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Hidden drugs in the bush


dorqie

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So I have heard stories of geocachers being accused of searching for hidden drugs by LEO's but chalked them up to strange paranoia.

Surely no druggie would go to the trouble of hiding a container of drugs for another one to pick up.(all the things that could go wrong, fellow tweak is too stoned to find the goods, someone steals the container, drugs get muggled)

I've grown up in some less than desirable areas, and never seen or heard of this actually happening.

Well the other day I was walking down a particularly notorious street, when I saw two men frantically searching a bush.

I *KNEW* there wasn't a cache there.

As I approached I could see them checking notepads, and muttering "I swear he said the container was here! Keep looking! Is it under that bush?"

Aside from the fact that they were covered in track marks, in poor general hygiene and appeared to have not eaten real food in years, they looked exactly like geocachers.

When I got within 8 or so feet of them, they stood up and smiled and tried the whole "stealth" thing.

I couldn't help but smile back at them, although they had no idea why. (Ok, I admit I felt a strange kinship with my fellow seekers :unsure: )

So I know know that on at least one occasion, people have been looking for drugs in a bush.

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no, they were looking for drugs, I'm sure they were not geocaching as they had all their worldy possessions in a shopping cart.

 

As for the police, this area is CRAWLING with blatant prostitutes and drug users. They would have just laughed and said "oh yeah, what else is new?"

Seriously.

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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

I, too, have always been skeptical about so-called "drug drops" for the same reasons that you state. I still don't know why you are now convinced that it was hidden drugs they were looking for, and not booze, food, money, or simply a container.

Edited by knowschad
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I was looking for a cache in a provincial park and the coords seemed to be taking me towards a very large boulder, and there, at the base, was this little hollow space covered in lose rocks. I started moving the rocks aside and sure enough there was a lid, so I pulled out the "cache", only to discover a glass jar with somebodies stash.

 

It was a reasonably popular jogging/dog walking location and I figured that it was just a locals stash, "honey I'm talking the dog for a joint errr walk!"

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I lifted a LP skirt just to show my son where some people hide caches and there were new needles and other drug stuff, just not the drugs. We did call the police as there were vehicles around that were not even trying to be subtle about selling drugs at 7 am Sunday morning. The LP was right next to a large playground in a beautiful park.

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I have found alot of weird things while caching including porn, marital aids, explosives, booze, pot farms, and a huge bag of what appeared to me to be meth. I used a long stick to tear the bag open and empty it on the street. Imagine the tweekers surprise when he came back to get it. Lots of weirdos out there, and they aren't all cachers.

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I have found alot of weird things while caching including porn, marital aids, explosives, booze, pot farms, and a huge bag of what appeared to me to be meth. I used a long stick to tear the bag open and empty it on the street. Imagine the tweekers surprise when he came back to get it. Lots of weirdos out there, and they aren't all cachers.

 

In the meantime the rains washed the meth into our water supply. Thanks for that.

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I hate to point this out, but people been stashing drugs longer than geocaches. When GPS units first became avalable to the public, many in the drug business were using them. I first read about kayackers meeting in the Great Lakes on the US/Canada border. Heck, there are more people like the OP discribes than geocachers and geocachers. That's why I don't like urban caching. I like to play in the woods. :rolleyes:

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I have found alot of weird things while caching including porn, marital aids, explosives, booze, pot farms, and a huge bag of what appeared to me to be meth. I used a long stick to tear the bag open and empty it on the street. Imagine the tweekers surprise when he came back to get it. Lots of weirdos out there, and they aren't all cachers.

 

In the meantime the rains washed the meth into our water supply. Thanks for that.

 

you can't be serious :lol:

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I have found alot of weird things while caching including porn, marital aids, explosives, booze, pot farms, and a huge bag of what appeared to me to be meth. I used a long stick to tear the bag open and empty it on the street. Imagine the tweekers surprise when he came back to get it. Lots of weirdos out there, and they aren't all cachers.

 

In the meantime the rains washed the meth into our water supply. Thanks for that.

Did you wonder why you felt so energetic during that day?

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I have found alot of weird things while caching including porn, marital aids, explosives, booze, pot farms, and a huge bag of what appeared to me to be meth. I used a long stick to tear the bag open and empty it on the street. Imagine the tweekers surprise when he came back to get it. Lots of weirdos out there, and they aren't all cachers.

 

In the meantime the rains washed the meth into our water supply. Thanks for that.

 

you can't be serious :lol:

 

Danged right he is! If timestamp is serious about it being meth, that was very much the wrong way to get rid of it!

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Umm, there was just an article on all the news sites that talked about a criminal taking the police to a 'spot in the swamp' where a cache of stolen items including a Super Bowl or some other kind of ring that was stolen from a local sports figure. Where money is involved, people will do whatever they can to make it.

