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Although any responses will vary depending upon country, state or even local areas, I was just wondering what the response has been from GeoCachers who have interacted with law enforcement while GeoCaching. Experiences when either looking for or in placing caches would be interesting.

 

My most memorable was a cache placed in such a position that any officer inside the small 'police box' could clearly see anyone retrieving the cache located about 10 meters away. The officer came outside right after I had possession of the cache, and my backpack was hanging from a power pole guy wire. He watched as I fiddles around inside my pack, I may have even opened and signed the log. :anicute: After about 5 minutes, a LONG 5 minutes, he seemed to decide the foreigner was harmless and went back into his hidey hole. :P

 

Other stories?

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I have run into the local police on numerous times in PA. They all seem to know about Geocaching and seem to like to give you a ton of abuse if you haven't found the cache. Apparently they all know about Geocaching and delight in seeing people not being able to find it. They also seem to be pretty "mum" about letting you know where it is. At least with my experiences, PA cops don't really have a problem with Geocaching unless the cache is in a bad location. You having issues with the police?

Edited by RoyalRed
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All our LEO encounters have been fairly positive experiences.

 

Seeing our car parked on the side of a road with us a few yards away searching for a cache, a LEO stopped and asked if we needed assistance. We explained that we were geocaching. He said, "Oh, that game. Good luck." Then he left.

 

We walked past an occupied police car and searched for a cache about 50 metres away. As we returned, the LEO rolled down his window and asked, "Geocaching?" "Yep," we replied and continued on our way.

 

As we returned from finding a cache along an irrigation canal, a LEO inquired what we were up to. We had to spend a couple minutes explaining geocaching before he let us continue.

 

I received a phone call from the local police. A suspicious neighbor had reported my vehicle license plate number when they saw me lurking in a park. I explained.

 

We had a tough time explaining to American border security officers why we wanted to enter the U.S. at 10 p.m. to spend 30 minutes searching for a geocache. They brought us inside for additional questioning. It took a while, but we eventually got to go. Then we had a tough time explaining to Canadian border security officers why we were returning to Canada after such a short visit to the U.S.

 

Same border crossing, about a year later. We found a geocache located on one of the border markers on the edge of Coutts, Alberta. A few minutes later, we crossed the international border and stopped for cheaper gas in the adjoining town of Sweet Grass, Montana. While filling up our tank, a pair of border patrol officers pulled up and asked what we had been doing at the border marker. We explained.

 

We were driving in the middle of rural Alberta at about 10:30 p.m. I parked near a geocache in a small town and walked about 100 metres to find it. I returned to find an RCMP vehicle parked behind ours. The officer had called in our plates and asked me to show him my drivers license, which he also called in as I explained this rather odd activity called geocaching. When everything checked out okay, he looked inside our vehicle and noticed my wife asleep in the passenger seat. I asked whether I should wake her, but he decided he didn't need to talk with her.

 

A friend of mine had a less positive experience. He was searching for a geocache when a neighbor called police to report his suspicious activity. The first LEO who arrived on the scene put him in handcuffs, despite his explaining that he was geocaching. The second LEO who showed up knew all about geocaching and convinced the first officer to release my friend.

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There's quite a handy thread here.

 

We've never had encounters with police officers at caches, but on one occasion I did have an encounter with site security. Openness, honesty and courtesy is the order of the day.

 

In the case of that encounter, the friendly security guard informed me that the cache had been removed by police and destroyed a couple of days previously. The one and only time to date we've logged a NA log.

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I've been stopped by a cop asked what I was doing. He knew there was a cache there so it was all good. Only other time I've talked to the police about geocaching-we had some caches called in as bombs so the explosive disposal unit(EDU) met with us, along with a member of the RCMP. Well it went well and the officer with the EDU wanted to see what an geocache could look like. So we showed him some ammo cans, and LnL's and it was fine. Then we showed him the unique caches, and he just shook his head. some of those caches where one inspired by the saw movies, and one painted to look like a big stick of TNT, and some nanos.

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Yesterday, I was dispatched to a "suspicious" person parked alongside a cemetery. The complainant said, (I can't make this stuff up), "When I looked at them, they acted like they were doing nothing". Not sure how to interpret that. How, exactly, does one 'act' like they are doing nothing, other than by doing nothing? And apparently, according to at least one person on the planet, doing nothing is suspicious...

