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Told Any Big Whoppers?


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The other day I was marking some waypoints while trying to establish a new cache in a park area. Unfortunately, there was an elderly muggle walking her dog around the park in repititive circles. So, I'd act non-chalant (stand by the pond and watch the ducks) while she watched and keep working when her back was to me. As I finished and was leaving we passed each other and she politely asked what I was up to, she had noticed that I was taking readings of some kind....

 

Well, now I'm officially doing research for the Blue River Conservation Project (for all I know, maybe there is such a thing!) by marking the perimeter of the reservior in order to monitor its surface area at different times of the year, if anyone asks. ;)

 

This is a pretty boring example, but I'll bet there are some cachers out there that have told some big whoppers to conceal their hunt! Tell us about the most outrageous story you have told, or heard that somebody told, to a muggle!

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By all means tell the truth.

 

"Im out here with my expensive GPS hiding a container of Mc Toys so that others like like me can come scour this area with expensive GPS's of their own in hopes they can claim a Mc Toy for themselves." ;)

Edited by WH
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1. I am working towards a degree in Global Positioning Satellite networking and I am taking readings from very high dollar sensitive equipment which was placed by the Army Corp of Engineers. Please don't disturb the equipment after I leave or I will be forced to report you to the proper authorities. (Of course, the 'equipment' was an ammo can I hadn't opened yet! The guy believed me and quickly walked away after promising NOT to touch the equipment!).

 

2. I am working on an extra credit assignment for my GPS networking class. I have to find GPS signal boxes and record their information. (The guys offered to help me look. I told them they could help me but they couldn't TOUCH the signal boxes. I made them promise not to touch the box after I left. I told them it was a federal offense to mess with signal boxes. They got bored quick, wished me luck and went on their way.)

 

3. I was feeding ducks and geese here earlier with my friend and her kid. My friend thinks she dropped her cellphone here and I was just looking for it for her.

 

4. I was walking here earlier and I think I lost my ring. I was hoping I could retrace my steps and find it out here.

 

5. (Hold GPS to your ear): "Where are you guys? I've been waiting here for 30 minutes. I thought we were supposed to meet here and go for our walk! Oh, you're on the way? Okay, I will wait for you at the park bench (rock, trail, whatever)."

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Why on earth did you feel the need to lie about it?

Well, I'll judge the person first. If they look like they would unserstand or be interested in what I am doing, I will tell them exactly what I am doing.

 

If they look like they would trash/take a cache after I leave, call homeland security, etc. I will tell a lie. ;)

Edited by Imajika
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5. (Hold GPS to your ear): "Where are you guys? I've been waiting here for 30 minutes. I thought we were supposed to meet here and go for our walk! Oh, you're on the way? Okay, I will wait for you at the park bench (rock, trail, whatever)."

Sooner or later you're going to run into another Geocacher while you're doing this. They're gonna go home and tell their wife "Some idiot was talking to her GPSr like it was a cell-phone" ;)

Edited by Team GPSaxophone
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5. (Hold GPS to your ear): "Where are you guys? I've been waiting here for 30 minutes. I thought we were supposed to meet here and go for our walk! Oh, you're on the way? Okay, I will wait for you at the park bench (rock, trail, whatever)."

Sooner or later you're going to run into another Geocacher while you're doing this. They're gonna go home and tell their wife "Some idiot was talking to her GPSr like it was a cell-phone" ;)

Are you speaking from experience? B)

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I had an old lady on a golf course ask me why I was taking the bird feeder out of the tree. I showed her the string going to the hook on the ground and told her I tripped and knocked it loose and was only trying to put it back up. Then when she moved on to the next hole I took it back down and logged my find.

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Most often I use the phone thing, or I play dumb and "look at the little duckies, how cute..." type thing.

 

I have also told them I work for the gas company and that I am using a device to look for leaks in the line. I have also done the, I dropped somehting earlyer thing. The most outrageous thing was that I told an old guy that I was following a mangnetic field ... the rest I posted early was a joke, but from here up was true

Edited by wildearth2001
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Usually I just let a little drool run down my chin then turn to them and say;

 

"My mom moo dog face retire to the banana patch"

 

They're usually on their way pretty quick after that, and they never have a desire to come back for a look around.

