Phony Geocaching Permits

[+Capaldo]

I've seen various 'permits', signs and soforth that cachers have come up with to fool muggles into thinking they're on official business. You know, signs for the dashboard, badges, etc. In particular, I remember seeing a USGS (United States Geocache Survey) sign that was pretty neat. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and have a link?

[+Team Teebow]

capaldo,

 

I just sent you a PM

 

Team Teebow

[+CompuCash]

you wanna share?

[+Team Teebow]

Do I want to share? I'll send them to anyone because I do not know how to post them here. I take no credit for them, they are other peoples work and just something I've saved.

 

Again, I'll send them to anyone, and if someone can put them up here with a link that would be great!!!

 

Team Teebow

[+Miragee]

If you want to send one to me, I can post it in the Forum for you.

[cacheaholik]

I would like you to send them to me please.

[+Team Teebow]

idiosyncratic is going to give me a hand at getting them posted up here soon, so stay tuned.

 

Team Teebow

[cacheaholik]

ok

[+_Millertime_]

If you can't get it on here, then please send me one!

[+Jamie Z]

There are penalties for impersonating an agent of a number of government agencies. Be very careful how you design and word any sort of "phony permit." The phrase itself already gives me bad vibes.

 

If you want to look important, a hard hat, clipboard, and safety vest works well without any phony permit displayed.

 

That, or just grab a plastic sack and pick up some trash in the area.

 

Jamie

[+Team Teebow]

Don't get your underwear bunched up before you see them. Nothing in them claims that you are a "government official".

[+bigredmed]

Send one to me, please.

[+justybug]

true, but USGS is generally interpreted as United States Geological Survey. at least by me.

Vest works good, trash bag works good. Looking like you belong where you are doing what you're doing? Even better.

Being able to talk the talk if necessary is fairly helpful as well, and has gained me access to some really cool, non-public spots. (National Map Corps kicks a**!!!) Just being able to convince people you're harmless is enough to open up a lot of opportunities, behind the scenes tours, insider info about some neat spot, fishing holes, etc...

i was trying to explain geocaching to my dad recently, and he brought up the similarities between gaining access to fishing holes and the types of places we like to stick caches. now i just need to get him one so he can find me some cool spots to visit when i'm down home!!!

[+Miragee]

These are cool, and could be very helpful. Since I cache alone, it seems like a very good idea to have one of these on my dash to let people know where I am.

 

Here are the images. The originals are .pdf files.

 

 

 

I got these images by doing a "Print Screen" of the .pdf file.

[+Team Teebow]

Thanks idiosyncratic....

 

Team Teebow

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I like this one. Make it sound official, but not saying directly.

 

[+justybug]

i think i like the second one a bit better. after having my car broken into in FRONT OF MY HOUSE.. the last thing i need to do is let some hoodlum know exactly how many hours i'm going to be traipsing off in the woods..

but i'm just bitter...

nice job and thanks for posting them!!

[+sept1c_tank]

This is a cool one. I picked it up in Seattle from a well known cacher (if my memory serves me, it was Era Seek). I appologize for the poor quality; I'm not a geek and I don't play with my scanner often.

 

As you can see, it is designed to hang on your inside rear view mirror. Unfortunately, I ride a bicycle, but I'm thinking of just having it stenciled on my bike.

[+briansnat]

This one is way cool!

 

user posted image

[+Mopar]

This is a cool one. I picked it up in Seattle from a well known cacher (if my memory serves me, it was Era Seek). I appologize for the poor quality; I'm not a geek and I don't play with my scanner often.

 

As you can see, it is designed to hang on your inside rear view mirror. Unfortunately, I ride a bicycle, but I'm thinking of just having it stenciled on my bike.

I've got this one too. Funny, it came from the same area. Of course, it's hanging from our bedroom door right now until I get around to laminating it.

I'm still not sure how I feel about using it. I don't usually knowingly park illegally or enter a park after hours, so I don't see any pros to informing people I'm gonna be away from the car awhile, and lots of cons.

[+Capaldo]

I got what I was looking for - Thanks!

 

I didn't intend to start a discussion on the merits of using this type of thing, but here's my purpose. I work for a county environmental agency, so I have no trouble looking like I'm on official business in public places. However, THIS CACHE has been at the top of my not found list a long time. (Some cool logs for June 30th). There's a backdoor route to the cache, and I'll need to legally park in a neighborhood and hike an hour or two. The thing is, the residents have had some real problems with off-roading hoodlums spilling out into their neighborhood, to the extent that it's made front page news. I'm going on a weekday, when the area is fairly quiet and my truck is clearly not for off-roading, but there's a good chance that one of the neighbors will scope it out. I thought a tag like this might help keep my truck from being towed or vandalized. Or, it might not, but this cache must be done.

[+Fergus]

I think those things are great. I also think that if someone were to print up a bunch of those on good card stock they would make great geocache trade items.

 

On a different note when I go geocaching in a state park or on game land I often wear a search and rescue shirt. Its great because people will ask us if there is someone missing. I normally tell them that we are just looking for a GPS marker. To which they normally say “oh, your training”. It’s a good way to fool muggles

[+Haffy]

Hey Team Teebow,have you posted a link to these in the www.geocachingmaine.org website? I think they will enjoy it. Haffy6

[+Marcie/Eric]

These are great!

 

Printing now.

[+TeamK-9]

Could someone send me links to the actual files.

