The worst hides ever

[+Dan2099]

What do you consider the worst cache hide ever, not the actual condition of the cache but the way it was hidden...

 

 

The worst one I have came across was a micro hidden deep in a thorn bush (the kind people use as extra security around windows) it was located at a closed bank so the bushes were wildly overgrown and most likely a lot worse then the c/o had intended them to be....

[+lamoracke]

we found a cache in a taped together multiple roll of toilet paper once, in the woods.

[+captnemo]

Found one stuck to a dumpster behind a store once.

[+Chief301]

Found one stuck to a dumpster behind a store once.

 

Yeah, I've found a couple of those already.

 

One that really annoyed me was located under a freeway overpass. When I arrived at GZ there was a concrete block that the hider had gone to the effort of chiseling the word "Geocache" on it. I figured, hey, good effort, this will be neat. I lifted the block and there was a ziplock bag, full of water and ants, with a soggy log sheet. Worst "container" I've ever seen. Why go through all the effort with the handmade concrete marker and just toss a lousy ziplock under it?

[+Snoogans]

Worst hide I ever saw was a virt at a rest stop parking lot that you could do without leaving your car.

 

10 yards away in the rest area was a wonderful historical display. The virt mentioned nothing but to get the name of the anti litter mascot on the sign in the parking lot. I didn't log the thing for years, but got tired of looking it up when this conversation arises.

[+Sharks-N-Beans]

I have several in mind that we grabbed early-on. They were all film bottle LPCs in large parking lots. I guess the worst one had wires hanging out of the little open panel on the side.

[+frinklabs]

GC1WNYQ

 

Thankfully now archived. Questionable permission. Self-admitted under-age hider. Revelation that the reviewers are not the "safety police"

 

You had to reach in, and dig through the stuff in the bottom to get the empty glass makeup bottle containing the log:

 

[+dprovan]

Not counting caches in bad shape, I'd have to say the worst cache I found was basically a wad of duck tape with a log in it stuck under a staple on a telephone poll. I almost ignored it because it was obviously just a piece of trash. I thought to myself, "Wow, that's not going to last two weeks." I got home to log it and discovered it had been there for a year and a half. I gave it a favorite point for pure moxie.

[+badger10]

The worst one was a log placed inside a plastic baggie with a small rock on top of it next to the base of a park entrance sign. All the water around the sign went to this low laying area.

[+Ohiosiouxfan]

An old Skoal can thrown under a bushy tree at the back of a bowling alley parking lot.

[+GrizzFlyer]

Anything with ALWAYS in the cache name,

 

or anything with a blue ? in front of the name.

[+The_Incredibles_]

There's 2 in our area that I consider really bad geocaches. I feel kind of bad saying it b/c I know the CO's a young boy, but still...

 

The 1st one is a tiny plastic baggie containing a magnetic and slip of paper inside, stuck to the bottom of a park bench.

 

The 2nd one was a plastic baggie containing a little tin with a slip of paper in it, buried in the sand at a local children's playground. This one went missing shortly after publishing.

[+Jimmy System]

I found a tongue depressor Velcro'd to the bottom of a park bench. Twice I've found caches hidden in poison ivy vines.

[4wheelin_fool]

Hole bored into a 150+ year old tree to hide a leaky film can.

[+safechrisLaurie]

A "Lift it up" at a gas station. Sucked in some serious fumes while signing the log. NOT my kind of smiley!

[+msrubble]

Gladware in an illegal dump near the sewage ponds.

[+Wadcutter]

Look for one near New Orleans that was in a dump site. A big truck load of rusty cans and broken bottles along side the road. The cache was in one of the rusty cans in the middle of the pile. Definitely not kid friendly.

One locally was a nano button glued to a dried out sycamore leaf that was placed on the ground in a wooded area. Cache owner got royally upset because people couldn't find it. It was the only sycamore leaf in the area which didn't have any sycamore trees. She had several really lame caches including putting a "bomb" looking on next to a power substation at an airport next to the guideance antenna and 100 yds from a military installation. She claimed to be a 'professional' with a doctor's degree in psychology. Common sense? Not very much.

[+Rustynails]

I once found a disposable diaper (unused) that someone used as a cache container.

[Mr.Yuck]

There's 2 in our area that I consider really bad geocaches. I feel kind of bad saying it b/c I know the CO's a young boy, but still...

 

 

You got it, unsupervised teen or tween hides in general.

