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How safe is it?


idielopez

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Hello,

 

I am new to geocaching and was ready to find my first geocache that was in walking distance from my home. I recently had gotten into an argument with my fiancé about how risky and dangerous this is. I was going to walk to the nearest geocache (located in a cemetery) alone, until the phone call. His arguments were about that anyone can post something about there being a treasure and wait for someone to come alone to try something, its stupid of me to go walking alone to & in a cemetery and I being naïve to think this is even safe at all.

 

The reason I am posting this forum is to ask othesr out there who can tell me the risks about geocaching alone, or geocaching in general. Also to inform me about the safety of it, if there's anything that can reassure my safety.

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Geocaching is not unsafe in and of itself. Any risks would not be different than going somewhere for some other reason. For example, would your finacee be as concerned if you were going to the same graveyard to spend time visiting the grave of <insert deceased loved one here>? The risks of each are the same.

 

It is rare for caches to be found even once a day, so someone posting a cache and waiting for someone to show up would be an excercise in extreme patience. Most bad people don't have that kind of patience.

 

Invite him to come with you; it may be about his need to protect you (all guys have this need even if they won't admit to it).

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Geocaching is not unsafe in and of itself. Any risks would not be different than going somewhere for some other reason. For example, would your finacee be as concerned if you were going to the same graveyard to spend time visiting the grave of <insert deceased loved one here>? The risks of each are the same.

 

It is rare for caches to be found even once a day, so someone posting a cache and waiting for someone to show up would be an excercise in extreme patience. Most bad people don't have that kind of patience.

 

I do most of my geocaching alone and agree with all of this. Go out and have fun geocaching, but also remember that your safety does come first. Be smart about where you go. Pay attention to what's going on around you and be willing to walk away if you don't feel comfortable with the location. You don't have to find every geocache and you can always come back another day.

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As the disclaimer says, "Geocaching, hiking, backpacking and other outdoor activities involve risk to both persons and property."

 

I don't think geocaching adds much risk beyond those inherent to the hiking, backpacking, kayaking, or whatever else you're doing to get to the location. There's an old joke about people getting into trouble because they're focusing on the device, instead of what's going on around them:

geotfocusl.jpg

 

And that lack of situational awareness doesn't apply only to cliffs. It can also apply to eye-level branches, or to dangerous animals, or to uneven footing, or to other dangers.

 

FWIW, I think that this potential lack of situational awareness is more of an issue than cache owners ambushing those seeking their caches. Cache publications and cache seekers just aren't predictable enough for the ambush to be worthwhile.

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Geocaching is not unsafe in and of itself. Any risks would not be different than going somewhere for some other reason. For example, would your finacee be as concerned if you were going to the same graveyard to spend time visiting the grave of <insert deceased loved one here>? The risks of each are the same.

 

It is rare for caches to be found even once a day, so someone posting a cache and waiting for someone to show up would be an excercise in extreme patience. Most bad people don't have that kind of patience.

 

Invite him to come with you; it may be about his need to protect you (all guys have this need even if they won't admit to it).

 

You're right. That how someone I know became a serial killer. He makes up the cache page, and goes to wait at the location for a few day, up to 2 weeks until it gets published and the first finder gets there.

 

Yes it is possible someone could be waiting for you to hurt you, but that's true with literally anything you do. A killer could be waiting in the break room at your office for all you know. But with more than 2 million caches and probably the same and amount of cachers, that just isn't the best team to hurt someone.

 

The risks of geocaching, just the geocaching are very little. I'd say next to none. There are, of course, risks associated with geocaching. Could be in an accident driving on the way there. Could slip and fall on a cactus. Could have to climb a mountain.

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I've often gone geocaching alone, although only in urban areas. I usually have someone with me when I search for caches in the forest or other trails, but I'd have someone with me even if I was just hiking (not caching) because it's safer in case of injury or wild animals.

 

Some urban areas have seemed a bit creepy, but I'd have that feeling whether I was there geocaching or not. In some cases, I feel like an area is less dangerous because there's a geocache there and other people have visited the area before me (on cache pages, you can look at prior logs and see how often the cache has been found).

 

It might help your fiancé feel more comfortable if he understood the hobby a bit more. Maybe watch some geocaching videos, either on geocaching.com or youtube, so he can see what this activity involves. He may decide that he'd like to go with you to find these 'treasures', which is really just a sheet of paper to sign your name. There are plenty of personal rewards for searching and finding caches, but there are no financial rewards.

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And to remember, the geocache must first be published which implies it has been approved by a reviewer!