 

Urban areas are not the only area you could find this. Drug dealers/suppliers have been using the National Forest system for decades to grow their 'crops' because the government owns the land so it's untraceable, there's a ton of it that's fertile and covered in dense forest making it impossible to see through from above.

Just one more thing to keep in mind before you leave the house for that next cache.

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Umm, there was just an article on all the news sites that talked about a criminal taking the police to a 'spot in the swamp' where a cache of stolen items including a Super Bowl or some other kind of ring that was stolen from a local sports figure. Where money is involved, people will do whatever they can to make it.

 

Urban areas are not the only area you could find this. Drug dealers/suppliers have been using the National Forest system for decades to grow their 'crops' because the government owns the land so it's untraceable, there's a ton of it that's fertile and covered in dense forest making it impossible to see through from above.

Just one more thing to keep in mind before you leave the house for that next cache.

wow, that sounds right out of a movie o.O Do you have a link to the article?

 

I've definitely found some "crops" while out caching. Luckily I've never had to explain myself to the "farmers"

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Umm, there was just an article on all the news sites that talked about a criminal taking the police to a 'spot in the swamp' where a cache of stolen items including a Super Bowl or some other kind of ring that was stolen from a local sports figure. Where money is involved, people will do whatever they can to make it.

 

Urban areas are not the only area you could find this. Drug dealers/suppliers have been using the National Forest system for decades to grow their 'crops' because the government owns the land so it's untraceable, there's a ton of it that's fertile and covered in dense forest making it impossible to see through from above.

Just one more thing to keep in mind before you leave the house for that next cache.

That happened a while ago. Someone even started a thread about it here. See http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=274505&st=0&p=4716619&fromsearch=1entry4716619

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Also have in mind that they might be letterboxers. Although its highly unlikely.

I don't know what kind of happy place you come from... really... I know an addict when I see one, I've been around long enough.

Okay, I just thought along the lines of what you described in the OP. You said aside from the fact..(skip ahead :) ) they looked like geocachers.

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Also have in mind that they might be letterboxers. Although its highly unlikely.

I don't know what kind of happy place you come from... really... I know an addict when I see one, I've been around long enough.

Okay, I just thought along the lines of what you described in the OP. You said aside from the fact..(skip ahead :) ) they looked like geocachers.

the part you skipped was imperative

But s'all good, I'm not really as grumpy as I may have one believe. :)

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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

According to the OP's description of what the people were doing, yes.

Link to comment

CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

According to the OP's description of what the people were doing, yes.

Why? Seriously... why? So perhaps, maybe, just possibly, these guys are rummaging around some bush looking maybe, just possibly, for some drugs (not a bottle of booze or food or money or porn, but drugs because they look like addicts) you would feel it important to call the police? Are they attacking you?

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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

According to the OP's description of what the people were doing, yes.

Why? Seriously... why? So perhaps, maybe, just possibly, these guys are rummaging around some bush looking maybe, just possibly, for some drugs (not a bottle of booze or food or money or porn, but drugs because they look like addicts) you would feel it important to call the police? Are they attacking you?

 

That's kindof my feeling as well.

A) What in gods green earth is the dispatcher going to think when I tell them that I'm calling to report some guys looking around in a shrub?

B ) They smiled, they just wanted me to move along so that they could keep searching (a position I've been in a few times under different circumstances) There was no reason for me to be afraid of them, I didn't need protection, nor did anyone else.

C) The cops know what kind of stuff goes on in that neighbourhood. If they had the resources to stop it they would, but they don't. It's no secret there are drug deals and other illegal things for sale ever 5' on that street. Me telling them about it wouldn't change anything.

 

edit: I didn't realize B + ) makes a smiley.

Edited by dorqie
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That's an interesting goods exchange method. For those who sell drugs, and those who buy them, the actual moment of exchange is when they are at the greatest risk from arrest or violence. Much of that risk could be avoided if the dealer took the buyer's money and gave them a location where they could pick up their drugs. With that exchange method, the only real risk is that the buyer doesn't get the product, either due to a bad description, a muggle finding it or a dealer selling in bad faith.

 

But would the buyers go for it? Not sure. :unsure:

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I was looking for a cache in a provincial park and the coords seemed to be taking me towards a very large boulder, and there, at the base, was this little hollow space covered in lose rocks. I started moving the rocks aside and sure enough there was a lid, so I pulled out the "cache", only to discover a glass jar with somebodies stash.

 

It was a reasonably popular jogging/dog walking location and I figured that it was just a locals stash, "honey I'm talking the dog for a joint errr walk!"

 

That happened to us as well, in a forest with really bad gps reception. However, we don't know what it was that we found. Might have been some animal vaccination stored for the next season, some food thrown away and not eaten or drugs, or something completely different. To be honest, it felt like potatoes wrapped in aluminium for a barbecue that were forgotten (though the box was really old and broken. I guess potatoes would have turned into something squishy), so who knows <_<

Edited by terratin
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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

According to the OP's description of what the people were doing, yes.