 

Many years ago, and hidden by a then 13 yr. old (he's in College now) was a two leg multi. Both film canisers, the first one in a bush, but the "final" just sitting on the ground in weeds. I'm sure it was a summer hide, but I live in a City with over 100 inches of annual snowfall.

 

Much more recently, another teen in my area made a papermate pen into a cache and stuck it in a tree in a nature preserve. He also hid a guardrail micro at a desolate dead-end that has to be the most trash littered dead-end street I've ever seen in my life. My caching partner that day logged it, but I didn't. Not to pick on unsupervised 13 year old boy Geocachers or anything, but I could go on all day, and not just those two.

[+Chief301]

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot....there's a whole series of caches in Baton Rouge at sewer lift stations....any cache in that area named "PS____" I'll skip unless I happen to be driving right by it.

 

There's also a common series around here called "March of the Penguins" that are located on those big self-serve ice machines you find in shopping center parking lots (so named for the cartoon penguin graphics on the machine). They'll usually have "MOTP" somewhere in the cache name. Those are a pretty boring but not as bad as the sewer lift stations. Some of them you can grab without getting out of the car. We probably have more MOTP caches around here than LPC's, no lie. Anybody else get these?

[+OZ2CPU]

I often find dog poop bags thrown where caches are hidden,

they look and smell like some caches too :-(

[+hzoi]

There's also a common series around here called "March of the Penguins" that are located on those big self-serve ice machines you find in shopping center parking lots (so named for the cartoon penguin graphics on the machine). . . . Anybody else get these?

 

We've got those in my area, too.

[Mr.Yuck]

There's also a common series around here called "March of the Penguins" that are located on those big self-serve ice machines you find in shopping center parking lots (so named for the cartoon penguin graphics on the machine). . . . Anybody else get these?

 

We've got those in my area, too.

 

Don't give anyone anywhere any ideas.

 

If they ever show up in my area, to go along with street corner free weekly newspaper boxes, and gas station air comprssors, the penguins would certainly be easy to ignore.

[+Don_J]

Anything hidden in ivy.

 

Actually, I have a tie for worse caches. One was a women's purse hidden in a tree. The second was a TB Hotel that was a canvas suitcase, placed below ground level in a large utility box. Of course, someone put a bunch of stuffed animal travel bugs in it, just prior to our short rainy season. My friend took the TBs home and washed and dried them and I dropped a NA on the cache.

[knowschad]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

[+Ben0w]

My first foul experience: a micro hidden in a small wood totally full of trash. You would need several trucks to trash out. My find was by pure luck.

 

Poor: a lot of plastic bag wrapped boxes of all kinds, some would even make it far better without the bag.

 

Bad: a plastic milk bottle, wrapped in a blue plastic trash bag and just thrown in the woods - I don't suspect animals to carry it there because it was exactly on the coordinates position.

 

Worse: "Cache" without container, just a plastic cap (for hole cover?) and a rusty nail (intended to hold the log?) hidden in a hole of a bridge's lower edge. The log was a nearly unusable mess of wet paper with rusty stains from the nail. You would think, someone hiding a cache in a bridge over a river may be aware of the presence of water. Tried to dry it a bit in the sun, but had not enough time and it wouldn't have last long anyway. Next logs confirmed.

 

All those had some more or less distinctive sightseeing points at least. Recently a new owner installed a cache with an inappropriate container (due to the first few loggers) which just is on a totally uninteresting railway bridge over a street and you have to climb one post in full sight of the passing cars. On several tries I never had a chance to do this unseen and most probably I will try it only once more and then finally give up. I think I can wait until this one is "archived out" of my homezone...

[+docsigma]

It was one of those Listerine Pocket Packs containers. Sheesh, those things don't even LOOK waterproof! They have HOLES in them!

[+tamwood53]

The worst one I have found was a huggies diaper, that the CO put a small salve jar through a hole. They had put what looked like chocolate pudding in the diaper and rolled it up, and threw it in a pile of trash, along the freeway! I found this one when I was starting caching, and had just heard all about how much caching was, about cleaning up our environment! WOW what a first impression!!!!

Edited June 26, 2012 by tamwood53

[knowschad]

The worst one I have found was a huggies diaper, that the CO put a small salve jar through a hole. They had put what looked like chocolate pudding in the diaper and rolled it up, and threw it in a pile of trash, along the freeway! I found this one when I was starting caching, and had just heard all about how much caching was, about cleaning up our environment! WOW what a first impression!!!!

