Geocaching And Law Enforcement

[+MNTA]

First always be honest what you are up to. No need to fake tying your shoelace. 

 

One of my favorite experiences was caching with a sheriff's deputy in rural Idaho. He stop to make sure we were not in need of assistance sitting on the side of the road. Kids were cached out sitting in the hot car. I showed him the app and how there were hundreds of caches  in the area, ICS challenge series. I even let him make the find, maybe we have a new cacher who knows. He had never known about it before and a small distraction for his day.

 

 

[+hzoi]

10 hours ago, amishpig said:

I am a police officer in Lancaster County PA USA and a long time geocacher. I still get a kick out of rolling up on a crew of unsuspecting cachers and tooting the police car siren. Once they learn that I too cache they laugh as well. I am always happy to give assistance with area caches and part knowing that I made a few new friends. 

 

I see you're a basic member.  If your department does not have a geocaching account, and your supervisors are OK with you being the department's official representative, you may be eligible for free premium membership.  See here.

[+DreamMachine74]

I've had two confrontations, though one was less concerning than the other.

 

First story;

Me and my friend were looking for a geocache in a park. Just after making the find (having searched for fifteen or so minutes), a cruiser went to the parking spot right near the GZ, and questioned what we were doing. I think we told the truth....but my memory is bad in some cases...this is my log, can't believe I found it last year, it feels like a while ago. https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=2a958c9f-fc1d-4e5f-92f5-583cf2a489fc

 

Second Story;

I was going for a few caches in a small town where some family live, my relative having dropped me off somewhat nearby. I made out with two DNFs (mostly because the few inches of snow we had made geocaching troublesome). I was in a park, which was barren due to the weather, and I was being a goof. Breaking ice, trying to find a cache in a pine....and I decided to finally look for this cache hidden in a wooden lot near the railway bridge, and not far from  someones house. Well….as I searched the GZ, an officer came by, and directed me to come out of the woodlot....telling me where to exit because their were brambles and such. Once I was out in the open, he approached me and asked me if I was okay and what I was doing. I told him the truth, and they carded me. I had no idea if they were charging me for anything (I didn't exactly figure out if the woodlot, which is quite small, is restricted for the public)….but after going to the local police station, they explained that I wasn't being charged, and hat someone called the police because I looked distressed or lost in the park. My log is here;

https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=2d62ed74-701a-4375-8871-cf20edcf8bf3

 

I will return for this geocache, when I see those family members again, and it'll be MUCH easier to find since I'm pretty sure the cache was covered in snow.

[+MartyBartfast]

Had the cops called out to me while I was up a tree looking for a cache last year:

https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=a9faed9f-fc69-496e-a713-499b659727da

 

 

[+lee737]

Two or three meetings with park rangers (always friendly chats), never approached by police, even after just on 3000 finds.... it helps that I always have one or two young kids with me, gives you a good reason to be in weird spots doing weird things!

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I think I've posted this elsewhere...

 

I was geocaching in Rome the day before I had a couple of days of meetings.   There was a cache near the Colosseum, an area full of tourists.   I could see the hiding spot in a wall from over 100 feet away so I just walked up to it pulled the container out and signed the log, then replaced the container.  When I turned around I saw a guy about 15 feet away looking toward the cache and appeared to have a hand held GPS on his belt.   Assuming that he was another geocacher I nodded, smiled and sort of pointed to the hiding spot as I started walking back toward my hotel.   I was a few hundred feet down the road when a very small police car pulled up next to me and they guy "with the GPS" and another with a badge got out, holding the cache container.  They then asked me, in Italian, about the cache.  I don't speak Italian and tried to explain in English what the game was about.  We weren't having much luck communicating so one of them asked a nearby food vendor to translate.   They wanted to know about the signatures and numbers  on the log sheet and with the help of the translator I was able to direct them to the website where they could read the Italian translation about the game.  They were asking if there were more of these in the "secure" areas but eventually they were satisfied that it was just a harmless game and told me that I was free to go.   I asked if I could return the cache to it's hiding place and they said that they would do it.  Apparently they did as there were a couple of finds on it later in the day.