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Geocaching Cover Ups


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Have you ever been confronted while geocaching? If so what did you say? I have been watched a couple times and confronted a few. I dont know about everyone else but I have told them what I was actually doing a couple of times and there has been times I have said I was doing a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt. I actually had some help one time from a harbor patrol officer and a man who was walking his dog. I found the cache with their help.

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I know that I have been watched but I have never been confronted as to what I was doing.. I have thought to myself too of what I would say... I first think to tell them the truth, and then some people it might be easier to tell them something else like I am doing a special search for a weather balloon that has landed somewhere near here, according to it's last report of co-ordinates... that is something that I have allways thought I would tell people... I think most people would go along with that....

 

Oakley1975

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I usually use the term scavengar hunt, people seem to understand that more readily than "treasure hunt". and it also may give them the impression that whatever i'm looking for is temporary, so they may be less likely to look for and muggle the cache

 

I did get some help from a stranger while I was on Angel Island, I had been talking to the guy on the ferry, and he was waiting for his elderly parents to make it up the stairs.

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I have been approached by police twice in a two week period. Both times late at night while tring a FTF. I just told them what I was doing and they figured that my story was so crazy it had to be true so they left.

 

While searching caches in and area in which I may be observed I will carry and camera with a large lens or Binoculars, then people tend to think you are a bird watcher. One day someone asked me if I was doing a bird study, I told them the only birds I study are the ones I see on thanksgiving or at KFC. :D

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The ornage vest is probably a good idea.. but I don't think I could bring myself to wear one! I'd probably just tell them about geocaching.com

Our dog, Julie works many ways for us to cover up what we are doing.

Maybe to many to list now?

 

The orange vest, and our dog helped, I think, one early night, a week before Christmas.

 

When we go out on the scooter in the dark, the Wife wears the vest, for extra safety. Our dog rides in a pouch made for Her, that I wear in front.

 

Back in December we were riding around the area, checking out the Christmas lights.

On our route, supplied by the local newspaper, we though we could nail any caches on the way.

 

Well, when we got to the cache site, that was located in one of the many small neighborhood parks, it was closed.

 

This park has the gates that blocked the car parking area, and they were closed.

 

The park is in a good neighborhood, with restrooms, and a few small buildings, it is better off closed to night traffic.

 

But we couldn't resist a quick micro grab, so we parked the scooter outside the gate, grabbed the flashlight, and hopped over the bar gate.

There is openings to walk through that are not blocked, but this way was closer were we parked the scooter.

 

It was a quick find, no damage done, and headed back to the parked scooter, that now had 2 patrol cars, parked a hundred feet away from the scooter.

 

We were done in as far I thought, and immediate started thinking of a story to tell the cops, I thought, were waiting for us to come out.

 

OK, the story; we stopped to let the dog relive Herself, and She took off, so we chased Her into the park.

That's the story and were sticking to it!

Rehearsed it with the Wife, while walking back to the parked scooter, and this is going to be a piece of cake.

 

Still the thought of a night in one of the county's finest rooms, was on the top of my head, and the sound of them metal bared doors shutting.

 

We hopped over the gate, got on the scooter, as they watched us, and started to leave.

 

I was ready to stop right away if they signaled for me to do so, instead we just waved, and they waved back as we drove away.

 

They did not in the slightest way even care that we were there?

 

Maybe the site of the orange vest helped? Might have looked like an park official checking up on things?

 

1signature2zl.jpg

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I put my cell phone to my ear, once I used my GPSr like a cell phone, so people will think I pace around while talking on the phone.

 

I used the scavanger hunt line once when asked on a busy bike path.

 

If I do encounter law enforcement I will tell them the truth.

 

I also use the camera as if I was a nature photographer or birder.

 

Young kids along make searching without looking suspicious easy as well.

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With over 300 finds, I have only been confronted one time. I was at a Metrolink Station with my daughter, on a quiet Sunday afternoon. I was signing the logbook, and my daughter was holding the cache. A security guard walked up, and I engaged in small talk. He looked directly at the cache, and I told him what I was doing. He seemed unconcerned and he left.

 

It turns out that he catches many geocachers looking for the cache. In one instance a cacher assumed the cache was gone because couldn't find it. The same security guard approached him and showed him where the cache was hidden.

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It depends on the situation and who's asking me. Sometimes I 'fess up. Sometimes I say I'm practicing orienteering. I've pretended to talk on my "GPS-phone" too. Other times I'm a botany nut examining the nearby foliage.

 

I had a funny "get caught" experience a few days ago. I was retrieving a cache hanging underneath the far side of a gazebo in an empty park, so I had to recline to reach it. It was a lot easier to stay down to sign the log and replace the cache, so that's what I did. After I got up and was returning to my car, I met a woman on the sidewalk pushing a baby stroller who said, "OMG! I thought you were passed out!" She must have thought I was a bum or an assault victim. I just laughed. :D

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So far I've only encountered 1 person that stopped me and started asking questions.