 

>> They had put what looked like chocolate pudding in th diaper

They did, or the baby did?

[+tamwood53]

The worst one I have found was a huggies diaper, that the CO put a small salve jar through a hole. They had put what looked like chocolate pudding in the diaper and rolled it up, and threw it in a pile of trash, along the freeway! I found this one when I was starting caching, and had just heard all about how much caching was, about cleaning up our environment! WOW what a first impression!!!!

 

>> They had put what looked like chocolate pudding in th diaper

They did, or the baby did?

I am not sure, and I was not about to check to find out!!

[+The A-Team]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

One stop cache hiding!

 

Poor: a lot of plastic bag wrapped boxes of all kinds, some would even make it far better without the bag.

For the love of god everyone, DO NOT PUT YOUR CONTAINER IN A BAG!

If you feel you need to put your container in a bag (shopping, garbage, whatever...) to keep it dry, it isn't an appropriate container. You're only deluding yourself anyway, because those bags do a much better job of collecting and containing moisture than they do keeping it out. If I find a cache wrapped in such a bag, I CITO out the bag. Often the container is perfectly waterproof anyway, so the bag is just making the outside of the container a wet, muddy, moldy, smelly, insect-infested mess.

Ziplocs aren't much better, either. Just a single hole or an incompletely-closed zipper and it turns into one of the above bags.

 

As far as the worst hide I've seen, I'm having a hard time picking out which one was the worst. I've seen a lot of hides that were bad in their own special ways.

-Any cache where the bag containing the log IS the container.

-Any cache in a playground.

-Any cache in an unpainted/unsealed metal container.

[+msrubble]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

 

Close. Magnetic hide-a-key.

Edited June 26, 2012 by msrubble

[+The_Incredibles_]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

 

That's hilarious! Why didn't I think of that?!

[+bpwilldo]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

[+bpwilldo]

That's not bad. It is actually downright funny.

[+bpwilldo]

We are sorta new. 3 months and only 250 finds. We have found many poorly maintained caches. We do what we can with them. The worst to me are nanos and micros where one has 100s and perhaps 1000s of acres to hide something. I hate them. I'll hunt them if they are on the way to another but I ain't hiking into the woods for a micro.

[Mr.Yuck]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

One stop cache hiding!

 

Poor: a lot of plastic bag wrapped boxes of all kinds, some would even make it far better without the bag.

For the love of god everyone, DO NOT PUT YOUR CONTAINER IN A BAG!

If you feel you need to put your container in a bag (shopping, garbage, whatever...) to keep it dry, it isn't an appropriate container. You're only deluding yourself anyway, because those bags do a much better job of collecting and containing moisture than they do keeping it out. If I find a cache wrapped in such a bag, I CITO out the bag. Often the container is perfectly waterproof anyway, so the bag is just making the outside of the container a wet, muddy, moldy, smelly, insect-infested mess.

Ziplocs aren't much better, either. Just a single hole or an incompletely-closed zipper and it turns into one of the above bags.

 

 

I was taught in an Army survival course for emergency drinking water, hang plastic in the woods, as it COLLECTS condensation. And people put their caches in plastic bags?

 

This practice has most likely ended there, but when I stayed in a certain Northeastern Pa. metropolitan area for an extended (2 week) business trip in 2004, most of the regulars were wrapped in plastic bags on a monkey see-monkey do basis. I even found ammo boxes in Wal-Mart bags. I won't mention any names, but this metro area rhymes with Wranton/Silkes-Barre.

[+Crow-T-Robot]

 

All those had some more or less distinctive sightseeing points at least. Recently a new owner installed a cache with an inappropriate container (due to the first few loggers) which just is on a totally uninteresting railway bridge over a street and you have to climb one post in full sight of the passing cars. On several tries I never had a chance to do this unseen and most probably I will try it only once more and then finally give up. I think I can wait until this one is "archived out" of my homezone...

If you think the cache is that bad, why even look for it? Put it on your ignore list and move on.

[+jellis]

One that a newbie put out. When we got there, there was dog messes, underwear and other trash. Cachers complained and the CO said he would clean it up but never did.

 

One where a cacher purposely place in PO with no attributes and asked cache finders not to say anything to give it away. The poison oak was in it's dormant stage which is still just as poisonous. And for those who don't know what it looks like or are very sensitive it is not fun or funny. After someone posted a picture and refused to delete it the CO finally moved it.

[+Ben0w]

If you think the cache is that bad, why even look for it? Put it on your ignore list and move on.