 

We are required to respond, no matter how silly the complaint, so off we went.

 

They were fairly new cachers, hunting a multi. We talked about our favorite hobby, and I got to offer a few pointers.

 

Gotta say, it was pretty dern kewl!

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I've had about five encounters. Mostly officers who saw me parked on the side of a lonely highway and wanted to know if I needed assistance. In one case, I was able to report to the officer that there was a car 10 miles away that did need assistance. A second time, I was able to report to the officer that a cow and calf had been hit and was partially blocking the hwy about 30 miles away. That was on the ET Hwy before it became a power trail.

 

A friend and I were putting a cache back on the highway north of Ojai, CA, when a CA Fish and Game officer stopped and wanted the low down on the entire activity, including the best GPS to buy and where to buy it.

 

I've have only had one negative experience when a CA State Park Ranger pulled up on me in a clearing, close to the roadway and immediately went on the offensive. It didn't help when seconds later my four friends came crashing out of the bushes after finding the cache that I previously found. We're lucky that we didn't all get shot.

Edited by Don_J
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I've only had two contacts with the police while caching. My wife and I were hunting a cache at a Route 80 rest area. State trooper pulls in, stops and watches me feeling around under a storm train and my wife crawling under a picnic table. He sat there and watched us intently for about five minutes. I was waiting for him to get out and say something, but he got bored and drove away.

 

The other time we were hunting a cache in a salt marsh next to the Garden State Parkway. We needed to cross a river and the nearby bridge on the GSP was the easiest way, despite the fact that walking on the GSP is illegal.

We had just crossed the bridge and were at the edge of the marsh about 150 feet from the parkway. State trooper pulls up and calls us over to the car asking us what we were doing. We told him "exploring". He said that he just wanted to make sure we weren't thinking of walking on the parkway and drove away. Good thing he didn't drive by a few minutes earlier when we were walking across the bridge.

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641 finds and the only contact with law enforcement was voluntary. I live an hour away from Mansfield, Ohio, a couple of weeks ago there was a bomb scare due to a geocache. I contacted my town's city government and set up a meeting with the Mayor, City Administrator, and Chief of Police to explain what geocaching. The meeting went very well and they had no clue just how popular of an activity this was in the area.

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The CLEO in our County was a member of the same sprotsman's club as a few of us local geocachers, and the Town manager is a 30 veteran LEO. Also the local State Park manager was a club member. We were interested in geotourism and took the time to ask and inform the right people first.

I know a few cache seekers that have encountered LEO's while geocaching, and it has always been pleasant, and the officers knew what geocaching was. LEO's are geocachers too. :ph34r:

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Several brief encounters, which were mostly LEO's asking if I needed help, or making sure I wasn't hunting out of season.

Twice, I've had to call 911 after getting my truck locked behind gates. Once it was a town park that got locked before sunset,when it was supposed to close. Another time it was private property that bordered on a county park. Both times the officers who arrived had to call somebody to bring a key.

Neither time did they ask me what I was doing!

Edited by hukilaulau
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So far the only interaction with law enforcement while caching was when I called them. Was out finding a cache that is on an old (long unused) bombing range when I stumbled across something that looked a little suspicious on my walk back to the truck.

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For the record I was NOT the person who dug around it, I'm not that stupid. All I did was mark the coordinates and take a less direct trip back to the truck and my cell phone.

 

The first one to respond didn't know about geocaching so I got to explain what I was doing out in the desert but the second one to arrive knew about it and discussed a few of the nearby caches with us before we left.

Edited by Zyxistal
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Here in NSW Australia, I have met the police twice at caches.

 

One was at cache I was trying to get a FTF on. I had been there before, as had a number of other cachers, and I had no GPSr or any GC paperwork with me, as I knew where to look. It was dark, about 10.30pm, and I was down a track off a busy road when I saw some car lights near my car, OK, cachers out to help me! No, the police, 'What are you up to?'. So I gave them the spiel and asked them if they wanted to help me find it! They laughed and drove away..

