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I Need To Vent.


Hoopy Frood

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If you don't like personal commentary please leave now. I'm about to rant.

 

This is to Mr. Waldron of our local county park service.

Now, Im a big boy and know that certain parks/areas are off limits after certain times.

I choose to hike/geocache after hours because of time restrictions like work and obligations like paying taxes. And I have to take responsibility for those actions.

If only so many rules and restrictions could be placed on the real threats to this Nation.

 

This is the second time we as a team have been issued tickets for being in a park after hours. Both times we were never caught in said park and were in fact on public roads. We tried to fight the first offense only to be beaten down by the local court.

 

The above mentioned rent a cop could have just issued a warning. No he chose go ahead and issue a ticket for loitering. Wow...I feel so much safer knowing that while Im being ticketed, illegal ATV's and Bicyclers are using our parks for destructive reasons. How would these rangers? paid by our tax money know anything about Illegal ATVs/Bikes? they wouldnt because I doubt.. and have never seen one of these rangers out of there vehicles.

 

I submit that if our borders guards could be taught how to patrol our borders as well as these park rangers then our Great Nation would be much more secure.

 

As for our Local Park Rangers I Commend You. Our parks are so much safer with likes of us off the trails. The hell with the beer drinking,ATV riding,illegal bike riders. What you cant see from the window of your nice little SUV cant hurt us right?

 

I believe I will rethink a hobby were so much trouble can be had from hiking.

Maybe a hobby like drinkin in the bar would be less stressful.

 

END OF RANT

 

Edited to be family-friendly.

Edited by Keystone Approver
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Thanks ever so much for your work to promote our sport in a positive light.

 

Through the efforts of concerned geocachers such as yourself, we will be able to maintain good relations with land managers, avoiding bans or over-regulation of geocaching.

 

And congratulations on your tenth find!

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Heh. In my area, the Morris County Park Police absolutely enforce the park curfews. Having gotten "caught" way back when parked with my date in a county park after dark, I remembered feeling similarly.

 

Of course, now from a different perspective - they've effectively prevented these parks from becoming hangouts. The curfews are there for a reason, and you can agree or disagree with the reason, but the hours are typically clearly posted and the "rent a cops" (or park police) are there just doing their job.

 

They don't make the rules - but are paid to enforce them. If you really feel strongly, contact your local parks department, but giving the police a hard time is just.....well, a good way to get a ticket.

 

Sorry you had a bad experience, I'm with you on the "work getting into the way of geocaching", but time conflicts are a way of life and geocaching's just not a "must-do" activity. You'd probably laugh if I said I broke into my local bank branch 'cause they weren't open when I could get there.

 

Those tickets stink (and I speak from experience). Good luck!

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I only wish that hours were posted at some of these parks. It seems that all the parks around here close at sunset, dusk, or 1/2 before sunset. I know my GPS will tell me exactly when sunset should be, but what about the park police. Is dusk the same time as sunset?

 

That being said the park police are just doing their job.

 

 

Dave

 

(still looking for a nice park for a night cache in North Jersey)

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I will make one reply to this thread.

 

1. thanks for making family friendly. <non-family friendly comment removed by moderator.>

2. To keystone approver, sorry if I dont fit the mold of your perfect geocacher. This isnt a private sport. Ya takes what ya gets.

Your so concerned about the sport, how about suggesting that it be mandatory that all cache pages list times of access. That would do more for the sport than chastising me. I know some caches do this voluntarily. Make it manditory.

Nice sarcasm.

 

3. To Hart climbs and the only sensible post. I never said there shouldnt be rules and times..

My main beef is that these Police only target people that they can catch from there cars. So many times I have seen ATVs,drinking people drinking on ATVs and illegal bicylers riding in our parks but quess what it was in the daylight so I guess it was OK.

 

And finally we never gave the park ranger any hassle. Just accepted our tickets like we should.

 

In closing Ive learned my lesson...never buck 'The Man'. Done!

Edited by Keystone Approver
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Heh.  In my area, the Morris County Park Police absolutely enforce the park curfews.  Having gotten "caught" way back when parked with my date in a county park after dark, I remembered feeling similarly.

So, was BrianSnat as cheap a date as I hear? ;)

You bonehead! BrianSnat and HartClimbs are the same person! :o

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Thanks ever so much for your work to promote our sport in a positive light.