I have to drive by this spot in a neighbouring city two or three times per week, so an ignore list doesn't help much to forget this d*** thing...

 

Something has to be said at this point: Thankfully, my own home town has no real bad cache, cache owners here seem to have some distinct sense to hide good caches and find good spots, even respecting nature. Only one nano has a bad attitude - it's in plain sight of the street authorities office window (and I don't think the owner works there) plus within full view of a crowded restaurant on the market place, there are muggles even at deep night any day. However, the place itself is worth a cache (statue of a very famous daughter of the town).

 

Here, the real problem is the "trading" and TB/coin "collection" habit of some cachers. But that's another topic.

[+Ben0w]

Oh, just remembered another bizarre one: an official street sign on a private owned house in a passage between a busy shopping arcade and a residential zone. The "cache" was a piece of paper tucked behind the street sign just with a small stripe of tape. To get the log paper the street sign had to be ripped (!) off the wall, hanging loose in it's screw holes. Even if it was intended to screw the thing open, this would not be possible since the screws actually didn't really hold the sign anymore - they just hang loose in the holes. I looked around a lot for the cache (carefully because in full sight of a lot of muggles) until I accidentally touched the sign and it came down in a cloud of cement dust, surprising me and surrounding muggles.

 

However, I quickly spottet the log sheet behind it and managed to sign stealthily while putting it back in place. Was archieved some weeks later.

[+Straight-Cache-Homey]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

I actually find this to be HYSTERICAL. Perfect!

[Mr.Yuck]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

I actually find this to be HYSTERICAL. Perfect!

 

The story was definitely told by KBI. Yes, KBI for sure. A guy who only used to post in defense of lame micros in lame micro threads. Haven't heard from him, or his brother, in almost 2 years I'll bet.

[4wheelin_fool]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

I actually find this to be HYSTERICAL. Perfect!

 

The story was definitely told by KBI. Yes, KBI for sure. A guy who only used to post in defense of lame micros in lame micro threads. Haven't heard from him, or his brother, in almost 2 years I'll bet.

 

It wasn't an orange matchsafe. It was a keyholder.

 

Here is the thread, right here.

[knowschad]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

Close. Magnetic hide-a-key.

 

It wasn't an orange matchsafe. It was a keyholder.

Here is the thread, right here.

 

Nice find!

Edited June 27, 2012 by knowschad

[knowschad]

We are sorta new. 3 months and only 250 finds. We have found many poorly maintained caches. We do what we can with them. The worst to me are nanos and micros where one has 100s and perhaps 1000s of acres to hide something. I hate them. I'll hunt them if they are on the way to another but I ain't hiking into the woods for a micro.

I'll hike into the woods for a hike into the woods. A micro is just a bonus.

[+dprovan]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

Those one dollar Walmart matchsafes are a great deal. I pick a couple up everytime I'm there. But it never occurred to me to just leave one outside the store. What a great idea! The only downside is that they come full of matches you'd have to get rid of.

[+Dan2099]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

Those one dollar Walmart matchsafes are a great deal. I pick a couple up everytime I'm there. But it never occurred to me to just leave one outside the store. What a great idea! The only downside is that they come full of matches you'd have to get rid of.

Those matches are swag for the kids to play with

[4wheelin_fool]

I can't seem to find it now, but another time when this subject came up, somebody posted about finding a skirtlifter in a Walmart parking lot, where the container was an unpainted orange matchsafe, and the log was the receipt for it!

Those one dollar Walmart matchsafes are a great deal. I pick a couple up everytime I'm there. But it never occurred to me to just leave one outside the store. What a great idea! The only downside is that they come full of matches you'd have to get rid of.

 

Yes, you get permission from the store manager. Then a few years later he is no longer employed there, and after 117 people have found it, Walmart security happens to notice the last 3 acting suspicious and calls the bomb squad..

 

That thread was more recent.

Edited June 27, 2012 by 4wheelin_fool

[knowschad]

I was taught in an Army survival course for emergency drinking water, hang plastic in the woods, as it COLLECTS condensation. And people put their caches in plastic bags?

If I may correct you, the plastic doesn't "collect" anything. It allows moisture that is already enclosed (generally in the form of plant materials or damp sand) to condense into droplets. If the inside of the bag is dry, there is nothing to condense, there is no problem. It won't let moisture in from the outside. On the other hand, it won't allow any dampness that does get inside to escape. That, I believe is the real problem.