 

Next one was at a cache I own, and I was going to do some maintenance on it (it is a PVC tube in a tree in some bushland). As I approached it a voice coming from high calls, 'Keep back, there may be a bomb here!' It was a cop up slope from the cache. 'You mean that thing?' pointing to the cache, 'Yes' he said. 'No problem' says I, 'It's a cache' and I walked over and lowered it down, and opened it. By then his sargent had shown up and they were not happy! They said the bomb squad was on the way! I told them what it was, and even offered to come down the the police station some time and explain geocaching to them. They declined and told me to mark my caches next time..

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Most recent (of four or five)? (One involved looking for a benchmark on a bridge. With side walk. Benchmark was in Atlantic City. Offier was from the next town over: Brigantine. "You're not allowed to stand on a bridge." Say what?)

But anywho... Nice park about ten miles from here. Multi. First stage was an MKH on a bench. Whacked out lady. About my age. (I thought it strange that she was lading a six-year-old girl towards the woods...) She called the cops and said that we were acting strangely. We put something on the bench. (One of several benches around the 911 memorial.) We headed off into the swamp between the park and the golf course, for the final of an evil mysery cache. We were on the wrong side of the stream, and headed back out. The cops were waiting for us. (I guess they have to respond to 'acting strangely' reports.) They ran our info (which I find offensive! We did not do anything wrong! I hate the lack of privacy now-a-days!) And they drove off. Oddly enough, the first stage of the multi was still in place. The cops did not care, and the offensive busybody (whom I should hae rported for leading the young girl off to the woods), neither removed the first stage. I guess that neither long-haired senior-citizen dolphins, nor short bears are welcomed in that municipality.

But whacked-out old ladies doing strange things with youg girls are!

What a world we live in! We will probably not be going back for the mystery cache.

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While in San Diego one time, I pulled into a road-side parking area only to see a Police car sitting there behind me. Since my parking was legal, and I wanted to go find the cache, I ambled back to talk to him (with my hands in plain sight).

 

He had heard of caching, so I told him that the one I was after was about 80 feet down that real steep hill. There wasn't any sort of trail, so it was gonna be a case of gravity working to get down there, and then making a bit of a nasty climb out.

 

So, since I had ruined his speed trap for the day, he decided to stick around to make sure I got back to the top. I thanked him profusely, and took off down the hill.

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I've had about a dozen interactions with law enforcement, although many were with private security guards.

They are universally understanding, cooperative and sometimes curious about the sport.

 

The only negative encounter was when I mistakenly hid a cache on state prison grounds.

I thought the road shoulder was City of Folsom property, but it technically belongs

to the prison. I was surrounded by 6 prison guards with high intensity looks of

disapproval on their faces. It seems some relatives of inmates will hide items

for their incarcerated family members - inmates who maintain the landscaping

around prison grounds, and they will secret away banned items around the grounds.

 

When they saw that the cache contained tiny children's toys and innocent swag,

they knew I was legit, but I did have to remove the cache.

 

I have a friend who is a prison guard who works there, and I know he would

get me a nice clean cell if it ever came to that.

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POSITIVE - mostly.

 

I did have one interaction with a poorly placed cache where police were called and resulted in my receiving a ticket for a cracked windshield (versus a warning to fix it). The resulting incident had more ongoing and lasting issues with the cache owner (than the police officer) that has now extended into the Maryland Geocaching Society because that CO has been an officer in some capacity or another for years now. It even went on to the CO lying about one of my caches and having it archived by a reviewer instantly without my explaining or other issues.

 

I think, luckily for my storm chasing, I have found that cops can be awesome people. Interacting with them in a polite and concise manner will go a long way. Probably talked with a couple hundred cops throughout the years both chasing and on the rare occasion while caching. I will say the more urban the setting the more uptight the officer, but that is likely a reflection of city life more so than police themselves.

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MThey ran our info (which I find offensive! We did not do anything wrong! I hate the lack of privacy now-a-days!)

You weren't required to give them your ID's. If they asked for them and you handed them over it was completely voluntary. (This may vary depending on your state, some states do require you to show ID when asked, but most states do not).

 

Of course, refuse to show your ID to the wrong cop and you might find your day (or night) ruined as you sit in a cell.

 

Edited to add: New Jersey is a state where you don't have to show ID when asked, even if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that you are about to (or have already) commit a crime.

Edited by tallgaloot
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I had forgotten my very first LEO interaction...