 

This has no bearing on the safety of geocaching. The reviewer does not approve caches but rather reviews caches for compliance with the guidelines he/she is instructed to follow. The possible perils associated with a cache is not one of the items on the reviewer checklist.

Edited by GeoTrekker26
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I'd hate to live my life so intently focused on all the possible evil that might possibly come at me that I can imagine someone publishing a geocache on the off chance it will attract a victim. There are way easier ways to find victims, and a geocache would be the least likely way to find a weak, female victim. Your boyfriend's either paranoid or, what I think is more likely, trying to control you.

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I am female and regularly go geocaching alone in rural areas and woods (though being in the UK, the chances of me being eaten by a wild animal are relatively slim). I've often met lone men hiking or dog walking and the only exchange has been a cheery 'good morning' apart from one lovely old gent whose dog took a shine to me and we had a chat about geocaching. My partner has no problem at all with me going out alone and has never tried to tell me that it's not safe.

 

As with everything in life, there can be some risks, but if you never do anything - or worse, allow someone else to prevent you doing things - you will never enjoy life. In all honesty, I think his objection to geocaching is far-fetched. As others have said, there are far easier ways for predators to find victims! It sounds rather as is he's generally a bit paranoid or controlling.

 

Happy caching. :)

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In my 8ish years geocaching, I have never heard of what he described. He seems like he is either very overprotective, or too controling. Good luck with him, and with your geocaching.

 

Same here. I've been geocaching for over 12 years, and the only times I've heard of people getting hurt is if they are climbing a tree or slip down a cliff. As far as I know there has never been an incident of somebody stalking a cache waiting for a random victim to come along.

 

This is no different than walking, biking, running, walking your dog, kayaking, shopping, etc ... The only difference is that somewhere along the way you'll stop to look for a container.

 

I think it's reasonable to be concerned about geocaching alone, but only if you were concerned about being at the location without geocaching.

 

Bring your fiance along sometime, he might like it. If not, find a local geocaching organization and find some geocaching friends.

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You can keep in touch with him via text messaging, if it will make him less nervous. If you have a dog, take it with you.

I'm female. I've been geocaching alone for 14 years, with and without my dog. I've never felt stalked. I've never felt that a cache was some kind of trap. If you feel uncomfortable, e.g. walking/driving into a bad neighborhood, creepy looking tract of forest, trust your instincts and leave.

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When I first heard of geocaching I was telling my daughter about it and my sister who is a correctional officer instantly said that it isn't safe and someone could lure you somewhere to do bad things. Luckily I decided to look into it more and realize that is not the case. Thinking of her initial concerns I thought about how this could even happen and if someone was worried about this what you would have to avoid. (Again I am 99.9999999999% sure this would never happen) But to avoid this you would just have to avoid any new caches that were from someone who had never really hidden a cache. If someone already has a bunch of caches out chances are others know who it is. Then you could check the area. If it is from someone who has never hidden a cache and they are trying to lure you some abandon place you might think to wait on going for the FTF.

This would be the silliest way to try and find a victim though as most likely the people who show up first will be a couple of 200 pound men with some big walking sticks and then it could be weeks or more before anyone else randomly shows up. Also there would be some ties to you as the one who placed the cache to start looking for.

I did get a weird feeling once a month or so after we started caching. We downloaded a cache that was out with no cell reception. You park out on a pull out of a road hardly used and cross a gate to get to the cache. I believe the CO said they had permission to hide it there. Then you walk way down this road to find the cache. I was joking with my daughter that they could have a video camera at the top by the gate then when they see someone they could wait for them. Months later it would be like. What happened to all the local cachers and I wonder why no one has found this one yet!

Ha Ha. It was all fine and I don't see anything like this ever happening. Like others have said the most dangers would be from attempting to climb a tree or something that you can't handle.

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There was one I found many years ago on a stop sign in a residential area. It was put out by a college student. Chatted at an event with a female (about 40) who frequently caches with another female cacher. They had both gotten e-mails from the CO asking for a date. He could see the cache site from his bedroom window, and did watch cachers.

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I can tell you as a female college student who caches on her own that there are risks. However, these risks are no more dangerous than going to the store by yourself or walking home on your own. I always check an area otu via google maps before going (unless I know the area) if it looks even remotely dangerous, I just go for a different cache. No harm done.

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I am a 73 year old female who also caches mostly on my own, but there are some caches in places I don't feel comfortable going by myself so I wait on those until I can go with someone, in order of perceived danger:

1. My sister--obviously another older female--just in case I might fall and become incapacitated so there's someone who can call 911.