What a coincidence. I say the same thing to hitch hikers.

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I have never found the need to explain myself . . . I avoid any and all contact with potential muggles . . .

 

My mommy taught me to avoid contact with strangers and strange people . . . it's advice I follow to this day.

 

;)

 

Happy caching and stuff!

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Since I do benchmark hunting as well as geocaching, I usually have an NGS datasheet with me. I just explain that I am looking for survey markers and flash the datasheet covered with numbers and technical looking stuff and that works.

 

Before I started doing that, my son and I were looking for part of a multi in some bushes along a river bed (note: here in So. Cal. that means a concrete channel) when a guy on a bike came by and asked us what we were looking for. Caught unprepared, I said the first thing that came to mind: Botany tags.

 

I guess that sounded pretty boring because he said 'Oh!' and rode away. Thank goodness he didn't ask what they were because I have no idea myself!!! ;)

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Lies to tell when you run into a non-cacher:

 

"I'm with NASA. We've recently detected a medium-sized asteroid which is headed towards Earth, and according to all our calculations, it's gonna hit here in about 6 hours. I'm just doing some estimates of casualties from the strike, which should have a yield of about 30 kilotons. You don't happen to live around here, do you?"

 

<waving the GPS over the person like a wand> "We've been detecting high levels of radiation in this area and... oh, that's not good. That's not good at all..."

 

"Hi, I'm with Al Qaida. We're looking for a good place to land a missile, and we thought this might be a likely candidate. Is this place busy on weekends?"

 

"I'm with the biological research lab just over there..." <vaguely wave towards buildings> "...you haven't seen a monkey bleeding from its eyes around here, have you? Well if you do, promise me you won't go near it, and that you'll hold your breath if it comes within, oh, 50 feet or so."

 

"This is the latest in New Age technology, it's a digital dowsing rod. This area has some GREAT flow lines, I'll bet you have high levels of UFO activity around here."

 

"I could tell you.. but then I'd have to kill you."

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i've been asked by the police what i was doing when getting coordinates for a cache i'm going to place. i showed them the gps and said i was trying to figure out how to work it. they said it was pretty cool watched me taking readings for a while and went about their business.

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My favorite story in this regard was in the Benchmarking section. I don't remember who it was, but the story went this way:

 

" CACHER was just getting out of my car to hunt a benchmark which was near the side of the road. I had an orange vest on, my GPS in one hand, a clipboard with the details on it, and a camera around my neck. Up pulls a BMW with Ken and Barbie. Ken rolls down the window, and asks if they can get through or not.

 

The words rolled out before I could stop them, "Nope, bridge is out, you'll have to take the long way around."

 

If anyone remembers who that was, or is that guy, COngratulate them please.

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Buy a "geocaching cloak of invisibility"--an orange safety vest. Muggles will assume you're out there in some kind of official capacity and leave you alone. If they do question you, any of the afore posted lies will work.

Yup. Add the following:

 

Hardhat

Clipboard

ID card around neck

 

And you can walk damm near anywhere and nobody pays any attention. I have a friend who is a detecive and he uses it regularly, if anyone asks he "works for the county doing land use planning and soil conservation".

 

I swear, with a hardhat, clipboard, ID card and even better a GPSr that looks like a measuring device you could probably walk right into anywhere as long as you acted like you had real business there.

 

Since I am a ham rdaio operater, the couple extra antennas on my vehicle just add to the illusion. It comes in really ahndy for me since I prefer to hunt benchmarks most of teh time, and they are not in as friendly places as caches are.

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That only ever happened to me once. I was with two other cachers and Enfanta...Enfanta decided to tell the muggles that we were all about to get naked.

 

It didn't work.

 

They hung out to see if we were about to disrobe...I could barely keep myself from bursting out laughing.

