How do you show stealth?

[+firestronaut]

So, I was wondering how everyone else shows stealth when it's required?

 

I normally cache with the little one, so it's fairly easy for me to use the "are you sure you dropped it here?" line when a muggle walks past and looks at me funny. If I'm alone, I normally route around in my rucksack with one hand and feel around for the cache with the other.

 

What methods do you adopt when you have to conceal your actions?

[+StarBrand]

I advise you to not try and be stealthy. That just attracts more undue attention. Instead be bold. Be proud of what you are doing - act as though you are doing nothing wrong (mostly because you aren't!!). Act as though it is your job to find that cache, a job you are very good at and proud to do. Find it. Sign it. Put it back and move on. Carry a clipboard and look professional - you'll blend into the background.

[+the4dirtydogs]

I use an invisible cloak that I bought at ACME products. Oh I almost forgot that I have a stealth badge that I show everyone before I put on my cloak.

 

I don't even bother with the stealthiness anymore. You bring more attention when you try to act stealthy. This has been brought a bunch of times in these forums. If you do a forum search I'm sure you'll find plenty of threads you can bring back from the dead.

[+firestronaut]

Sorry!

 

I live in an area with lots of jobless hooligans who pride themselves on how much damage and chaos they can cause, if I suddenly produced a tupperware box from under a tree stump, you can bet it would be gone 10 minutes later

[GOF and Bacall]

I use discretion, it works better than stealth. If there are folks around who I think shouldn't know about the cache I don't search for it myself. I return at a better time.

 

Let me add that most caches that have "use stealth" in the description probably aren't the type I'd even bother with in the first place. They probably shouldn't be there.

Edited April 16, 2012 by GOF and Bacall

[+Walts Hunting]

This whole stealth thing is passé.

[+Cardinal Red]

Sorry!

 

I live in an area with lots of jobless hooligans who pride themselves on how much damage and chaos they can cause, if I suddenly produced a tupperware box from under a tree stump, you can bet it would be gone 10 minutes later

Then the hider picked a bad location. Try to find a time when you don't think you are being observed. Do any of the find logs suggest a best time to attempt the find?

 

If someone is just hanging around GZ, I try to wait them out. If they don't eventually leave, I leave without the find. I sometimes abort a search because muggle conditions suddenly changed. I do the best I can. But, just because a hider cautioned to use stealth, that does NOT make it my fault if the cache eventually goes missing. I bristle every time I read an ARCHIVE log and the cache owner is blaming lack of stealth by someone.

[+captnemo]

I once went for a cache that turned up next to a camp of 50+ campers out in the desert! So I located the cache got out my rock hammer and walked around picking up rocks, hitting them with the hammer dropping them until nobody was paying any attention to me then got the cache, went back to the car signed the log, made the trade then went back to the hammer and rock routine until I was back at ground zero. Replaced the cache and left.

 

This cache was muggled several weeks latter after a couple of more finds, so it was not a good location.

 

edited to correct spelling

Edited April 16, 2012 by captnemo

[+DragonsWest]

First: I slink up to where I think the cache is and look at my GPSr.

 

Second: I'd slouch over and furtively look from side to side, up and down, all around.

 

Third: If I did see anyone looking at me I'd stand up straight, roll my eyes upward and whistle a catchy tune, to throw them off the trail (Recommended: Pop Goes The Weasel)

 

Forth: If I had a mustache I'd twirl it, while grinning fiendishly.

 

Fifth: Find cache, throw back head and cackle with insane glee.

 

Sixth: Sign log, trade, drop off/pick up trackables. Peform iterations of Steps Second and Third as necessary.

 

Seventh: Rehide cache. Peform Step Forth again, if at all possible.

 

Eighth: Slink off to the next cache location.

[+Chokecherry]

I usually stand back for a second and look at where the GPS indicates the cache. I then usually give it a quick thought and then I walk right up to it and grab it. No fake phones. No shoe tying. No posing as someone I'm not. If it's not right there I look for it. No shifty looks side to side. Just act like I'm supposed to be right there doing what I'm doing.

 

Reality is people are so absorbed in their own personal lives that they don't give a rip what you're doing because unless you are acting like you shouldn't be there they won't even notice you. Shoot sometimes I make eye contact and throw in a hello. Nothing drives away people faster than someone being social.