2. A group of up to 5 other older folks--including some who are along just for the hike.

3. My daughter and her two big dogs.

4. My husband and his Glock (haven't had to use this option yet, but it's available if I feel the need for it.)

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If you think the area is so bad that bringing your husband with his Glock is necessary I think that is a place you should avoid no matter how good the cache itself is. I carry a Glock myself but I don't go dicey places that I can avoid unless there is an absolute necessity for me to be there and a geocache is NOT a necessity. That may be heresy to some but it's common sense to me.

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I avoid places with people carrying guns. Fortunately that's easy enough in our neck of the woods. Safety concerns here are mainly falling off things, not other people. We even hardly have dangerous animals.

 

Don't know where you're from but some places you can't avoid that. There are some states that are open carry. And lots of states that are concealed carry. It's not the law abiding, well intentioned people that carry who you have to be worried about.

 

And yes here too, it's falling off things. And snakes. Sometimes both on the same cache...not that it's happened to me :ph34r:

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I avoid places with people carrying guns. Fortunately that's easy enough in our neck of the woods. Safety concerns here are mainly falling off things, not other people. We even hardly have dangerous animals.

Don't know where you're from but some places you can't avoid that. There are some states that are open carry. And lots of states that are concealed carry. It's not the law abiding, well intentioned people that carry who you have to be worried about.

 

We call people carrying guns police. B) Running into a criminal with a gun is also a very low risk.

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i never even heard of a story where geocaching was used for criminal purposes like how craigslist can be, does a story like this exist?

 

Just about the time I started caching I read a story about a cacher who was a serial killer and used a coin with a location device in it to find families to kill. It wasn't very good and finishing it had more to do with it being about geocaching that being a good mystery read. I don't remember the title. I got it as a free Kindle book two years or so ago.

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This isn't meant to be an advertisement, just an idea. But if you both have smart phones, you might consider using an app like FAMILO to track each other's whereabouts when he cannot be there during your cache outings.

 

These apps do not share your location outside of whomever you invited into your "circle" of friends/family. And they allow you to turn off your location sharing if you are concerned about too much information and/or to conserve battery.

 

As a family we've used other apps that are similar, and other folks here may have other recommendations if you do go this route; but FAMILO seemed the most responsive on location updates. (Life360 was terrible.)

Edited by MountainWoods
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This isn't meant to be an advertisement, just an idea. But if you both have smart phones, you might consider using an app like FAMILO to track each other's whereabouts when he cannot be there during your cache outings.

 

These apps do not share your location outside of whomever you invited into your "circle" of friends/family. And they allow you to turn off your location sharing if you are concerned about too much information and/or to conserve battery.

 

As a family we've used other apps that are similar, and other folks here may have other recommendations if you do go this route; but FAMILO seemed the most responsive on location updates. (Life360 was terrible.)

 

A bit off topic, but there is one major flaw. It tracks the location of the phone, and that's it. It doesn't tell you the person is ok, it doesn't tell you where the people are. Cellphones are easily traced, a smart attack would leave, or destroy the phone. Would be good for knowing where your kids are, for example, but to rely on it as a safety device isn't such a great idea.

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This isn't meant to be an advertisement, just an idea. But if you both have smart phones, you might consider using an app like FAMILO to track each other's whereabouts when he cannot be there during your cache outings.

 

These apps do not share your location outside of whomever you invited into your "circle" of friends/family. And they allow you to turn off your location sharing if you are concerned about too much information and/or to conserve battery.

 

As a family we've used other apps that are similar, and other folks here may have other recommendations if you do go this route; but FAMILO seemed the most responsive on location updates. (Life360 was terrible.)

 

.... It doesn't tell you the person is ok,

Well duh!

it doesn't tell you where the people are.

A good app will. That was the point of my post.

 

Guess we differ on opinion on this.

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Everyone has their own comfort level about an area. Use your good judgment. A deserted place like a cemetery could be risky. However, if you drive past and notice that there are a dozen cars of visitors visible and the landscape maintenance crew is at work, then maybe it appears quite safe. A cemetery near me has several caches and always seems active with visitors.

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I avoid places with people carrying guns. Fortunately that's easy enough in our neck of the woods. Safety concerns here are mainly falling off things, not other people. We even hardly have dangerous animals.

Don't know where you're from but some places you can't avoid that. There are some states that are open carry. And lots of states that are concealed carry. It's not the law abiding, well intentioned people that carry who you have to be worried about.

