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Geocaching Featured on "Law & Order"


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Ok, so I was all excited last night that this was going to be on. I was thinking I could at least use this show to explain to people what geocaching is.

 

Oh my god I will NEVER use this show to explain caching to any local land trusts when they ask about hiding caches.

 

It is hard enough to explain what caching is all about without people showing caches that are BURIED. Uhhh Thank you NBC for making it just that much harder to place a cache on land that requires permition.

 

Buring caches was the largest part of the last cache presentation I did to a land trust. They really grilled me hard on that. I had to explain the rules on no using pointed objects to create a hole to place into. I also had to explain that if a cache is "buried" that only means that loose debris (leaves and twigs) were tossed over the cache to camoflage it.

 

I think the thing that really makes me mad is there was a really great fallen tree right behind right near where the cache was buried. That would have made a great cache hide spot.

 

Well, I hate to say this, but I think it is time for Geocaching.com to put in a media contact and information section along with a printable set of rules for caches.

 

There is no such thing as bad press, but from now on we are all going to have to be ready to say that we never burry caches in the ground. Arrh

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buried cache, letterbox-like clue...

 

and the episode was pretty poor...I haven't been missing much by not watching L&O...won't make that mistake again... :unsure:

 

nfa-jamie

Amen! Between parenthood and geocaching, I've totally kicked a former addiction to network dramas and sitcoms. Watching L&O last evening was my first network drama show in at least three years. If that was any gauge of the quality of network TV, hopefully I'll last another three years before peeking again. Just imagine what talented writers could have done with geocaching on an oldie but goodie, like "Columbo."

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What I found humorous was the number of cops it took to find a Tupperware container hidden under a pile of leaves. On slow motion I counted at least 12 different people there (including the ranger). You'd think it was a difficulty 5 Leprechaun cache or something. :unsure:

At the State Park where *my* out of the way caches are hidden, the park manager has a notebook full of maps and photos for each of my cache locations, as part of my permit application package. They wouldn't need a search party.

 

(Shoebox whips out his cellphone and makes an appointment to visit the office at the State Park)

:)

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You've got to wonder: which one of the writer's is a cacher, and do they frequent the forums?

You've got to wonder:  which one of the writer's is a cacher, and do they frequent the forums?

 

Answer: None & nope, at least not anymore after they see how well they did.

 

Now if a cacher shot the owner of a multi stage micro that required a 200 mile drive & knowledge of sioux language, that I could believe. Matter of fact I'd volunteer to be the shooters alibi.

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Did you guys even watch the show, people keep saying they put it on the bottom of the car to see which cache she went to! That wasn't used for that at all, it was so they could keep showing up in town were she was at so it would look like she was a stalker.

I was wondering who was going to point that out. I was trying to catch up all the posts to see if anyone brought it up.

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Did you guys even watch the show, people keep saying they put it on the bottom of the car to see which cache she went to! That wasn't used for that at all, it was so they could keep showing up in town were she was at so it would look like she was a stalker.

Yeah, I didn't quite get that part. So, the GPSr under the Jeep was broadcasting to the killers' ("Mike" and "Ed") Palm Pilot? Little yellows with "broadcasting" capability - another fallacy.

Edited by CacheNCarryMA
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I missed the show. I taped it though.

Trust me, you didn't miss much. I hate to say it, but I think I would have rather watched "Despicable Housewifes" with my wife instead.

 

I normally like L&O, but I rarely watch the CI version. IMHO, this episode was fairly typical of L&O CI (and most TV in general), and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

You should see the look on my wifes face anytime there is a tv show with anything pertaining to nuclear devices, as she knows I'm going to spend the whole show pointing out all of the technical and tactical problems. Not that I know anything about that. I've said too much, I must go now.... :unsure:

Edited by VegasCacheHounds
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I think we should all create Trowel TBs with a goal to get to NBC with a note saying, "You got it wrong"

Give me an NBC address and I'll activate one in the morning

LOL. Alameda Avenue and Bob Hope Drive. Burbank, CA 91506.

 

Now, even better, we could all send these trowel TBs and store them up the peacock's *&% for a local cacher to collect them all and take them into NBC's offices at Sign of the Peacock cache.

 

Then again, I wonder if the powers that be at NBC even bothered to check out this cache right out their front door to see what geocaching is really like?!?!?

 

Gee, I hope I didn't give inspiration for the character when I was milling around suspiciously in Johnny Carson Park looking for two caches....