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Often the only time i have for caching is before and after work on my way home. So needless to say I look out of place walking in the woods in kaki pants and a dress shirt. I have told people that i'm part of a private company who tests out outdoor products like those waterproof pants and dress shirts you see on tv. They pay you more if you go in the woods rather than paved paths and I record my path with the gps. I'll ask them if they want to join and write down the number (random 1 800 number) ask for greg, he's in charge of hiring.

 

if i'm looking a little crazy that day, say that you have about five copperheads (or a local dangerous animal)implanted with radio transmitters, and you're tracking them down for research. show them the gps (even better if you're close to the cache) and say "oh my, she's getting closer than I thought" see how long they stick around.

 

have fun with it, if it's a cop i'll tell them the truth. if they look cool i'll tell them the truth, but anyone else is fair game.

 

Joe Smith

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For some reason, this brought to mind a cache we went after last weekend. When we got to the coordinates, we discovered it was hidden under a bench next to an ice cream store. The problem was: There was a very large, tough-looking guy sitting RIGHT ON TOP OF IT. B)

 

So what did we do? We walked up to the guy and said "Excuse me, we need to reach under the bench." He said OK, we took the cache out, signed the log right in front of him, and replaced the cache. We thanked him and walked away. The guy didn't even so much as look at us the entire time.

 

We've found that to be the norm rather than the exception. It's amazing how little interest people have in what others are doing.

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B) I'm actually looking at an ex-forest service vehicle, much for the same purpose.  :P

Oooh! Or one of the white Jeep Cherokees done up like the ones they have patrolling around Area 51 would be ideal!

 

When you get to a site, place your "NO TRESPASSING, USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED signs around. Then make sure your black BDU pants and kevlar vest is in place and begin the hunt in peace. B)

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5. (Hold GPS to your ear): "Where are you guys? I've been waiting here for 30 minutes. I thought we were supposed to meet here and go for our walk! Oh, you're on the way? Okay, I will wait for you at the park bench (rock, trail, whatever)."

What if they say they have an emergency and ask if they can use it to make a call? I've had people ask to borrow my "phone" before.. B)

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"Hi, I'm with Al Qaida. We're looking for a good place to land a missile, and we thought this might be a likely candidate. Is this place busy on weekends?"

Ok, I'll say it.

 

Tasteless....

I agree, but the fact is, before September 11th most people wouldn't give a rat's a** what you're up to. Now everyone feels inclined to ask, as if you were actually going to tell them if you were up to no good. Sometimes, human behavior can be funny.

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I have a bright orange parka, and if I just put maybe a patch on it, that sort of resembled the DCNR patch, I could probably get away with lost of stuff...

 

I am like the king of looking important when your not really important.

 

Slap on a security badge and you can get almost anywhere...

Edited by TeamK-9
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By all means tell the truth.

 

"Im out here with my expensive GPS hiding a container of Mc Toys so that others like like me can come scour this area with expensive GPS's of their own in hopes they can claim a Mc Toy for themselves." B)

Don't forget to add "Please don't steal the McToys when I leave"

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While hunting a micro in dubious neighborhood I once told an 13-ish nogoodnick that I was measuring the distance to the Cleveland Innerbelt Bridge which was clearly visible from the spot. I explained the bridge was moving downstream with the current and we have to tow it back to the right spot every decade or so. I was wearing my vest and hardhat and carrying my aluminum clipboard at the time.

 

The kid bought it. He just said, "Oh, OK dude." He didn't even wonder how a 4200'+ bridge could move down river. It really made me nervous about the school system.

 

I could have told the truth, but this was much more fun.

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Buy a "geocaching cloak of invisibility"--an orange safety vest. Muggles will assume you're out there in some kind of official capacity and leave you alone. If they do question you, any of the afore posted lies will work.

I find a dog on a leash and a plastic bag in hand does the same thing. People tend to assume I'm taking care of dog "business."

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I normaly carry around one of those trash pick up gadgets. Most people

don't say a word when I standing next to them reaching in the bushes and

looking around. I have had one guy tell me I missed some trash over that way.