It was in a very visivble - high muggle count area and one of the employees of a close by business was alert to a high amount of people walking around the hide area.

 

I told her the scavenger hunt line, then she kept asking more questions.

I kept giving her short non-descript answers, until she recognized I had a GPS in my hand instead of a cell phone. Then mentioned she had one but never learned how to use it. Then it was like a light bulb went off and she asked if I was using the GPS to find stuff.

 

Then I gave her a brochure that I'd printed up from the "Geocaching U" website and told her exactly what I was doing there.

I think may have converted her. :D

 

Check these out! They are magnetics!

I just made them a few days ago to slap on the side of my truck when out caching.

Maybe it'll ward off a few people if they think I'm some sort of official. ;)

 

:D:D

 

D-man ;)

 

gps_mags.gif

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i was getting some funny looks by a dog-walking muggle one day. i'm guessing she'd been watching me for a bit wandering around a giant blackberry bush. when she asked what i was looking for, the first thing that came out was "a rabbit that ran in here somewhere." not exactly sure how that sounds better than "a hidden stash of mcdonalds toys and trinkets only found with the help of billions of dollars of military hardware!" but it seemed to satisfy her curiousity.

it's also why i now prefer a ta bit more secluded caches.

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Other times I'm a botany nut examining the nearby foliage.

Once doing a cache in Oxford, UK I had to rummage around the roots of trees in a very visible part of a churchyard right by a bus stop with a queue of passengers waiting. I was all prepared with the story that I was looking for the "Lesser Spotted Geobeetle that survives only in tupperware" but no-one challenged me ;)

 

  "OMG!  I thought you were passed out!" 

That's probably why no-one challenged me - you get a lot of that round there (which is also why I always wear gloves searching in those sorts of places - you never know what kinds of needles you might encounter - and I'm not talking pine needles :D )

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I tell interested passersby the same thing that I tell the friends and family that I try to hook into going out on caching hunts - "I'm using the government's $30 billion dollar satellite system and this little receiver to look for tupperware containers filled with insignificant toys. And it's fun!"

 

They either ask more specific questions, or act like they know exactly what I'm talking about (even if they don't, of course) and walk away.

 

--Marc

February 5, 2005 @ 9:30 PM

N40° 46.565' W073° 58.756'

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I've been spotted several times, and usually I just explain a little about geocaching. But I did once allow some people to keep the wrong conclusion they jumped to. Up in the NE corner of Ohio I was hunting a cache that turned out to be under a covered bridge. I was fairly well out of sight when I found the cache, and when I climbed back into view there was a vanload of senior citizens out for a day trip As I was mulling over how to explain geocaching to septugenarians, I overheard one woman say, "Oh, look. He must be working on the bridge - see? He has some sort of instrument in his hand!" Well, I also had the printed page along with me, so I pulled it out of my pocket, consulted it, and "took some measurements" with my "instrument" and compared them to the "figures" on my paper. After agreeing with myself that all was well here, I got in my truck and left. When I'm not on two wheels, I'm usually in my plain jane silver Dodge pickup, which adds to the notion that I'm a worker at a given location, and therefore "supposed to be there." When it looks like this cover will keep me from being noticed, I don't do anything to discourage it.

 

Ed_S

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When I geocache nude, no one ever asks me what I'm doing :)

 

Detective Elizabeth and I found a cache on a side trail off the main trail at a cache last year and had a jogger run by as we were setting up the camera and signing the log. A few minutes later he came back. His curiosity got to him. What were the lady and nude guy doing with all that stuff? I not only had to explain geocaching to him, but also Nudecacher. He laughed and went on his way. :)

 

Nudecacher

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We just got back from a geocaching run up into backwoods KY. We were looking for one cache which was located at a roadside sign. The local policeman for the town, and I'm sure he was THE police officer for the town, pulled up munching on a donut and drinking coffee. "Hey, watch y'all doin?" with a big smile on his face.

 

I showed him the GPS and said we were on a scavenger hunt called Geocaching. He took another bite of the donut, nodded his head like he completely understood, and said "well, y'all have fun now and hope y'all win" and he drove off. A bit later as we were doing another cache in another part of the town, he drove by, hit his horn and waved at us.

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I have only really been confronted once, but there were several times where people gave me funny looks and certainly must have wondered what i was up to.

 

Over the summer break from school i worked the 4-midnight shift at a factory. One night i got home and saw a new cache kind of near me, so i headed out after a while, and found the cache just after 3:00 AM. When i got back to my car i was just about to leave when 3 cop cars zoomed up behind me with their red lights flashing and their bright searchlight things focused right on me. They had me get out of my car and kept asking me why i was there and where my friends were. I figured that since i had done nothing wrong i would just tell them what i had really been doing. I must have explained geocaching to them 4 times. After about 25 minutes of questioning they let me go. I guess in that situation my 'cover up' was to just tell them the truth. It would have been much easier if i had just had a brochure with me.