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I missed the show. I taped it though.

Trust me, you didn't miss much. I hate to say it, but I think I would have rather watched "Despicable Housewifes" with my wife instead.

 

I normally like L&O, but I rarely watch the CI version. IMHO, this episode was fairly typical of L&O CI (and most TV in general), and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

You should see the look on my wifes face anytime there is a tv show with anything pertaining to nuclear devices, as she knows I'm going to spend the whole show pointing out all of the technical and tactical problems. Not that I know anything about that. I've said too much, I must go now.... :unsure:

I've heard joinsmith97 often complain about Law and Order: CI. I have never watched any of the Law and Order shows in my life. I might as well watch to know how horrible it was.

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:) Everyone together now: "Buried Cache!" OBMB!

 

I think the researchers must have done their 'research' over in the Off Topic, "CHEERS" thread :) Their cacher was tending bar over there :D

 

Didnt ya just giggle when the cops pulled out all the McToy's from her backpack! They got that part right :)

 

What? No golfballs in THAT cache? They didnt get that right :)

 

I think that was my pic on the GC.com front page of the daffidols :) From the "COme back next spring cache" I claim it! There goes my 15 mins. of fame.

:unsure:

 

Was it me or were the commerical geared towards us geocachers?

 

What's that trowls T.B. tracking #?

 

I think our sport is safe~it looks too dangerous & spooky! :D

 

My fav. line "Look, here's my obsession!" (when she was being interogated with her portfolio pics) They got that right!

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I missed the episode b/c I was out working on KroBro's 'Magical Mystery Tour' http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...0e-f7809c2ed86d and we just couldn't make the 10 mile roundtrip quick enough to be home in time to watch it...

 

If anyone taped/tivoed this and could send me a copy, I'd more than gladly pay for the tape and postage... or if someone's got a bittorrent tracker set up, that'd be even better. :unsure:

 

PM/Email me if you can help...

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TV shows use creative license. They don't care if the unit was upside down as no one can read the text on it. They oriented it how it looked best.

 

The sad thing is they don't care if they portray things accurately. They don't have to, because the average viewer is an idiot anyway. If it sells or adds to the story they will put it in.

 

Have you ever notice the work areas in CSI? Their labs are dark! I have worked in many kinds of labs in my career and the only dark one was a photo lab. They are always bright and clean, period.

 

It is a bit off topic, but why do they put visible wires and visible timers on bombs on TV shows? They always look stupid and anything but realistic.

 

The long and short of it is: there is no integrity, when it comes to getting things right, in the entertainment business. I will venture a guess that there are not many intellectual thinking people watching TV anyway and they know it.

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I think once people saw here "digging" to find a cache, people dismissed the rest of it as junk and are making up things that didn't actually happen in the show.

 

The something taped to the bottom of the car was only described as being a GPS tracker..not the Etrex from her bag.

 

The "clue" to the footbridge was more like the encrypted hint on the page, but if you watch that scene, there are coordinates on the left hand side of the monitor for each cache.

 

It's not the greatest TV, but it wasn't a bad episode and it was fairly moderate on its view of geocaching.

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Well, the show began with me screaming at the television. 10 seconds in and I KNEW WHY THIS SHOW IS STUCK ON SUNDAY NIGHT WHERE NO ONE WILL WATCH IT.

 

Now, on to the carping:

 

This is what newbies think they'll get when they want to do burried caches. This is also what you get when brain-dead nitwits write shows that are so carpy they must be hidden on Sunday night line-ups:

untitled24ch.jpg

 

Given 30' of Estimated Positional Error (assuming best case/reception scenario) on the placement and another 30' of EPE on the part of the person seeking the cache.... THIS IS WHAT THE STATE PARK SHOULD LOOK LIKE if you use burried caches:

pic7.jpg

(by the by, I found this photo for the joke on the Internet. If you want a laugh, take a look at where I got it)

 

Later in the show when the Ranger is featured in the Cache/Gun discovery, the script should be as followes:

[Location: Decimated Landscape]

RANGER: Just look at what those farking Geo-Cach-ay-ers have done to my beautiful park with their carpy burried Tupperware containers!

 

 

Now I'd Like To Translate The Production Notes From The Following Screen Shot:

untitled35kx.th.jpg

 

Director: "Why is he holding the GPS [sic] upside down?"

Assistant: "It's not upside down. He has it right."

Director: "No, he's got it upside down. He's got the screen on the bottom and the logo on the top."