 

I am a deputy in a small Florida county. At the time, I was on night shift. The guy who worked the opposite night shift was, shall we say, woefully unpleasant. I could use sterner language, but not without fear of bannination. He is, thankfully, no longer in law enforcement. I'll call him "Dredd".

 

There was a shiny new night cache published in the area I worked. It went live while I was on duty. I'm not comfortable combining caching and working, though, in any case, this cache required some fairly intense efforts to get to, which being in uniform would preclude. So I waited till my first night off, and headed that way.

 

It was a puzzle cache, which started you on one side of a bridge. I got there and figured out that I needed to go to the other side to finish the hunt. I had to wade across a segment of river, and by the time I started bobbing, and thinking about the two very large alligators who roam this stretch of river, I thought I might aught to back out and rethink my approach. As I'm standing on the north bank, shedding water, I see a bunch of vehicles pull onto the south side, then I see flashlights waving about.

 

Kewl! These must be geocachers! Up to that point, I had never met another cacher, and I was looking forward to the opportunity. Then another vehicle pulled up, and blue lights came on. I could hear Dredd talking loud, but I couldn't decipher his words. Soon, the other vehicles drove away. I called Dredd on my Nextel and let him know he had just rescued the bridge of a rabid horde of geocachers, rather than the terrorists he presumably suspected. His flashlight starts whipping around, and he asked me where I was. When I shined my light at him, he drove over and started reading me the riot act.

 

The conversation devolved, as follows:

 

Dredd: "You don't have a permit to be here after hours! I could arrest you right now!"

 

Me: "You could try..."

 

Dredd left in a huff, and reported me to my Sergeant. I took that as an opportunity to educate Dredd on why folks do not need a permit to be at that bridge after hours. I also let the cache owner know about Dredd, and how he was behaving toward cache seekers.

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We've had a few of encounters with LEOs, all good. Once one officer asked if we needed assistance, we told him we were geocaching. "darn" he says "I knew there was one back here. I'll have to come back for it another time"

 

We received an interesting and kind of funny log on one of our caches shortly after we hid it in a public, wooded park (with permission from the city).

 

Met XXX's finest. They received a call that 2 men entered the woods and only one came out. When we met they asked if I was geocaching. I replied yes and one said to the other "See I told you so" and they high fived. They asked if I was OK, since the caller reported that someone was in trouble, maybe murdered by the one that left. Wow.

 

As far as we know, that has been the only encounter anyone has had at that cache.

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This is what a cacher replyed in the logging of my cache just the other day.

 

While searching at dusk, a couple H.P.D. officers pull up to me. I'm thinking oh crap now I got to explain about geocashing, they're gonna check my I.D., run my name for warrants and what ever...

So the cop rolls down his window, smiles at me and says "your right on top of it!" and the other in the passenger side says "yeah, the coordinates on this one are off by about 20'", then they drive off.:P

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*We were caching in Quebec a few years ago. We were looking for a cache on a trail in a small woods in a town. In addition to the cache, we found parts to a new motor scooter and the ownership papers. We brought the ownership papers to the police station, told them our story and gave them the coords. They said they didnt know anything about coords and wanted us to show an officer where we found it. When he saw that we had New Brunswick plates, he got suspicious and wanted to know what we had been doing in those woods and how we discovered the scooter. We drove to the location and he followed us. We had to show him the scooter and the cache.

 

*A few years ago we exited I-81 in VA and were signing a nano on a sign. A police car stops asks if we were having car trouble, I show him the nano and give him my 20 second definition of geocaching. He immediately starts to pull away and as he rolls up the window, he says "if I see one, I will give you a call"

 

*We were in NYC on Thanksgiving day a few years ago. Everyone headed to the parade but we headed to the neighbourhoods and looked for caches. One cache was up a post, behind a no parking sign. It was magnetic and was too high to reach. I found a long metal stick in the gutter, so I grabbed it and started poking at the cache. It took quite a while to dislodge it. As I was working at it, I noticed a police car with two officers. parked on a cross street. They were watching me intently. When we had finally got the cache and signed it and replaced it, we walked away and the police car pulled up to us. He asked if the sign was Ok, I again gave my short definition of geocaching. They gave me a strange look and drove away.

 

*10 years ago we were in a ditch after dark with flashlights looking for the first part of a multi. A police car stops shines a light on us, we tell him we are caching and he smiles and takes off.