Why? Seriously... why? So perhaps, maybe, just possibly, these guys are rummaging around some bush looking maybe, just possibly, for some drugs (not a bottle of booze or food or money or porn, but drugs because they look like addicts) you would feel it important to call the police? Are they attacking you?

 

Interesting take on the subject, it's been running through my mind since this topic started. I don't think I would call the cops unless I knew for sure what was going on and I'm chicken enough to not stick around to be noticed by the "shrub seekers"

 

I've been accused of thinking the best of people (yes, I was told it was a fault) My first thought on someone searching in shrubs would be geocache or they dropped something or maybe a little snake someone wanted to look at closer.

 

As I posted above, I did call the cops when we found needles etc under a lamp post, no one was in the immediate area at the time, there was no doubt in our minds what the items were for and it was right next to a playground.

However, now that I think about it, maybe it was for a homeless diabetic.

 

BTW - side note - when I wrote the DNF commenting on drug dealers seen in the parking lot dealing on the early Sunday morning and the items under the lamp post I received a scathing email telling me to change the negative comments or it would be deleted. I did change the wording slightly, but since we had a very small child with us and due to the playground proximity I felt I had to leave the comments - there are no attributes for drug dealers. Never checked to see if he deleted it....

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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

According to the OP's description of what the people were doing, yes.

Why? Seriously... why? So perhaps, maybe, just possibly, these guys are rummaging around some bush looking maybe, just possibly, for some drugs (not a bottle of booze or food or money or porn, but drugs because they look like addicts) you would feel it important to call the police? Are they attacking you?

 

Interesting take on the subject, it's been running through my mind since this topic started. I don't think I would call the cops unless I knew for sure what was going on and I'm chicken enough to not stick around to be noticed by the "shrub seekers"

 

I've been accused of thinking the best of people (yes, I was told it was a fault) My first thought on someone searching in shrubs would be geocache or they dropped something or maybe a little snake someone wanted to look at closer.

 

As I posted above, I did call the cops when we found needles etc under a lamp post, no one was in the immediate area at the time, there was no doubt in our minds what the items were for and it was right next to a playground.

However, now that I think about it, maybe it was for a homeless diabetic.

 

BTW - side note - when I wrote the DNF commenting on drug dealers seen in the parking lot dealing on the early Sunday morning and the items under the lamp post I received a scathing email telling me to change the negative comments or it would be deleted. I did change the wording slightly, but since we had a very small child with us and due to the playground proximity I felt I had to leave the comments - there are no attributes for drug dealers. Never checked to see if he deleted it....

 

The only reason I raised the question is because of the number of times here when police have been called because geocachers "looked suspicious", and the reactions here to those that called the police. Generally, that reaction is considered to be over-reaction, and those that called the police are thought of as paranoid busybodies that lack common sense because of 9/11.

 

Now, suddenly, the shoe is on the other foot. Now, geocachers are seeing somebody they don't know, doing something they don't understand, making assumptions about it, and believing that to be sufficient grounds to call the police. Sounds like a double-standard to me.

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A couple of weeks ago there was an local incident involving a dog eating part of a bundle of marijuana. A couple of people were hiking along a trail that's about 2 miles from where I live and the dog ran off the trail and into the bushes. That night the do got sick, vomited, and became very lethargic. The owners took him to the vet, where it eventually had it's stomach pumped and the contents had a high concentration of THC. It was touch-n-go for awhile but the dog has since recovered completely. The owners went back to the trail and found the bundle of marijuana and turned it into the police. I'm not exactly sure where the incident occurred but it was described as "a trail in Ellis Hollow". I have a cache on a trail in Ellis Hollow and know of a couple of others in the area, so although it wasn't mentioned, it's possible that these "hikers" were actually geocachers. I realize that a large bag full of meth isn't the same as a bundle of marijuana, but in the case of the local incident, it almost killed someones dog.

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A couple of weeks ago there was an local incident involving a dog eating part of a bundle of marijuana. A couple of people were hiking along a trail that's about 2 miles from where I live and the dog ran off the trail and into the bushes. That night the do got sick, vomited, and became very lethargic. The owners took him to the vet, where it eventually had it's stomach pumped and the contents had a high concentration of THC. It was touch-n-go for awhile but the dog has since recovered completely. The owners went back to the trail and found the bundle of marijuana and turned it into the police. I'm not exactly sure where the incident occurred but it was described as "a trail in Ellis Hollow". I have a cache on a trail in Ellis Hollow and know of a couple of others in the area, so although it wasn't mentioned, it's possible that these "hikers" were actually geocachers. I realize that a large bag full of meth isn't the same as a bundle of marijuana, but in the case of the local incident, it almost killed someones dog.