 

And does anyone have a better scan of the mirror tag? I really like that one, and I think it could be very useful. If I had to, I think I could recreate it, but I'd really like to just print out a copy or something...

[+Miragee]

Could someone send me links to the actual files.

 

And does anyone have a better scan of the mirror tag? I really like that one, and I think it could be very useful. If I had to, I think I could recreate it, but I'd really like to just print out a copy or something...

Okay . . .

 

Gone Geocaching

 

Geocaching Permit

 

Sorry, can't help with the tag . . .

 

Edited to add quote . . .

Edited March 6, 2005 by idiosyncratic

[+DuncanClan]

Thanks you guys, these are cool!

 

DC

[+Dragonfire870]

Could someone either send them to me or repost them as they're not showing up. Thanks!

[+LSUFan]

Could someone either send them to me or repost them as they're not showing up. Thanks!

I forwarded you the email with the file that Team Teebow was kind enough to send me today. Thanks Teebow for your help.

 

LSUFan

[MarcusArelius]

This is a cool one. I picked it up in Seattle from a well known cacher (if my memory serves me, it was Era Seek). I appologize for the poor quality; I'm not a geek and I don't play with my scanner often.

 

As you can see, it is designed to hang on your inside rear view mirror. Unfortunately, I ride a bicycle, but I'm thinking of just having it stenciled on my bike.

Hey Sept1c tank that was the one you got from me. I got the idea and some of the verbage from this forum thread about a year ago.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=parking+permit

 

I printed up a couple hundred on heavy card stock and manually cut out the hanger top. I left them in caches around the Seattle area.

 

I have sent the word doc to a few others to use. I don't have a web site to post it on but I'll e-mail a copy to you (even with corrected spelling )

 

Stick it on the e-zine if you like.

[+LSUFan]

Hey Sept1c tank that was the one you got from me. I got the idea and some of the verbage from this forum thread about a year ago.

 

.

 

I have sent the word doc to a few others to use. I don't have a web site to post it on but I'll e-mail a copy to you (even with corrected spelling )

 

Stick it on the e-zine if you like.

I really like those and would appreciate anyone who would email me or post here a link to the word doc, so I can make some myself.

 

We were surrounded by four of our finest the other night when we parked at the end of a road and checked on one of my caches in the local park. I had the Geocacher U brochure with me and showed that to them. They feigned interest and left us to be. I believe if I had this hanging from my rearview, that they wouldn't have even bothered to stay around.

 

Thanks

LSUFan

[+sept1c_tank]

This is a cool one.  I picked it up in Seattle from a well known cacher (if my memory serves me, it was Era Seek).  I appologize for the poor quality; I'm not a geek and I don't play with my scanner often.

 

As you can see, it is designed to hang on your inside rear view mirror.  Unfortunately, I ride a bicycle, but I'm thinking of just having it stenciled on my bike.     

Hey Sept1c tank that was the one you got from me. I got the idea and some of the verbage from this forum thread about a year ago.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=parking+permit

 

I printed up a couple hundred on heavy card stock and manually cut out the hanger top. I left them in caches around the Seattle area.

 

I have sent the word doc to a few others to use. I don't have a web site to post it on but I'll e-mail a copy to you (even with corrected spelling )

 

Stick it on the e-zine if you like.

They say there's two things that happen when you get old.

 

The first one is, you lose your memory (or is it spelling?)...I can't remember the 2nd one.

 

"Tanks," Marcus, for refreshing my memory. Maybe if we can get the spelling right, I can find a home for it in Today's Cacher.

[+Mr. Snazz]

I had an "Area 51" official-looking permit on the back of my rig for a long time. I actually had several gasoline station attendants ask me if it was real.

[+Anonymous']

This is a cool one. I picked it up in Seattle from a well known cacher (if my memory serves me, it was Era Seek). I appologize for the poor quality; I'm not a geek and I don't play with my scanner often.

 

As you can see, it is designed to hang on your inside rear view mirror. Unfortunately, I ride a bicycle, but I'm thinking of just having it stenciled on my bike.

He spelled "official" wrong.

[+sept1c_tank]

He spelled "official" wrong.

Yes, but that was a limited edition (for collectors only).

[+Anonymous']

He spelled "official" wrong.

Yes, but that was a limited edition (for collectors only).

I have one hanging up in my room that Eraseek put in a cache.

[+sept1c_tank]

So that makes you a collector.

[+Anonymous']

So that makes you a collector.

Yes

[+One of the Texas Vikings]

I sent this idea to Groundspeak about 3-4 months ago, for their store..

 

Since then I've printed my own with our Logo and a couple pics on it

and gave one to each team member for their dashboard. It explains why the car is sitting in a weird place, where no one else is usually parked...

[+Kidatheart]

After reading this topic and some of the other topics on the same area of interest it appears that alot of people don't have to worry when parking there car. I do think that some of the placards for the dash are probably a good idea. This opinion comes from the area that Barn Bywater is located in Red Wing, MN. I am working on one so if something was to happen and police noticed my vehicle hours after I said I was going to return they might look for me. As for the use of putting "UN" in small letters in front of "Official U.S." I would avoid this. I have being honest, who knows could be a cacher or could be a future cacher you end up talking to. Being Dishonest or playing the gray area of honesty can only led to individuals being skeptical of geocaching as a whole. I will now step down from my soap box. thank you.