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Shouting out to all the LEO's here who are kind to cachers, TY!

 

I've had one run-in with the Law while doing this and it was just the other day. I was at a cache on the north shore of Long Island waiting out some muggles. Anywho, it was in one of those "parking by permit" areas but everyone ignores that so that folks can park, jump out of their cars to take a photo or two, and go on their way.

 

Anyway, I was sitting there with my DSLR, fiddling around with it. I had located the cache inside of a parking sign and needed the coast to be clear. Finally, after waiting, it was down to me and some guy whose car had some placard on it that implied he was a scientist. Anyway, that guy was coming up from the beach, got in his car and drove off just as the Sheriff showed up.

 

The Sheriff looked over at me as he got out of his car. I was changing lenses and said hello. I swear it seemed like he was looking at me knowingly. Anywho, he checked out the beach and left, so I hit the cache.

 

Now that you've read this, yes, my only LEO run-in was essentially a non-story. Hopefully I'll continue not attracting attention while caching. There are some places I go with my cameras where I've been so frequently that I think locals have grown used to seeing me so, that's certainly an advantage sometimes maybe.

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A good caching friend of mine here, on around 2000 finds, is still a geo-LEO-encounter virgin but he is dying to get his first encounter, so we're constantly discussing what counts as a "valid" encounter - principally that one must be caching and doing *nothing* wrong at the time of the encounter. I, on the other hand, over about 5500 finds, have had between 15 and 20 LEO encounters while caching and that's not including security guards. To be fair though, night time is a common theme amongst almost all of them... ;)

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I've had about five encounters. Mostly officers who saw me parked on the side of a lonely highway and wanted to know if I needed assistance. In one case, I was able to report to the officer that there was a car 10 miles away that did need assistance. A second time, I was able to report to the officer that a cow and calf had been hit and was partially blocking the hwy about 30 miles away. That was on the ET Hwy before it became a power trail.

 

A friend and I were putting a cache back on the highway north of Ojai, CA, when a CA Fish and Game officer stopped and wanted the low down on the entire activity, including the best GPS to buy and where to buy it.

 

I've have only had one negative experience when a CA State Park Ranger pulled up on me in a clearing, close to the roadway and immediately went on the offensive. It didn't help when seconds later my four friends came crashing out of the bushes after finding the cache that I previously found. We're lucky that we didn't all get shot.

You know Ca. stste rangers go through the same training as the Ca. highway patrol

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I was out with Dieölfe looking for a Cache (GC4AHAZ). We knew where it was before we got out of the car. Well the car was parked and I had just got my fingers on the Nano when dropped it. I heard it bounce but didnt see where it went. There was I on my knees looking for the nano when a voice behind me asked what I was doing. Geocaching said I, to which he answered "Die Wächter des Turmes ??" (The keeper of the Tower). He was a member of the Water Police. He laught and drove off. All of a sudden he was there again and helped us look for the nano. He was also a Cacher, we chatted for about 30 minutes. I found the nano under a parked car.

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My only experiences have been to check if I needed help... Just said nope, just geocaching and they smiled and drove away... I did get one rent-a-cop at a local college out of her car to help look.... Sadly this cache had been muggled.... lol

 

We've had a couple dozen encounters and this describes the vast majority....a few had us " under the light " for awhile and were a little testy.

In northern NM there is a state police station.....fairly large affair. You park in the lot and just outside the front door is a planter and ammo can painted like a NM State Police car, black with diagonal white stripe. You sign the log and go in and say hi to the captain.

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I'm in the UK.

 

I've had several encounters with police officers while geocaching, and they've all been pretty good about it.

 

One already knew about geocaching and just asked if I'd found it yet. The other few hadn't heard of geocaching, and asked what it was. They seemed pretty interested once I started explaining and we had a little chat. One encounter was the night before a Mega, and he said he'd let his colleagues know that a load of people would be geocaching in the woods the next day.

 

The way I see it:

If my spending 5 minutes explaining what geocaching is to them means that more police officers know what it is and don't consider it threatening/dangerous/weird, that's a good thing.

The more that know about it, the easier time the next geocacher they stop will have.