 

We call people carrying guns police. B) Running into a criminal with a gun is also a very low risk.

That depends on where you live. Where I live, running into Criminal carrying a gun is a very high probability.

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Geocaching is not unsafe in and of itself. Any risks would not be different than going somewhere for some other reason. For example, would your finacee be as concerned if you were going to the same graveyard to spend time visiting the grave of <insert deceased loved one here>? The risks of each are the same.

 

It is rare for caches to be found even once a day, so someone posting a cache and waiting for someone to show up would be an excercise in extreme patience. Most bad people don't have that kind of patience.

 

Invite him to come with you; it may be about his need to protect you (all guys have this need even if they won't admit to it).

 

You're right. That how someone I know became a serial killer. He makes up the cache page, and goes to wait at the location for a few day, up to 2 weeks until it gets published and the first finder gets there.

 

Please cite the case by news article or other official report. THAT story would have been sensationalized and buzzing all over the community. I have yet to hear of anyone laying in wait at a geocache to murder anybody. This smells of rumor mongering.

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I agree with others. It is pretty safe as long as your careful. It would carry some of the same risks as jogging, hiking and so on. One issue with it is paying too much attention to your gps and not your surroundings. Pay attention to what is going on around you and who is there. Like others said, if the location doesn't feel safe then move on.

 

In some ways it is safer then running. With running you would normally have a route and regular time you do it. With geocaching you are all over the place.

 

A cemetery in the right area would be fine. In a remote location it might be a bit of an issue. Check the map, in most areas there should be plenty of caches that are located in areas that would be safe for you to search for them.

 

James

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Geocaching is not unsafe in and of itself. Any risks would not be different than going somewhere for some other reason. For example, would your finacee be as concerned if you were going to the same graveyard to spend time visiting the grave of <insert deceased loved one here>? The risks of each are the same.

 

It is rare for caches to be found even once a day, so someone posting a cache and waiting for someone to show up would be an excercise in extreme patience. Most bad people don't have that kind of patience.

 

Invite him to come with you; it may be about his need to protect you (all guys have this need even if they won't admit to it).

 

You're right. That how someone I know became a serial killer. He makes up the cache page, and goes to wait at the location for a few day, up to 2 weeks until it gets published and the first finder gets there.

 

Please cite the case by news article or other official report. THAT story would have been sensationalized and buzzing all over the community. I have yet to hear of anyone laying in wait at a geocache to murder anybody. This smells of rumor mongering.

 

It was sarcasm :ph34r: . Although if there is a killer waiting for me at the same place for a few days up to 2 weeks, I won't fight. He's dedicated, I can't dissapoint him by foiling his plans...

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We call people carrying guns police. B) Running into a criminal with a gun is also a very low risk.

That depends on where you live. Where I live, running into Criminal carrying a gun is a very high probability.

 

We have gun control, hence, very low risk and very few shootings. I can't even remember if we ever had one "random" shooting, ever.

 

Edit: Correction, we had one years ago (2006). Racist motive so not really "random" but shooting nevertheless.

Edited by on4bam
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In Australia, in 1996, we had one of the worst mass killings by one person ever. 35 deaths and 24 non-fatal injuries.

 

Our then prime minister, John Howard, immediately introduced gun controls which were approved by all states and territories despite a campaign by the shooters party. Before that, we had roughly one multiple killing a year. Since then we have had none.

 

People who can demonstrate a need can still get appropriate weapons. Farmers who live in an area inhabited by feral pigs can own rapid fire shotguns. Hunters can still get licenses for hunting rifles. However, fully automatic and semi-automatic weapons are restricted to military and police use. After all, why does a private citizen need a semi-automatic weapon?

 

Like On4Bam we call people with guns Police or Soldiers.

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Before that, we had roughly one multiple killing a year. Since then we have had none.

Wrong on both counts. Since 1996 we have had mass murders. 3 arson attacks killing a total of 36 people, blunt instrument attack killing 5 and knife attack which killed 8. Changes to firearms laws only changed the weapon of choice.

People who can demonstrate a need can still get appropriate weapons. Farmers who live in an area inhabited by feral pigs can own rapid fire shotguns. Hunters can still get licenses for hunting rifles. However, fully automatic and semi-automatic weapons are restricted to military and police use.

And then there are those 'attacks' which have resulted in the deaths of 3 or more people but aren't counted because the weapon was a car.

 

Automatic weapons have been banned since the 1930's. Obtaining a licence for a rifle or shotgun is as easy as falling off a log. Handgun licences are also easy, but quite time consuming.

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