 

Here is a picture of the dog:

dr_bob_jamaican_dog.jpg

Edited by knowschad
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Sounds like a double-standard to me.

I'm thinking that, (at least for this particular sub-topic), the world is divided into those who simply can't survive without Government to tell them where to go and what to do every 5 minutes, and those folks who are able to make decisions on their own, based on their own intellect. The folks in the first group are going to call the cops at the drop of a hat. The folks in the second group are going to call the cops only when they recognise that there is a crisis, and they can't resolve it themselves. Generally speaking, those folks who criticize muggles for calling the cops on us belong to the second group. Folks who call the cops because a transient was poking about in the shrubbery probably belong to the first group.

 

Since the two groups are mostly incompatible, there really is no double standard.

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Each case is different and should be judged on its own merit. If I saw someone looking under the bushes in a park I would probably find a vantage point from which to watch them. Could be funny. "Look Martha! Thet there black cat looks cute with thet white stripe on it's back." But if I saw a couple of scruffy looking characters poking around the shrubbery in front of someones house I would probably question their motives. Or at least I would if my GPS wasn't pointing there. :laughing:

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So I have heard stories of geocachers being accused of searching for hidden drugs by LEO's but chalked them up to strange paranoia.

Surely no druggie would go to the trouble of hiding a container of drugs for another one to pick up.(all the things that could go wrong, fellow tweak is too stoned to find the goods, someone steals the container, drugs get muggled)

I've grown up in some less than desirable areas, and never seen or heard of this actually happening.

Well the other day I was walking down a particularly notorious street, when I saw two men frantically searching a bush.

I *KNEW* there wasn't a cache there.

As I approached I could see them checking notepads, and muttering "I swear he said the container was here! Keep looking! Is it under that bush?"

Aside from the fact that they were covered in track marks, in poor general hygiene and appeared to have not eaten real food in years, they looked exactly like geocachers.

When I got within 8 or so feet of them, they stood up and smiled and tried the whole "stealth" thing.

I couldn't help but smile back at them, although they had no idea why. (Ok, I admit I felt a strange kinship with my fellow seekers :unsure: )

So I know know that on at least one occasion, people have been looking for drugs in a bush.

Did you offer to help them? Maybe they dropped something like a container of non-drug belongings. Maybe they previously found a container of some sort (like a letterbox, unpublished geocache, a dropped something-or-another from a passer-by...) and went back to look/show each other.

 

I think we can all be armchair doctors and see "track marks" and assume we know what is up. Unfortunately, there are many things that it could have been...a rash, prescription IV/injection use, bug bites, a skin condition... To assume the worst of someone, just because they have their belongings on a cart is precisely the stereotype that makes it so hard for homeless to find sincere help or recovery. To look down your nose at someone by assuming the worst like that... I don't know. I'll save my own judgement... :ph34r:

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We were approached by a concerned neighbour as we searched for a nano in ivy. He asked outright if we were at a drug pick up or drop off. We explained geocaching, showed the travel bug on my car, the cache sheet and told him it was quite OK if he wished to call the police, as we had nothing to hide.

Some of the police look extremely suspicious when they are undercover. A colleague's husband was a case in point, and the police car looked a wreck. It wasn't under the hood, that's for sure - I bumped into him when he was working one evening, he looked as if he stank, he was unshaven and his arms had "marks" too. All part of his disguise when he was with the narcotics squad.

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CALL the police! even if they were cachers its better to take precuations...

Isn't that exactly the sort of "paranoid" behavior that we complain about here so often?

 

 

Ive thought about it... Its better to take precautions.

 

So, you, a geocacher, would call the police on someone that you felt "looked suspicious" as they searched around a bush, looking for something. Is that right?

According to the OP's description of what the people were doing, yes.

Why? Seriously... why? So perhaps, maybe, just possibly, these guys are rummaging around some bush looking maybe, just possibly, for some drugs (not a bottle of booze or food or money or porn, but drugs because they look like addicts) you would feel it important to call the police? Are they attacking you?

 

That's kindof my feeling as well.

A) What in gods green earth is the dispatcher going to think when I tell them that I'm calling to report some guys looking around in a shrub?

B ) They smiled, they just wanted me to move along so that they could keep searching (a position I've been in a few times under different circumstances) There was no reason for me to be afraid of them, I didn't need protection, nor did anyone else.

C) The cops know what kind of stuff goes on in that neighbourhood. If they had the resources to stop it they would, but they don't. It's no secret there are drug deals and other illegal things for sale ever 5' on that street. Me telling them about it wouldn't change anything.

 

edit: I didn't realize B + ) makes a smiley.

If the cops bother enough to come and question a geocacher, why wouldn't they question a random person (implying that he/she was a druggie)

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