Am I Crazy?

[+geocat_]

I was out of town this past weekend and decided to grab some caches of interest. One of these was an older one that I needed for my grid so I made sure to stop and try to log it. As I pulled it I noticed that this one was going to be close to a building but seeing no one around, I decided I would casually walk up and look around to see if I could spy any sign of the cache. I looked around for about3-4 minutes and did not spy anything that looked like a hide. At this point a pickup truck with the company's logo pulled up. A man inside asked what I was doing on government property. I explained that I was looking for a geocache, hoping he would recognize this hobby. Well, let's just say he had never heard of it nor was he a big fan after I explained it to him. I told him that the CO should have obtained permission for such a hide and he assured me that this was not the case. He began interrogating me and wanted my name, phone number, and took down my license plate. He let me leave without further incident but apparently contacted Groundspeak because a Lackey archived this cache at the request of the Louisville Metro Government.

 

My real problem was the way the CO handled this. When I logged this one, I logged an NA. I figured that the unpleasant experience I went through should not become routine at this facility. After the CO deleted my NA log, he posted "This was a good and *NEW* type hide when it was hidden *eight* years ago and has since served to show police officers and local maintenance employees what geocaching is all about. If you cannot find the cache, please feel free to contact me for a hint -or- just hit the good ol' IGNORE button. If you draw attention by acting in a suspicious fashion, please don't expect the cache to be taken down as recourse.

It wasn't the cache, it was you."

 

This kind of ticked me off since I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary and was even very careful to not start groping and prodding everything as I searched out of respect for the facility. My feeling was that it was indeed the cache. What I can't figure is how it had been there 8 years.

 

I received a message from the CO this morning stating "Congrats, you got their attention" I sent an apology since he is a well-respected cacher but truthfully, I don't believe I did anything wrong. Am I crazy???

[+niraD]

You don't sound crazy. It sounds like the cache lacked adequate permission.

[Clan Riffster]

Am I crazy???

You use multibillion dollar military satellites to hunt Tupperware.

Is this a rhetorical question?

[+Gamaliel]

It may have had permission eight years ago. No reason for the CO to get huffy, though, an encounter like this is certainly grounds for an NA log. At that point it was up to the CO to verify that his permission was still valid and not forgotten in the bureaucracy, not for him to blame the OP.

[+T.D.M.22]

. Am I crazy???

 

Using billions of dollars to look for tiny plastic containers...I'd say yes.

Also I think the CO was just overly ticked off or sour grapes or whatever, because there are way better way to deal with it then what the CO did- I think a NA log would be the right thing to do and the CO could then possibly work with the Gov't or someone from the building and if he was nice and decent to them they may have let the cache stay.

[+geocat_]

Yeah, tupperware and satellites = crazy

 

Yes, I agree with what's been said. I wasn't trying to get this one yanked, but if the property manager was ticked off enough to follow up with Groundspeak, I would say that he didn't want anyone "snooping around" this place. I can only assume from his response and the fact that it is a government institution that they have relocated some of the aliens here from Area 51

[AZcachemeister]

Sounds like the person who gave permission retired or moved on without letting anyone know what he had given permission for. It happens.

Can't really fault the CO, except that they should have maintained a bit closer contact to know what was going on.

 

Too bad you got hassled, and too bad you may now have an issue with the CO that you don't deserve.

 

Stuff like this happens when you're CRAZY!

[+jellis]

Funny he says "This was a good and *NEW* type hide when it was hidden *eight* years ago and has since served to show police officers and local maintenance employees what geocaching is all about."

That maybe true but what about the government that actually runs the place. I always think it's funny when someone says the "Maintance gave me permission" but not the Owners or the people who leased the property. Or the police know about it. So what! It works both ways.

I have a cache in a State park and a sheriff gave cachers a hard time about it.

Saying caches are not allowed in state parks. I contacted both that park's manager and the CA State Park HQs. Both said they are not against caches in their parks (except ones listed on their site) and glad there are caches in this park. I made sure I followed their guidelines. I also contacted the Sheriff's dept and they wanted to know the name of the officer who was harrassing cachers.