Assistant: "Yes, that's the way many GPSr's are made."

Director: "Well it looks upside down. Everyone who watches this show on a Sunday night is a brain-dead moron and knows nothing about this carp. Tell what-his-face...

Assistant: "D'Onofrio?"

Director: "...whatever... to hold it the other way."

Assistant: "But it'll be upside-down."

Director: "Yes, but it'll LOOK right-side up. That's all that matters. No one watching will be even able to tell what type of GPS [sic] he's got in his hand."

Assistant: [mutters] "Maybe someone should find YOU burried in a cache."

Director: "What was that?"

Assistant: "I said 'Maybe someone could bring you some eggs and hash.' You hungry?"

 

Does anyone have a screen shot of the show where the Geo-Couching hunt FTF prize is revealed to be a small automatic hand-gun and a hispanic hoodlum?

 

Second to buried caches, the show screwed up by not giving the Geo-Cacher a username.

 

Let's have a contest where we give the poor framed Geo-Cacher (Kelly West, portrayed with energy-dispite-lack-of-talent by Kat Foster) a proper nic.

My suggestions:

1) Kat-Kant-Akt

2) Clown-Fish-Sig-Because-Disney-Wouldnt-Approve-Nemo-Sig

3) Easy-To-Frame

4) I-Have-A-GPS-Transciever-Stuck-Up-My-Bum

5) Finder-Of-Buried-Caches-Zero-Degrees-Of-Error

6) Park-Defacer

7) Trowel-Tramp

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One important thing to remember was that she was a suspect and if she didn't have the trowel, she would not still be a suspect. This allowed them to show that she had a digging tool she could use to bury the hood and gun. They were still working on trying to keep the audience thinking that she was the real killer.

 

At first I thought she had buried the cache, but when they were able to pick the cache up with any digging, I just assumed that she didn't want to get her hands dirty (some cacher she is) retrieving and replacing the cache.

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I missed the show. I taped it though.

Trust me, you didn't miss much. I hate to say it, but I think I would have rather watched "Despicable Housewifes" with my wife instead.

 

I normally like L&O, but I rarely watch the CI version. IMHO, this episode was fairly typical of L&O CI (and most TV in general), and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

You should see the look on my wifes face anytime there is a tv show with anything pertaining to nuclear devices, as she knows I'm going to spend the whole show pointing out all of the technical and tactical problems. Not that I know anything about that. I've said too much, I must go now.... :unsure:

Now you guys know how I feel while watching A Baby Story.

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Maybe I am nitpicking, but that particular kind of trowel would not be my first choice for digging, if digging were appropriate in the first place.

 

Once I went to a cache that was nestled in the roots of a large tree. I couldn't get it out. Fortunately, I had a chain saw in my bag, so I cut the tree down. Another time I thought one was in the middle of a large patch of brambles and bushes and I couldn't get to it. I came back later that day and sprayed some defoliant in the area. A week later I took a look at the devistated patch and there was nothing there. It turns out I entered the coordinates wrong. Boy were the people at that golf course ever annoyed. Some people just don't respect my right to recreation.

 

Just kidding! (It is too bad I have to point that out)

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Let's have a contest where we give the poor framed Geo-Cacher (Kelly West, portrayed with energy-dispite-lack-of-talent by Kat Foster) a proper nic.

My suggestions:

1) Kat-Kant-Akt

2) Clown-Fish-Sig-Because-Disney-Wouldnt-Approve-Nemo-Sig

3) Easy-To-Frame

4) I-Have-A-GPS-Transciever-Stuck-Up-My-Bum

5) Finder-Of-Buried-Caches-Zero-Degrees-Of-Error

6) Park-Defacer

7) Trowel-Tramp

 

Trowel is already taken.

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It was the same with the burying of the geocaches. They had to bury the hoodie and the gun. It wouldn't make much sense to bury the hoodie and gun with the intent of making it look like a geocacher did it without burying the caches as well.

 

On the same token, the hoodie and gun were under a large rock... Why couldn't they have used that for realism instead?

 

 

 

As for another angle on the upside down GPSr - perhaps they were most familliar with a Magellan but too stupid to notice this was an eTrex? I was shouting at the television last night that it wasn't a Magellan and to flip the darn thing so it was right way up.

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Just kidding! (It is too bad I have to point that out)

I wish you hadn't pointed that out.

 

It reminded me of the time a cache was placed near a pelican rookery. The trick to a cache like that is overcoming the tenacity of the first nesting mother. Once you get her off her nest, you can use the eggs to scare away the other pelicans (and their eggs to scare off the next, and so on...)

