How to remove geo from site as this is trespassing?

[Griz7674]

I own the woods, and the private cemetery, for geo cache GC5E39 Hammond Bean Cache. I just found a cache located well within my woods overlooking a small cliff. There was no identifying owner information and the account on this website requires premium access. I have destroyed the geo as NOBODY has permission to be on my property let alone encouraging others to trespass. What is the best way to remove this geo from the website?

[+niraD]

2 hours ago, Griz7674 said:

I own the woods, and the private cemetery, for geo cache GC5E39 Hammond Bean Cache. I just found a cache located well within my woods overlooking a small cliff. There was no identifying owner information and the account on this website requires premium access. I have destroyed the geo as NOBODY has permission to be on my property let alone encouraging others to trespass. What is the best way to remove this geo from the website?

I followed the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page, and then followed the chain of links to the email form at:

https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=request

 

For the category, I don't see a "land owner complaint" category, so your best bet is probably "11. Legal inquiries" or "16. Geocacher disagreement".

[Keystone]

The cache is already archived, so mission accomplished.  It's interesting to note that the cache owner is a minister who has relatives interred at the cemetery in question.

[+NanCycle]

Interesting to note also that the cache was there for 20 years before the landowner decided it was a problem.

[Griz7674]

Interesting note.... we don't geocache so never even knew it existed. Even more Interesting note....it's PRIVATE PROPERTY and the landowners were never asked. Even more Interesting note....neither being a minister nor being allowed to have members buried there gives anyone the right to trespass or encourage others to trespass. Yet another interesting note.....posting geo's on private property is specifically against your own rules. We've owned the property since the 50's so we are very well known had someone requested permission to do this.

[+arisoft]

1 hour ago, Griz7674 said:

we don't geocache so never even knew it existed

 

After this 20 years of positive experience, would you give permission for a new geocache if asked? It doesn't seem to be causing any harm to your business.

[Griz7674]

No. In today's litigious society, it is absolutely not worth the risk as there is no benefit to my family. It only poses risk with zero benefit. In the next week the entire area will be clearly marked with no trespassing signs and purple paint.

[+Max and 99]

Fortunately there is no waymark there so no worries about a waymarker going to visit the cemetery. 

[+Viajero Perdido]

Since you've already made the account and kinda know what it's about ... maybe you'd like to try the game?  It's pretty fun. 

 

(I know a landowner who got hooked in just this way.)

[+kunarion]

53 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Since you've already made the account and kinda know what it's about ... maybe you'd like to try the game?  It's pretty fun. 

 

(I know a landowner who got hooked in just this way.)

 

I'm impressed by persons who have the natural ability to find Geocaches... without the map, description, GPS, or anything.  The OP might be great at this!

 

But I need all the help I can get. 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by kunarion

[+Goldenwattle]

29 minutes ago, kunarion said:

 

I'm impressed by persons who have the natural ability to find Geocaches... without the map, description, GPS, or anything.  The OP might be great at this!

 

But I need all the help I can get. 

 

I found my first 180 caches without a GPS or phone. But I did have a car GPS which would get me to the area, plus the description. Then I would look for bent grass , etc and follow where others had walked, and think, where would I hide it. (If I could find this. It depends how recently the cache had been found, because last find might have been months ago.) Sometimes "stump" for the hint made it easy .

I remember one cache. I looked at the ground. People had walked, here, there, everywhere. Too many trails. Obviously even with a GPS people were struggling. Sign, which to follow. I didn't find it.

Sometimes it's easier without a GPS. I was with a friend who had left his GPS at home, so I headed to GZ, while he started looking in likely places. He found it. The coordinates were out.

[Griz7674]

10 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Since you've already made the account and kinda know what it's about ... maybe you'd like to try the game?  It's pretty fun. 

 

(I know a landowner who got hooked in just this way.)

I appreciate the sentiment but just not my thing. Too many other hobbies.

[+Max and 99]

I was looking at the Find a Grave listing and there's a lot more memorials there than I expected! How do the families of loved ones buried there visit despite the trespassing issue? 