[+DragonsWest]

Depends upon your neck of the woods. Some people scowl, glare and watch you like a hawk. Others could care less what you are doing. And people fall anywhere in between. Most often if there are people lingering around GZ I move on and plan to come back. In worst case scenarios I've been stalked by the "We Have All The Time In The World To Watch Other People Club" and at worst I sieze the initiative and ask, "Can I help you with something?" Being the first to offer to be of assisstance often catch them completely off guard and the flee in panic and confusion (because aside askin Me that they really had no plan!) -- when this actually works, if I had a mustache, I'd twirl it.

[+oxford comma]

I think one might learn some good stealth techniques from The Ministry of Silly Walks .

[+wimseyguy]

First thing I do is crank up the "Need Stealth" playlist on my Ipod.

1. The Pink Panther Theme Song.

2. Peter Gunn Theme Song.

3. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

4. Hand that Feeds by Nine Inch Nails

 

If I haven't found it by then it's time to leave.

[AZcachemeister]

I don't 'conceal my actions'. I don't do 'stealth'.

 

I will attempt to wait until nobody is looking, but if such an opportunity doesn't present itself within a couple of minutes I walk boldly up to the cache location like I am performing a necessary task, pull it out, sign in, and put it back.

[4wheelin_fool]

I let them see me searching, but retrieving and rehiding the container is done without the eyeballs watching .

[+Straight-Cache-Homey]

Went looking for one over the weekend. It was a magnetic key holder on an electrical box on a little concession stand near a soccer field. Within the amount of time it took just to get to the location (not much time at all), a nearby coach gave us a MAJOR stink eye as we walked around the building. Just walked on by back to the car. He actually walked over to the parking lot and watched us drive away. No idea what that was about but I wasn't hanging around for it!

[+harbhippo]

Best stealth tool is a group of kids. Nobody thinks anything of a bunch of kids fooling around with a lamppost skirt, or digging around in a tree stump.

A clipboard would be the next best prop. It allows you to carry a pen, and allows you to examine anything you want to and still look like you belong.

If you can't afford to rent a group of little kids or a clipboard, you can explain that you're a botanist, and you finally found this rare cacherium geos - see? You can tell by the serrated edges and the striated veins. I actually did that once, and it worked, except that the cache was gone, because it had been placed next to a soccer practice field.

 

Seriously, when I see the words "stealth required," I don't even bother selecting it in my GPSer unless I need it for a new county. I'd rather look for a nano in a pile of rocks. There's enough of a muggle factor already without placing a cache where you know people are going to always be.

Edited April 17, 2012 by harbhippo

[+DragonsWest]

I let them see me searching, but retrieving and rehiding the container is done without the eyeballs watching .

 

Which is all very well and good, until someone volunteers to help you search.

 

"What are you looking for? Is it this box with the 'GEOCACHE' label on it??

[+ras_oscar]

I had one i did a couple weeks ago on a guard rail near a parking lot. Got out, searched for 10 minutes, made the find, then looked up straight at an old guy sitting in his pickup truck smoking a cigar. I never noticed him, and he never said boo to him. He'd have to have been blind not to notice me.

[+6NoisyHikers]

I have a big collection of work keys that hangs from my hip no matter where I go. Nobody questions what I am doing because keys make me official. (I can't get through a store without somebody asking me which aisle something is in - even though I don't have a red vest or a name tag!)

 

If I need "stealth" to find a cache, I go at night instead.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Best stealth tool is a group of kids. Nobody thinks anything of a bunch of kids fooling around with a lamppost skirt, or digging around in a tree stump.

A clipboard would be the next best prop. It allows you to carry a pen, and allows you to examine anything you want to and still look like you belong.

If you can't afford to rent a group of little kids or a clipboard, you can explain that you're a botanist, and you finally found this rare cacherium geos - see? You can tell by the serrated edges and the striated veins.

 

I couple of years ago I was searching for a cache just off a trail in the woods and saw a couple of people heading down the trail in my direction. I had a small note pad with me so I started "examining" a few plants, then writing down notes in the node pad. They said hello as they passed by but didn't stop. Apparently I looked like I was busy doing "something" (since the trail in near the university perhaps I was doing some "research") and didn't bother to interrupt.

[+Planet]

I avoid stealth situations mostly by caching way far away from urban areas. I dislike urban caching.

But one day, people walked up the trail while I had the ammo can in my lap, so I asked my caching buddy if he wanted peanut butter and jelly or ham and cheese. We were already sitting on the ground. It all depends on the situation.

Many times stealth means "I don't have permission for this cache, so don't let the property owner see you".