 

Another time i had gotten up early to go caching. It was about 7:30 am and i was looking for a cache that was on a trail, but the trail went right behind some people's houses, and as i got close to the cache site i noticed that there was a person sitting on the back porch of the house that was right in front of the cache! i used the good old fake cell phone trick and headed back to the car.

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So far I've only encountered 1 person that stopped me and started asking questions.

It was in a very visivble - high muggle count area and one of the employees of a close by business was alert to a high amount of people walking around the hide area.

 

I told her the scavenger hunt line, then she kept asking more questions.

I kept giving her short non-descript answers, until she recognized I had a GPS in my hand instead of a cell phone. Then mentioned she had one but never learned how to use it. Then it was like a light bulb went off and she asked if I was using the GPS to find stuff.

 

Then I gave her a brochure that I'd printed up from the "Geocaching U" website and told her exactly what I was doing there.

I think may have converted her. :)

 

Check these out! They are magnetics!

I just made them a few days ago to slap on the side of my truck when out caching.

Maybe it'll ward off a few people if they think I'm some sort of official. :)

 

:blink::huh:

 

D-man :P

 

gps_mags.gif

I sent you a couple PMs reguarding those magnets.

 

Anyway, it's really nice looking, and looks really professional, people might even think GPS is a company name or something.

 

But I think people should shy away from calling themselves surveyors. In a lot of states being a surveyor is a state certified position, and calling yourself a surveyor might cause problems.

 

I'm thinking about getting similar magnets that say "GPS Mapping Services."

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Unforunately being a 17 year old geocacher, most people suspect me more than they would any adult. I find it disheartening, but oh well. I usually just honestly tell them what I'm doing and most of the time they believe me, once in a while they threaten to call the cops and other times muggles have taught me how to tap a tree for maple syrup.

 

- Eagle Spirit0

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I was looking for part II of an urban micro, coords written on the back of a very covered up bulletin board. Another couple asked me, "What are you looking for?" (They were about 5 yards away.)

 

I told them "Numbers!"

 

They were also geocachers!

 

I don't see any reason to lie. If someone asks, I tell them what I am doing.

 

Paul

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While doing a couple of caches in high muggle areas, I took along a clipboard with some papers on it, to make it look like I'm doing something official. I get the normal looks from muggles, but no one has approached me while I've been doing a cache. Hopefully, they think I'm some government employee with a clipboard... :anitongue:

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I have been ask a few times. I always have the sheet for the cache with me and show it to them. Most think it is a nice hobby. I do not show them the cache.

 

Today I was looking and the security guards kept driving by and watching me, I just waved to them.

 

Once in a state park there were two rangers in the hide area looking around. When they saw me park and get out with my GPS one of them came over and said he would like to go with me to the cache. I told him no I couldn't do that. He promest he would not tell any one where it was hidden. After we found it and was talking he said he would like one hidden out on the trail. So the next week when I went back to hide it, He told me he had to go in to town and for me to go a head and hide it and he would hunt it. Later when I went back he said he had seen it on the computer and he would like another one back there. A very nice trail with serval old home steads on it.

 

Mejas

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Hey eagle, I think that depends alot on where you are searching. Try being a 40 year old male wondering around a small playground park in a neighborhood, specially if kids are around. I have always felt uncomfortable and even abandon the cache to come back later. I agree with those that say have kids with you. We did a Geocache theme birthday party for my nephew at a local park and my brother hid several "private" caches for us to find. I never even thought twice about wondering in the woods looking like an idiot with 3 kids heading out in all directions around me.

Just today, I was hunting a cache listed as a lunchtime cache at about 9am on a Sunday. It was in the middle of a quad of buildings with lots of Brinks trucks around. I pretty much new what I was looking for as I just found a "partner" cache about .2 miles away. But I felt funny sitting alone in a smoking area of a closed business. About that time a local police car came cruizing through the area and circled around me. I didn't know what to do, I thought look over, smile and wave, but then decided if he had questions, he would look over, smile and motion me to get on the ground. I just acted like I was supposed to be there, and he didn't stop (maybe he knew what I was doing), but I really thought I was going to have to explain this hobby that I am still very new to.

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Last May, on a Sunday morning, I have this unique looking cache in my hand and around the corner come some Jehovah's Witnesses. They start trying to convert me and i quickly and poitely said no thanks. They then said "What are you doing?!" I explained geocaching to them and the mother called over her daughter saying that she is interested in high tech stuff. I spent about 10 minutes discussing geocaching with them. Maybe I converted them!

