the drugs inside the nearby tent near GZ. As a employee (albeit a very short-term employee) of the University of Texas at Arlington, I brought forth a dilemma to the Geocaching Forums, as you can freely read about here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=276762&st=0

 

I also recall that you mentioned wanting to perhaps relocate this cache to a more family/kid friendly location if something were to happen to it again, and I think this might be a good opportunity.

 

I mostly just wanted to make you aware of the ongoing discussion.

 

All the best,

 

BaylorGrad

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I find it interesting that a cacher removed the tent on February 4, 2007, and on April 14, 2007, two months later, it is apparently back in place. Both the old one and the new one are a camo patterned fabric, too. And it has almost certainly been replaced more than twice since 2006... I doubt that a nylon tent that is left up 24/7/365 is going to be worth much even a year later.

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The governments of the United States and the State of Texas beg to differ with the two of you on these points. Slight difference between alcohol and cannabis. Sorry to harsh your buzz, man.

I could (or could not, take your pick) care less what those sources say. Been there, done that, wore both t-shirts.

 

Edit: You are apparently referring to the legal ramifications, not the medical aspects.

 

Dangit, knowschad, I'm a lawyer, not a doctor!

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The governments of the United States and the State of Texas beg to differ with the two of you on these points. Slight difference between alcohol and cannabis. Sorry to harsh your buzz, man.

I could (or could not, take your pick) care less what those sources say. Been there, done that, wore both t-shirts.

 

Edit: You are apparently referring to the legal ramifications, not the medical aspects.

 

Dangit, knowschad, I'm a lawyer, not a doctor!

 

And I'm an aging hippy.

 

Pot does not um... ahhh... hmmm... does not... dangit... forgot what I was gonna say.

Edited by knowschad
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