[+Mr.Benchmark]

Is it just me, or is the choice of words here kind of odd - seems like "showing stealth" is the opposite of what you want to do? It's like "look at me! I'm invisible!!!" (Don't mean to pick on you firestronaut!)

 

Then again, not showing stealh sounds wrong too. Maybe if you said "How do I achieve stealthiness." Nah, nevermind, I think that's even worse. Quick, someone ask a ninja how they talk about this in ninja-school...

 

Sorry, I'm horrible at being stealthy, so I have no really useful advice to offer.

 

[Martin&Carolyn]

On Sunday we saw a guy with GPS wandering around the site of a cache we just discovered

I asked him if he was looking for the cache

Foolishly he said: "No, what's that?"

So I said: "Why then the GPS, are you lost?"

We had a good laugh and showed him the cache

Only met nice people doing this

[+harbhippo]

Many times stealth means "I don't have permission for this cache, so don't let the property owner see you".

Oooooh. hadn't even thought of that.

[+firestronaut]

Is it just me, or is the choice of words here kind of odd - seems like "showing stealth" is the opposite of what you want to do? It's like "look at me! I'm invisible!!!" (Don't mean to pick on you firestronaut!)

 

Then again, not showing stealh sounds wrong too. Maybe if you said "How do I achieve stealthiness." Nah, nevermind, I think that's even worse. Quick, someone ask a ninja how they talk about this in ninja-school...

 

Sorry, I'm horrible at being stealthy, so I have no really useful advice to offer.

Nah, it's fine. I just wanted to see what other people do when they need to rather than look for advice

Normally I don't have a problem. With a toddler in tow, people barely blink if you're looking for something off trail

[+6NoisyHikers]

I've heard that some people caching in groups have a secret sound they make when someone finally spots the cache. So instead of yelling "GOT IT!" (which is what we tend to do) they make a bird call or shout out "By jove, I do believe that's a yellow verigated swarthing moth!"

 

[+Don_J]

I use discretion, it works better than stealth. If there are folks around who I think shouldn't know about the cache I don't search for it myself. I return at a better time.

Let me add that most caches that have "use stealth" in the description probably aren't the type I'd even bother with in the first place. They probably shouldn't be there.

 

This!

 

Although I was with a caching fried who stopped so I could get a cache that he had already found. He half heartedly admonished me for looking so suspisious when I got out of the car and looked around to see who was in the imeadiate area. Truth is, I do this regardless of what I am doing. I am always aware of my surroundings. It's just the way that I am.

[+baloo&bd]

We don't do stealth.

 

1. If you try, you most likely will bring more attention to yourself than if you just walked up and grabbed it.

 

2. If it requires stealth, chances are it a. should not be hidden there anyway and b. probably was hidden sans permission.

[+DarkSasquatch2]

I definetly employ the, "I'm definitely supposed to be here and doing this" attitude. If you look confident in what you are doing, people aren't going to take much notice or care.

[+DragonsWest]

I definetly employ the, "I'm definitely supposed to be here and doing this" attitude. If you look confident in what you are doing, people aren't going to take much notice or care.

 

I'm certain Count Weirdly exercises this approach, but Slylock Fox still trips him up!

 

[+SoonerCardsFan]

I use discretion, it works better than stealth. If there are folks around who I think shouldn't know about the cache I don't search for it myself. I return at a better time.

 

Let me add that most caches that have "use stealth" in the description probably aren't the type I'd even bother with in the first place. They probably shouldn't be there.

I like this too. One of my early urban finds I was going for a grab that I was sure of the placement but there were muggles passing by randomly. As I pictured my approaching and then backing off numerous times as muggles approached it hit me how silly, or maybe suspicious I looked. Now if "stealth" is required I either skip it or find a time when "stealth" won't be required.

Edited April 18, 2012 by SoonerSoftail

[+WRASTRO]

If I decide to go for a stealth required hide I just go for it. As far as I am concerned "stealth required" is nothing more than a lazy hide.

[knowschad]

I've heard that some people caching in groups have a secret sound they make when someone finally spots the cache. So instead of yelling "GOT IT!" (which is what we tend to do) they make a bird call or shout out "By jove, I do believe that's a yellow verigated swarthing moth!"

 

 

Love it!! That's tagline material there.

[+Ambient_Skater]

You don't show stealth, firestronaut. You feel it.

 

 

No wait, you don't do that either. Trying to be stealthy just makes you look more obvious to everyone. Ignore the muggles and they'll ignore you.