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I've only had one encounter so far, and that was with a transit cop. BearGPS and I were in some bushes along the train tracks and the fellow seemingly appeared from nowhere and asked what we were doing. When we told him "Geocaching" he asked us "Where's your GPS then?" We showed them to him and then he asked if we found it. BearGPS had just laid his hands on the cache so he showed it to the cop and then asked to borrow his pen. We offered to let him sign the log but he declined and went on his way.

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In northern NM there is a state police station.....fairly large affair. You park in the lot and just outside the front door is a planter and ammo can painted like a NM State Police car, black with diagonal white stripe. You sign the log and go in and say hi to the captain.

 

Cool! Thanks for this - have bookmarked the cache for whenever we make it to New Mexico. :)

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Was out doing a 4 part multi. Parked next to a gate where the third waypoint was located. As I was walking in a police car rolled in and hit the wailer to grab my attention. He asked me where I was heading and I spent 10 minutes explaining geocaching to him. After he left I proceeded to DNF the third stage and headed home.

 

The next day I returned and parked in the same spot, found the third waypoint and proceeded down the trail to the final. When I returned to my car I noticed a piece of paper under my wiper. It was left by the local police and asked that I not park at this location in the future but use the parking lot that was located about 300 feet further up the road.

 

At the bottom of the note the office wrote. "Hope you found it"

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Although any responses will vary depending upon country, state or even local areas, I was just wondering what the response has been from GeoCachers who have interacted with law enforcement while GeoCaching. Experiences when either looking for or in placing caches would be interesting.

 

My most memorable was a cache placed in such a position that any officer inside the small 'police box' could clearly see anyone retrieving the cache located about 10 meters away. The officer came outside right after I had possession of the cache, and my backpack was hanging from a power pole guy wire. He watched as I fiddles around inside my pack, I may have even opened and signed the log. :anicute: After about 5 minutes, a LONG 5 minutes, he seemed to decide the foreigner was harmless and went back into his hidey hole. :P

 

Other stories?

 

Had a couple of experiences with the police while caching.

 

The first time I was with a friend, we were both on bicycles on a canalside towpath and both studying a gate in great detail looking for a cache. Two cops in uniform approached and asked what we were doing, so we explained geocaching. They asked if we had seen anything unusual, and we said we hadn't. So they went on their way, obviously looking for something specific.

 

Later that day we decided not to look for a cache under a bridge on the basis that on the bridge were two police officers in the process of arresting someone for drugs-related offences. We figured that wasn't the best time to be looking for a hidden package right under their noses.

 

Another day a few of us were hunting a cache that involved walking along a river that flowed under a main road. Just as two people got into the river and we were handing lights down to them, a policeman went past on a bicycle and asked what we were up to. Again we explained geocaching, he seemed fascinated by the idea, wished us good luck in finding it, and went on his way.

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Only one, but I try to spend most of my caching time away from roads and businesses. I was at a guard rail near a bridge and he stopped to ask if I was having car trouble. I told him why I was there and he thanked me for the information since he'd often seen others there and now he understood why.

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As usual I was geocaching at night and this time I was at a local Multi called Monitoring Well (GC30GVA). I had driven down this quiet industrial street into a car park and then back out, trying to find the best place to park and find WP1.

 

Parked the car and walked into the bushes, got my clue and as I've walked back to my car a police car came flying down the street and stopped right next to me and my accomplice and yelled "Don't move!". Security had called them saying we were trying to break in somewhere (ok righto), luckily one of the police knew of geocaching and after showing them the app, they took our details and left. :laughing:

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All our LEO encounters have been fairly positive experiences.

 

Seeing our car parked on the side of a road with us a few yards away searching for a cache, a LEO stopped and asked if we needed assistance. We explained that we were geocaching. He said, "Oh, that game. Good luck." Then he left.

 

We walked past an occupied police car and searched for a cache about 50 metres away. As we returned, the LEO rolled down his window and asked, "Geocaching?" "Yep," we replied and continued on our way.

 

As we returned from finding a cache along an irrigation canal, a LEO inquired what we were up to. We had to spend a couple minutes explaining geocaching before he let us continue.

 

I received a phone call from the local police. A suspicious neighbor had reported my vehicle license plate number when they saw me lurking in a park. I explained.

 

We had a tough time explaining to American border security officers why we wanted to enter the U.S. at 10 p.m. to spend 30 minutes searching for a geocache. They brought us inside for additional questioning. It took a while, but we eventually got to go. Then we had a tough time explaining to Canadian border security officers why we were returning to Canada after such a short visit to the U.S.