[+kunarion]

On 10/10/2022 at 10:50 AM, Max and 99 said:

I was looking at the Find a Grave listing and there's a lot more memorials there than I expected! How do the families of loved ones buried there visit despite the trespassing issue? 

I'd expect that the family can visit the family cemetery.  Someone was buried there this year (if the Internet didn't lead me astray).

 

Not far from my home, there's a Revolutionary War soldier's grave in someone's front yard.  I don't know the legal ramifications of owning access to a stranger's grave, but it would be a kind gesture to allow descendants to visit (maybe the land owner would provide access with advance notice).  The cache for the soldier on the lawn was archived.  But the current owners may allow family to visit.  Anyway, there's a difference between people arriving to pay their respects, and people arriving to get a Smilie.

 

OTOH, when I visit cemetery while caching, I always learn a little bit about the people, their joys and sorrows, who they were, their story about how they lived in this town.  It's history that becomes forgotten when the place is fenced off.  I've even found a whole family cemetery overgrown, many headstones with the unusual last name of a co-worker.  He was excited to have the location of the place where some of his relatives lay.  All of this discovered because I was Geocaching.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by kunarion

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, Griz7674 said:

I appreciate the sentiment but just not my thing. Too many other hobbies.

 

There are many facets to Geocaching.  Sometimes a landowner places just one cache, a nice container in just the right spot where it doesn't bother anyone if Geocachers arrive.  Even close to a cemetery.  Then the cache page has some stories about the people in that cemetery.

[Griz7674]

We allow the general public to visit the cemetery only. Had the cache been in the cemetery then we would not have had an issue.  However, it wasn't.  It was a solid 20 yards into the woods, sitting amongst old large concrete blocks and overlooking a small cliff. Unfortunately, it was also within line of fire for where we hunt and site our guns in. There was nothing about this cache that respected the landowner.  For being there 20 years, you would expect that someone would have reported it as being on private property as it CLEARLY wasn't in the cemetery but nobody did. So, when we reviewed those facts, it's just not in our best interest to allow it to continue. 

[+Goldenwattle]

1 hour ago, Griz7674 said:

We allow the general public to visit the cemetery only. Had the cache been in the cemetery then we would not have had an issue.  However, it wasn't.  It was a solid 20 yards into the woods, sitting amongst old large concrete blocks and overlooking a small cliff. Unfortunately, it was also within line of fire for where we hunt and site our guns in. There was nothing about this cache that respected the landowner.  For being there 20 years, you would expect that someone would have reported it as being on private property as it CLEARLY wasn't in the cemetery but nobody did. So, when we reviewed those facts, it's just not in our best interest to allow it to continue. 

Some people don't like to put a cache in the cemetery as they think it is disrespectful. Maybe that was the case here . I personally though have no problem with this, as long as it doesn't interfere with graves and is placed away from the graves. I have found many in cemeteries that are not interfering with graves, say in a tree, or on the fence. Shame it was archived. If the cache owner had known you had no problem with in the cemetery, maybe they could have moved it there. But it's gone now.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

Griz7674 - 

Everything you've written is correct, and we apologize for intruding on your property.

 

Know that even though the hobby's guidelines are clear on the need for placement permission, it wasn't very rigorously enforced until just a few years ago, so it's easy to understand how the cache would have been placed and published on the website. We're getting better about stuff like this.

 

Respect for the land has always been a hallmark of the hobby; it's why "CITO" (Cache-In, Trash-Out) is a central theme and is the purpose of many GeoCaching events.

 

As someone stated above, many of us like cemetery 'hides' because they give us an excuse to wander around and see who's there. I've written before about how I read headstones out loud. How would you feel if you know that if you died today, someone in the year 2222 was going to say your name out loud; not just say the words that make up your name, but actually referring to YOU!

 

So, should you change your mind about having a Cache properly located in a respectful, appropriate spot, c'mon back here and we'll try to get you hooked up with a local Geocacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by TeamRabbitRun