 

Happy GeoCaching

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If I am out doing the Urban caching thing, I have a clipboard, orange vest and a very official looking geocaching name badge I wear...most muggles will leave you alone but I have used these before...

 

Looking for a cache in a city park hidden on a ped bridge when a kid came by an asked if we lost something...nope Bridge inspectors and we are checking the structual integrity after the hard freezes we have had! He left really fast!

 

On a city block that was busy so while the team searched, I distarcted muggles by asking...I am taking a poll and can I ask you some questions...no one wanted to talk to me!

 

I had a lady ask in one park if I was an official geese counter...ahhh, why yes, yes I am!

 

but my two favorite that I like to use is...I found another dead bird over here, the toxic gas cloud must have passed thru here

 

and one day there was 6 or 7 of us in 3 vehicles and as we pulled up to the wooded area, there were a couple sitting by the lake as we all jumped out of our trucks and took of for the woods.So there we were, all looking around with GPSr's in hands doing the caching circles and turn arounds when I yelled out, Hey, the radiation level is higher here and one of my team mates picked it up real fast and said, Yes , I am reading a high level here as well...I have never seen anyone leave an area so fast in my life!

 

I have to agree that most of the time it is worth telling the truth about the game but sometimes it is so much funner when you tell people something else!

 

Darkmoon

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I swear, with a hardhat, clipboard, ID card and even better a GPSr that looks like a measuring device you could probably walk right into anywhere as long as you acted like you had real business there.

 

Since I am a ham rdaio operater, the couple extra antennas on my vehicle just add to the illusion.

I've often thought about getting a magnetic sign for my pickup's door.

 

It would say (in teeny tiny letters,) "Amateur radio operations from this vehicle are licensed by the," and (in big fat letters,) "Federal Communications Commission"

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I'm kind of bothered by my sons' willingness to come up with "cover stories" and the speed in which they do it.

 

Today we found a cache and there just happenned to be a "kite festival" going on in the nearby field. As we snuck off to the wooded area, my son said, "If anyone wants to know what we are doing, we can tell them we are looking for our kite!"

 

Cacheola Crew Mom

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3. I was feeding ducks and geese here earlier with my friend and her kid. My friend thinks she dropped her cellphone here and I was just looking for it for her.

 

Ahh yes. I've never used that for moogles, but when we do night caching, that is our preset excuse if someone of authority shows up. Don't want the cell phone out when the dew sets in, you know. Haven't had to use it yet, but had a close call last night. It was about 11:30pm, and the park closed at dusk.

 

As far as moogles, as others have said, most people tend to mind their own business. I love to observe my surroundings, but it seems like most people (in these parts at least) don't pay an ounce of attention, even when I'm digging around for an urban micro or something.

 

I've only once had someone ask anything. It was the first stage of a multi, and was one of those secluded places that people go to think, read, and get out of the way. There was a guy reading there. After 20 minutes or so, the guy asked if I lost something. I told him that some friends hid a tag for me to find (close enough). He helped for a few minutes and then wished me luck, and took off. Turns out the tag was not 5 feet from where he was sitting. I would have never searched there with him that close.

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I was looking for SBUX 26 - B.C.. It's an (sub)urban micro that sees heavy muggle traffic. My log went like this:

 

Jeez - has it really been two weeks since I first looked for this cache? I've been back a number of times (since the shopping center is near where I live), but the site has been either too cold, too crowded or too snow-covered. My story (if caught): I was hired by the strip mall owner to make sure the bushes were taken care of during snow melt. OK, crappy story, I know, but I can't think of any other reason to be standing there ... TOOK nothing, LEFT nothing, SIGNED logbook (duh)

 

Hey Scoobie10: it's not easy landing a station wagon out at the airport ...

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I have never found the need to explain myself . . . I avoid any and all contact with potential muggles . . .

 

My mommy taught me to avoid contact with strangers and strange people . . . it's advice I follow to this day.

 

:D

 

Happy caching and stuff!

But you spoke to Mopar! :P

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