 

Same border crossing, about a year later. We found a geocache located on one of the border markers on the edge of Coutts, Alberta. A few minutes later, we crossed the international border and stopped for cheaper gas in the adjoining town of Sweet Grass, Montana. While filling up our tank, a pair of border patrol officers pulled up and asked what we had been doing at the border marker. We explained.

 

We were driving in the middle of rural Alberta at about 10:30 p.m. I parked near a geocache in a small town and walked about 100 metres to find it. I returned to find an RCMP vehicle parked behind ours. The officer had called in our plates and asked me to show him my drivers license, which he also called in as I explained this rather odd activity called geocaching. When everything checked out okay, he looked inside our vehicle and noticed my wife asleep in the passenger seat. I asked whether I should wake her, but he decided he didn't need to talk with her.

 

A friend of mine had a less positive experience. He was searching for a geocache when a neighbor called police to report his suspicious activity. The first LEO who arrived on the scene put him in handcuffs, despite his explaining that he was geocaching. The second LEO who showed up knew all about geocaching and convinced the first officer to release my friend.

 

 

We had a tough time explaining to American border security officers why we wanted to enter the U.S. at 10 p.m. to spend 30 minutes searching for a geocache. They brought us inside for additional questioning. It took a while, but we eventually got to go. Then we had a tough time explaining to Canadian border security officers why we were returning to Canada after such a short visit to the U.S.

 

caching buddy from Chicago wanted a Canadian cache and crossed over at Detroit / Windsor and had similar experiences **(both directions)**

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One evening/night a caching buddy and I were on a caching run and just after a find, we were 'joined' by a Federal Game Warden. After introductions, we asked if he knew about Geocaching. Luckily for us, the CO had informed him about the placements and all was OK. He told us he likely wouldn't have bothered us, except it was the night before deer season opened and he was checking on anyone he saw in the area. He didn't bother us any more as we found another dozen or so in the area.

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Had an experience In B.C., Canada ... the LEO was puzzled and became even more incredulous at our negative response to this question.

 

"And you mean to tell me there are only bragging rights and NO monetary reward"?

 

He shook his head after we showed him the nano container inside a plastic spider and left shaking his head.

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Although any responses will vary depending upon country, state or even local areas, I was just wondering what the response has been from GeoCachers who have interacted with law enforcement while GeoCaching. Experiences when either looking for or in placing caches would be interesting.

 

My most memorable was a cache placed in such a position that any officer inside the small 'police box' could clearly see anyone retrieving the cache located about 10 meters away. The officer came outside right after I had possession of the cache, and my backpack was hanging from a power pole guy wire. He watched as I fiddles around inside my pack, I may have even opened and signed the log. :anicute: After about 5 minutes, a LONG 5 minutes, he seemed to decide the foreigner was harmless and went back into his hidey hole. :P

 

Other stories?

 

where do i begin?

 

one night a long series came out near the house. i ran out the door and before i had found 5 of the caches i was approached by four different law officers inquiring and warning me to be careful.

 

one morning, my daughter (4 at the time) and i went to a greenspace to find a cache. we were walking back to the car and two different police cars pulled up to find out what we were up to - and possibly make sure that was actually my daughter. when i said geocaching and showed the map, they said "oh, like a weapons cache". i replied, "no officer, but these are ammo boxes" GULP!

 

i was stuck in the dirt/sand on a florida backroad. i had walked out to the county road and a deputy stopped to see what i was up to. i explained that my car was stuck a mile away on a dirt road. he asked why i was out there, and i explained geocaching. he said he was guessing that because of the gps in my hand. he then says "hope you get your car out" and leaves. <_<

 

i had friends hide a cache in front of the sheriff's department a very short distance from my work. they knew i'd have a hard time with it - because of the proximity and the open site of the office to the location. they were right. every time i pulled up to get it, i couldn't help but think i was about to get the run around (and still never be able to pull the cache out to show them). finally, after a year, they had mercy on me and escorted me. before i got out of the car, i could see the cache. i was so embarrassed. :lol:

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no police officers yet but I did have a mall security guard follow me around till I left the mall one day. Apparently there is a trend at a certain cache of security saying you are trespassing even though the cache is one foot away from a public sidewalk.

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