 

I also had a rent -a-cop almost call the real cops a few weeks ago. Finally he understood what we were trying to explain. The cache wasn't on the company property anyways.

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rent a cop will always be the worse. they have very little authority so the little hitler syndrome kicks in even stronger!

 

tell the truth, in all honesty you couldn't make it up could you? lies this complicated would be too complex to be able to explain!

 

i will avoid urban micros that will put me too close to kid areas when kids are there, unless i have my daughter with me. mainly to not worry people or waste police time, they've better things to do.

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But I think people should shy away from calling themselves surveyors.  In a lot of states being a surveyor is a state certified position, and calling yourself a surveyor might cause problems.

 

I'm thinking about getting similar magnets that say "GPS Mapping Services."

Thanks! I did get the PM's.

 

I just did a quick search on the GA Secretary of State website and found this!!

:o:)

Georgia Law Governing the Practice of Professional Engineering and Land Surveying

 

43-15-7. Unlawful practice as a professional engineer or land surveyor.

(a.) It shall be unlawful for any person other than a professional engineer to practice or to offer to practice professional engineering in this state.

(b.) It shall be unlawful for any person other than a land surveyor to practice or to offer to practice land surveying in this state.

 

43-15-8. Engineer-in-training certificate; eligibility.

To be eligible for certification as an engineer-in-training, an applicant must meet the following minimum requirements:

 

(1) (A.) Graduate in an engineering curriculum of not less than four years from a school or college approved by the board; and

(B.) Pass a written examination in fundamental engineering subjects (engineer-in-training examination); or

(2) (A.) Graduate in an engineering curriculum of not less than four years or in a curriculum of four or more years in engineering technology or related science, from a school or college approved by the board; and

(B.) Pass a written examination in fundamental engineering subjects (engineer-in-training examination); or

(3) (A.) Acquire not less than eight years of experience in engineering work of a nature satisfactory to the board; and

(B.) Pass a written examination in fundamental engineering subjects (engineer-in-training examination).

 

:)B)

 

I think a definate name change on the mags there are in order.

 

We did have them on the truck when we went out hunting this afternoon.

Had a few people glance at them and then just ignored us, but then we also had a park ranger give us a big wave as we entered a local state park for a cache in the area.

Maybe it wasn't something he thought about needing to checking us out for. But then again, if we'd hit an over-zealous one, we may have gotten in over our heads.

B)B)

 

Thanks for the warning!!

 

D-man B)

Edited by gridlox
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rent a cop will always be the worse. they have very little authority so the little hitler syndrome kicks in even stronger!

Actually, rent-a-cops have as much authority as any citizen, which is the same as any police officer, except a real police office can make an arrest based on probable cause, rent-a-cops and normal citizens have to actually witness the crime to make an arrest.

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In a lot of states being a surveyor is a state certified position, and calling yourself a surveyor might cause problems.

:)B)

Georgia Law Governing the Practice of Professional Engineering and Land Surveying

 

43-15-7. Unlawful practice as a professional engineer or land surveyor.

(a.) It shall be unlawful for any person other than a professional engineer to practice or to offer to practice professional engineering in this state.

(b.) It shall be unlawful for any person other than a land surveyor to practice or to offer to practice land surveying in this state.

 

Well, since he isn't practising surveying, or offering serveying services, he is okay.

 

For the same reason it's not illegal to tell some chick at a bar that you are a doctor to impress her (not that I have ever done that).

It's illegal to operate on her though.

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Yeah I suppose your probably right!

But I wouldn't want to take the risk of getting busted for falsely representing myself as some licensed official of some sort when a simple name change will clear it all up.

 

Plus I don't think "Hey Sweetcheeks! I'm a GPS Surveyor. IF you give me some good co-ordinates to your special hide, I guarantee you I can find it?!" would hold up too well in a bar either!! B)B)

 

D-man :)

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A while back I happened to snag a couple of official issue FBI jackets (don't ask how, I "don't remember", but is was legit). They are the classic blue jackets with gold FBI embroidery on the front breast and "FBI Evedence Recovery Unit" on the back. I'm considering keeping one in my car so I can wear it while caching :)

It'd be interesting to see what type of questions i'd get then B)

 

Shannon

VegasCacheHounds

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rent a cop will always be the worse. they have very little authority so the little hitler syndrome kicks in even stronger!

Actually, rent-a-cops have as much authority as any citizen, which is the same as any police officer, except a real police office can make an arrest based on probable cause, rent-a-cops and normal citizens have to actually witness the crime to make an arrest.

yeah i know. same in england but the person is the deciding factor. by no means am i saying all rent a cops the same. some of them suffer from a major problem though. they consider themselves to be the emporer of their little domain.

 

the ability to arrest on suspision, probable cuase is a lot larger than it sounds....

 

they also don't have better things to do other than stop you caching in their area. most cops will happily let you get on with it.

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