 

Through the efforts of concerned geocachers such as yourself, we will be able to maintain good relations with land managers, avoiding bans or over-regulation of geocaching.

 

And congratulations on your tenth find!

Get 'Em KA!!!

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And congratulations on your tenth find!

I'm with KA on this one. You have been a member for almost 1 1/2 years and the closed hours are the only time you could go to the park? Why not plan a weekend or holiday to go, some time in that year instead of going after hours. Posted hours on a cache would be nice but sometimes, hours can be discretionary. In my work around city and county parks, they usually find a trouble area and work on that. Maybe, that park had more problems with illegal sales of drugs, then ATV problems and the guards were just checking to see if you were selling.

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You know, You CAN fight a ticket. Back when my team and I first started geocaching we got a ticket for being in a park way longer than we expected to be. When we got back to our vehicle there was an officer waiting there for us and he did'nt want to hear anything. He had called my team mates house and even spoke with his wife and when we arrived at the car he did not even give us a chance to explain. I think I got to say "But Sir..." and he snapped back "I KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING, YOU WERE PLAYING A GAME...I CALLED YOUR WIFE AND SHE TOLD ME ALL ABOUT IT, NOW GO STAND AGAINST YOUR CAR AND I'LL CALL YOU OVER WHEN IM DONE"

 

He gave us each a ticket for loitering. We challenged the ticket in court and once we explained to the judge what we were doing he said something to the effect of "All charges dropped, case closed, have a nice day gentleman" :o

 

Just fight it....what have you got to lose? Just whatever you do, remain respectful, explain geocaching in a positive way and you will see that they are willing to negotiate the charge. Get to court at least an hour early and speak with the prosecutor, hes the man you need to talk to. With all the other cases he is bound to be hearing the same night as your hearing, hes not going to be looking to throw the book at someone who was in a park after hours.

 

Good Luck!!

 

P.S. Don't mouth off or get nasty, cause the minute you do he will not even consider helping you, kiss a little rump if you need to...Trust me!! ;)

 

Kar of TS!!

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He gave us each a ticket for loitering. We challenged the ticket in court and once we explained to the judge what we were doing he said something to the effect of "All charges dropped, case closed, have a nice day gentleman"

 

What judge was this? I want to go before him if I have trouble with the law. Actually its possible that the cop charged you with the wrong crime, which could be why you got off the hook.

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What judge was this? I want to go before him if I have trouble with the law. Actually its possible that the cop charged you with the wrong crime, which could be why you got off the hook.

 

Cannot recall his name, but court was in Montville. We got these tickets doing the We Saw a Bear cache. If memory serves me correct, I believe it was in Pyramid Mtn., so it would have been the Morris County Park Police who ticketed us.

 

Kar of TS!!

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... how about suggesting that it be mandatory that all cache pages list times of access. That would do more for the sport than chastising me. I know some caches do this voluntarily. Make it manditory....

Sorry. I won't buy into listing a bunch of regulations that vary by park, city, county and state. You can look them up just fine. I was subject to them when I placed my cache, you are subject to them when you find the cache. You are subject to them if you go loiter at the park while eating lunch.

 

Now I agree with fightin the loitering charge and that you weren't loitering. It's a cheesy law that probably exists for no better reason than no other law was handy to clear out people who were considered 'undesireable'. Like street urchins near a business. Still you lost the case so you know how the vote is on geocaching after hours goes in your neighborhood. Consider 'The Man' as having said "it's undesirable".

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I am with Hoopy on this one. I avoid parks when I can for similar reasons. Many of these rangers are wannabes in that job as a stepping stone to be a real cop. Parks officials have lost sight of the reasons we have parks, for recreation. I have found real cops to be way more tolerant ( and reasonable) of far more serious offenses than park's officers. I recently visited a park, which I forget at the moment, but there was a sign posted that said, No Skating, No Rollerblading, No Bicycling, No Ball Playing. What can you do in this park, the exciting sport of watching the grass grow? I know there are problems in some parks that must be addressed, but I for one happen to think that a park can be a nice place at night. I might have said it before, but I am growing tired of being looked at as a criminal when I go caching. Someone who recently visited one of my night caches said that some police officers who tracked them into the woods said we should notify them in advance of any future searches for the cache. I say baloney, this is recreation, should we notify them when we use the comfort station also?

