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Caching Cops


2LuknF8

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Just last Saturday, my sister & I attended a cache event and ended up doing some night caching :blink: on the way home. One of the caches was located in an old cemetery (The Grateful Dead Meet Aerosmith (Traditional Cache) ). Part of the challenge was to define the connectoin between the Grateful Dead and Aerosmith. Since neither of us could remember any of the band member's names, we decided to snag this one later. Besides, the rain was starting to come down harder by now. Well, upon trying to exit, the local Green Cove Springs police pull up. "Can I ask what you are doing here at this time of night?" (Ummm, truth best be used now) "Uhh, geocaching, sir. Have you ever heard of it?" (small grin on young officer's face) "Why, yes, there is one over (he starts listing all the sites we had previously visited). He then asked which one was up here. I stated that I could not remember any of the names for Aerosmith. He immediately responds with answers (I begin to think I should invite this guy to go geocaching with us sometime). So, now he wants to join in the hunt. Two officers, FL SunCacher and myself go walking in the rain :) . We did not find the container (probably a good thing, too) but did find the answers to the connection. They really seemed to enjoy themselves. All in all, it was a rather unique experience.

I wonder what other cachers have had similar experiences?

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Last Friday night we were night caching, having parked at the edge of a state highway (note on cache page OK'd night excursions) when after finding all the stages of a tough 'projection' multi, our driver called home to discover the police had called his wife!

 

They saw the car, discovered it was registered out of town (an hour away) and wanted to be sure it wasn't stolen or anything. She told them we were hiking there and they said fine, the car's parked legally, no problem, if they don't turn up when expected let us know and we'll find 'em.

 

Just the way things should be!

 

Randy

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This question gets asked a lot. You are bound to get stopped sooner or later and questioned for what you are doing. Although It took me almost 2 years to the day of geocaching to get questioned. Like most have said before, just tell them the truth. You may be surprised at their reaction. Yes, there are always loose canons but most of the cops are doing their job which is looking out for you not trying to bust your balls for having innocent fun.

 

We were out of state (MS) and parked beside an old barn just off a busy road and near the river levee. It was orange alert status and I was hunting a cache while the wife was in the car. As I came back victorious the wife explains a cop just went by and I think he saw us. Sure enough here he comes again speeding towards us. It's a county Sherrif vehicle with a young man behind the wheel. The wife a little scared asks what I'm going to tell him. The truth, of course, I replied. What do you expect me to tell him, some story about why we are hiding near this barn just sitting in the car?

 

He asked if we were ok and then asked what I was doing. Geocaching I reply. I got that blank muggle stare of course. So I replied with the usual line when asked. It's like a scavenger hunt but you use your GPS to find hidden boxes of stuff. Oh, he replies, that's all? Yep. That's it?, he asks. Yep. And these things are all ove the place? Yep.

 

The next reply had us laughing for 5 minutes after he drove away. In his best Southern drawl he says "No S$%t?"

 

So at this point I get out of the car and show him the map of where we are. I then zoom out to a cluster of icons all over the screen. See, these are all caches. And people just hide these all over? he says. Yep. No S$%t!, he says again.

 

See you can load the information on a PDA and just go around finding them. It's great fun while you are on vacation. And you came all the way here to find these?, he asks. Well, that and other things. No S$%t?

 

Well, dadgum I'm just gonna have to look up that website when I get home. was his reply as he had to go. :blink:

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I had a close call late one Sunday night looking for a cache in a business complex. The street had no parking signs & the gate to the parking lot was closed. So I park on the street figuring it's sunday & I won't be there long anyway. After hunting (unsucessfully) until well after dark, my dog "Wiggles" started getting anxious & wimpering. We're walking back & all of the sudden Wiggles starts running & I run with her, all the way back to the car. We get in & just as we're pulling away...here comes a police car! I owe her an IN-N-OUT cheesburger bigtime!

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I just did my first three caches yesterday, one of them being a micro cash cache in rural MN. I had the canister in my car and was filling out the log book and putting coins it, and I looked up and a sheriff's deputy was behind me! :D Needless to say I was a little nervous (they probably checked my plates.. hee hee j/k) but the cop approached me and asked if I was all right. I told him I was geocaching and he didn't know what it was. I gave a little bit of a miniature explanation(if that makes sense) and he was probably more confused than when he arrived.

It's just my luck that I get questioned on my third cache ever, my first day. Hmm.

I hope this doesn't happen to me all the time now! :lol:

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Cache rules.

 

1. protect the cache, don't get seen placing it or rummaging through it.

2. Protect your self, cache in a safe manner, with someone and if possible give yourself an escape route.

3. Look over your shoulder often, since you HAVE to be sneaky, you might as well look the part.

Edited by Bo Peep and the Sheep
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I am an Officer with a local Police Department. I learned about geocaching through a found property case that I worked. The geocachers found a pistol while looking for a cache. While talking about how they found the pistol they told me about geocaching and this website. That got me started.

 

My wife and I have found most of our local (In city limits) but not all of them yet. I even found one while on duty. It was a drive up cache and I was in the area on patrol so I logged it. Perks of driving the city all day!

 

On at least two caches in urban areas we have looked suspicious. We both learned something from those. We were very afraid of giving away the cache location to non-cachers, not afraid of LE contact. Several of my co-workers know about geocaching and a couple of them actually geocache also. Others look at me with an odd look and ask if I have anything better to do. (Possibly a fitness for duty evaluation thing!)

 

So far I am only aware of two incidents where cachers have been called in as suspicious and they were identified as cachers. In one case I was able to notify the responding officer that a cache was in the location. I am not aware of any negative cases with geocachers.

 

If you are approached by LE while geocaching, keep your hands visible, don't make any sudden movements, follow all commands, be polite, tell them what you are doing and offer to show your GPS, maps, etc. You will have a positive experience and may even come across a geocaching cop who will share some hints with you. The worse thing that will happen is that they will think that you have entirely too much time on your hands and look at you funny! LOL.

 

What I should do is sign up for immediate notification of new caches in my area and have it go to my cell phone. Then maybe I could be a FTF on city time. Would that be a conflict of interest? Don't tell my boss.

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