Edited December 5, 2012 by jellis

[4wheelin_fool]

So, the cache was hidden in a highly conspicuous area, but because an employee spotted you, it is your fault? It sounds like a cache owner who does not want to take responsibility for their actions, and a cache which obviously lacked any kind of proper permission.

[+K13]

So, the cache was hidden in a highly conspicuous area, but because an employee spotted you, it is your fault? It sounds like a cache owner who does not want to take responsibility for their actions, and a cache which obviously lacked any kind of proper permission.

 

With hides like this, and his response to you, how "well-respected" can the CO be?

[+unabowler]

So, the cache was hidden in a highly conspicuous area, but because an employee spotted you, it is your fault? It sounds like a cache owner who does not want to take responsibility for their actions, and a cache which obviously lacked any kind of proper permission.

 

With hides like this, and his response to you, how "well-respected" can the CO be?

 

I've got quite a few finds from that CO and he is very well known and respected in our area. I'm not taking sides on this and all I'll say is it's unfortunate the way this worked out.

[+Lil Devil]

I looked around for about3-4 minutes and did not spy anything that looked like a hide. At this point a pickup truck with the company's logo pulled up. A man inside asked what I was doing on government property.

I'm confused. Did you find it or not?

[+Ike 13]

I did a couple of his at woodstock and it seems like he has some cool stuff. His note was a bit rude because it is in no way your fault that a worker saw you and then they got the cache archived. Permission was probably granted but lots of things change in 8 years and I'm sure the person who gave permission is long gone.

[4wheelin_fool]

I looked around for about3-4 minutes and did not spy anything that looked like a hide. At this point a pickup truck with the company's logo pulled up. A man inside asked what I was doing on government property.

I'm confused. Did you find it or not?

 

They may have said that they did not find it, so that forum users would not be tempted to check their profile to go and see which cache it was.

 

Since it is a Premium Members Only cache, and the cache owner is now posting notes to the page indicating all of the visits listed on the audit log, that may have been a good idea.

 

Until now.

Edited December 5, 2012 by 4wheelin_fool

[+Don_J]

I looked around for about3-4 minutes and did not spy anything that looked like a hide. At this point a pickup truck with the company's logo pulled up. A man inside asked what I was doing on government property.

I'm confused. Did you find it or not?

 

They may have said that they did not find it, so that forum users would not be tempted to check their profile to go and see which cache it was.

 

Since it is a Premium Members Only cache, and the cache owner is now posting notes to the page indicating all of the visits listed on the audit log, that may have been a good idea.

 

Until now.

 

I was wondering how over a 180 people could find it without getting caught, but here's a log from 5/27 "After some looking I got a visit from security but he seem well aware of the cache had no idea where it was but as soon as he left I made the find TFTHSL"

 

So, something obviously changed between then and now. Probably someone new got transferred in and has a need to show everyone how important he is. It's not your fault that this employee acted this way. It's not like you went and knocked on his office door to ask him where the cache was.

 

Instead of causing angst on the cache page, the owner should be down there getting permission so he can get his cache unarchived and then you can really find it and make your log legitimate.

[+geocat_]

Oh, I really found it. I was trying to spare the details of the actual cache or CO but since the cat is out of the bag, I guess it's safe to tell the rest of the story....

 

I went back Sunday around 4:00 pm because I figured there would be no one around and it was right on the way home to Dayton. I was only going to give myself a couple minutes on this one since I knew I didn't want a run-in with anyone. Sure enough, I pulled up and the place was deserted. I found the container in less than a minute and turned around to see a police car pulling up. I have been through this before, as I bed we all have. I explained geocaching and even showed him the container which I had brought back to the car to replace the missing log. He asked for my ID and made sure I wasn't a serial killer. He was very polite but stated that he knew the place was closed and questioned seeing a car pull in from the main road. I thanked him for doing his job and we were both on our way.

[+BCandMsKitty]

Hmmm...!

Sounds like a cache I would really like to do!

Government employees the first tome ... Police officers the very next time I tried to find it.... yeah! Sounds like fun!

 

NOT

[Mr.Yuck]

So, the cache was hidden in a highly conspicuous area, but because an employee spotted you, it is your fault? It sounds like a cache owner who does not want to take responsibility for their actions, and a cache which obviously lacked any kind of proper permission.

 

^^^^ This here.