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I will make one reply to this thread.

 

1. thanks for making family friendly. <non family friendly comment removed by moderator.>

2. To keystone approver, sorry if I dont fit the mold of your perfect geocacher. This isnt a private sport. Ya takes what ya gets.

Your so concerned about the sport, how about suggesting that it be mandatory that all cache pages list times of access. That would do more for the sport than chastising me. I know some caches do this voluntarily. Make it manditory.

Nice sarcasm.

 

3. To Hart climbs and the only sensible post. I never said there shouldnt be rules and times..

My main beef is that these Police only target people that they can catch from there cars. So many times I have seen ATVs,drinking people drinking on ATVs and  illegal bicylers riding in our parks but quess what it was in the daylight so I guess it was OK.

 

And finally we never gave the park ranger any hassle. Just accepted our tickets like we should.

 

In closing Ive learned my lesson...never buck 'The Man'.  Done!

Hoopy - you ARE kidding - right ??- this is one of the funniest threads I've ever read.

Edited by Keystone Approver
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Many of these rangers are wannabes in that job as a stepping stone to be a real cop.

 

and the "rent a cops" (or park police) are there just doing their job.

 

I'd like to disabuse people of the idea that the county park police are in some way not real cops. They are sworn law enforcement officers, armed and and have all the police powers of town policemen. They deal with drug dealers, rapists, thieves and even murders, just like town police and they wear bulletproof vests for the same reason town police officers do.

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I'd like to disabuse people of the idea that the county park police are in some way

not real cops. They are sworn law enforcement officers, armed and and have all the police powers of town policemen. They deal with drug dealers, rapists, thieves and even murders, just like town police and they wear bulletproof vests for the same reason town police officers do.

 

Yeah, what Brian said. They are trained professionals since they seem to spot me transgressing from a mile off. :rolleyes:

 

To Hoopy Frood,

Look on the bright side you can log your ticket HERE as a geocache find. :o

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>snip<

Look on the bright side you can log your ticket HERE as a geocache find.  :o

You know - I don't know which is more bewildering.

 

That getting a speeding ticket counts as a geocache "find" or the fact that some people posted images of their ticket that includes their personal information.

 

Soon people will be logging cache finds for trips to the loo. (of course, there's probably already a cache where you send in a picture of your creation, along with the coordinates and score a find). :rolleyes: Of course, this cache would only be accessible during the day as nighttime caching in the lav would result in a ticket.

 

And I thought it was all about nice walks in the woods.

 

p.s. Gotta give props to Avro for finding this virt on gc.com! The game continues to evolve......

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If you don't like personal commentary please leave now. I'm about to rant.

 

This is to Mr. Waldron of our local county park service.

Now, Im a big boy and know that certain parks/areas are off limits after certain times.

I choose to hike/geocache after hours because of time restrictions like work and obligations like paying taxes. And I have to take responsibility for those actions.

If only so many rules and restrictions could be placed on the real threats to this Nation.

 

This is the second time we as a team have been issued tickets for being in a park after hours. Both times we were never caught in said park and were in fact on public roads. We tried to fight the first offense only to be beaten down by the local court.

 

The above mentioned rent a cop could have just issued a warning. No he chose go ahead and issue a ticket for loitering. Wow...I feel so much safer knowing that while Im being ticketed, illegal ATV's and Bicyclers are using our parks for destructive reasons. How would these rangers? paid by our tax money know anything about Illegal ATVs/Bikes? they wouldnt because I doubt.. and have never seen one of these rangers out of there vehicles.

 

I submit that if our borders guards could be taught how to patrol our borders as well as these park rangers then our Great Nation would be much more secure.

 

As for our Local Park Rangers I Commend You. Our parks are so much safer with likes of us off the trails. The hell with the beer drinking,ATV riding,illegal bike riders. What you cant see from the window of your nice little SUV cant hurt us right?

 

I believe I will rethink a hobby were so much trouble can be had from hiking.

Maybe a hobby like drinkin in the bar would be less stressful.

 

END OF RANT

 

Edited to be family-friendly.

its funny how you say you were not in the park when the ticket was issued but admit, freely that you were in fact in violation of the law. dont complain about the ticket, some real ball breaking cop would have cuffed you.

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