 

I find with caches located near high schools, it helps to bring beer and porn. You can bribe the kids to help you find the cache.

 

As for using chainsaws to dig out caches lodged in roots, I have to disagree. Backhoes and bulldozers are much more preverable. A well placed stick of dynamite works wonders, as well, but you have to know what you're doing.

 

Sometimes a hibernating Black Bear can cause trouble with larger hollows under larger oaks. A can of gasoline works nicely here.

 

With respect to this post, I'm not pointing anything out.

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Well for the first time on national Tv for geocaching.com. Wish it showed how the real sport is being done.

 

Bad things from the show:

- State Park (Hope they had permisson)

- It was BURIED!

- The gave the sport I think a bad rep (that geocachers are killers)

- Never used the hand held gps to help crime, she might have used a waypoint to find where the (gun) might be, they could of use it or looked at the unit

 

Good things from the show:

- Show the actually website

- Got the sport of geocaching to a very big part of population, and people going to look!

 

Last thoughts:

I hope some of the brass from geocaching clear some of the things up that we noticed, pretty sure we will hear something in the near future.

The geocacher wasn't the killer. She was set up to look like the killer. The average person watching the show still doesn't have a clue what geocaching entails. The description was so vague. The only people who know the difference are the ones who actually participate in the hobby. If you think they portrayed geocaching poorly, think about what they do to law enforcement and fire fighters on a regular basis.

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Darn...I missed the show. I was out geocaching and had to get just one more when I realized I was too late. But, I've been following the discussion and it sounds infinitely more entertaining than the show. Now, not having seen the show, what I've heard was the desire for more "geocaching" realism. So, maybe these happened on the show, maybe they didn't:

 

1) Whoever found the cache among the 12 or so law enforcement personnel, should have stepped back and nonchalantly walked away, whistling, and then say "Found it!", making everyone else look for it.

 

2) There has to be more than a few times when they get caught in briars or have to swat ticks off of them.

 

3) There should have been a moment where they stood stockstill, gazing at a deer before it bounded away.

 

4) They should have noted that burying caches is against geocaching guidelines, just like murder is against geocaching guidelines (Right? RIGHT??? We DO have that rule, don't we JEREMY???)

 

5) There should have been a group picture of everybody holding the cache, gun, or murder victim.

 

-Team J&J

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  Not that I know anything about that.  I've said too much, I must go now.... :unsure:

Now you guys know how I feel while watching A Baby Story.

BWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

 

Sorry, but the hubby made me stop watching ABS when I started throwing things at the TV. Let us hope TLC never comes up with A GPS Story :)

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I did a little research this morning. (Already I'm ahead of NBC.) I have a yellow that is now my backup. I last used it when my 60c was in the shop to get it's USB plug replaced. I turned it on and since I was in my house (under my car would have worked as well) it could not get a lock. I paged to the compass page and then went through the items at the bottom and found a set of coords. Took all of 10 seconds to do. A quick check of a map told me right where I was when I turned it off last. I was generally in the habit of turning off the yellow after finding caches (as long as I didn't need the bread crumbs to get back to the car) to conserve batteries as I'm sure most yellow users are, so it still showed where I found the cache. I had even forgotten that I had used the yellow for that cache.

 

My first thought when I saw the yellow was to do exactly what I just reported. If the detective was so smart he would have thought of the same thing.

 

I have only watched a few of the L/O shows and only do so under duress. I don't care for the whole bunch of them.

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If you think they portrayed geocaching poorly, think about what they do to law enforcement and fire fighters on a regular basis.

Do you mean "to" or "for?" I know of many occurences where geocachers have reported crimes and stopped fires. Personally my wife and I discovered prescription drugs hidden in the woods and called the fire department on one occasion to help put out a fire that was started by some kids in the woods. That seems to be a typo.

 

I have not seen the show yet but I will say that although it seems they had a lot of things wrong about the activity, they did use an attractive 30'ish woman to portray a geocacher. Since we always get that "geek" typecast I'm glad they showed it as an activity that wasn't so geekish.

 

We can correct newcomers of the obvious inaccuracies of the story, but they could have gone really wrong with the story.

 

Also, just so the facts are straight, other than giving permission for the web site screenshot we were just as much in the dark as everyone else about the details of this episode.

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If you think they portrayed geocaching poorly, think about what they do to law enforcement and fire fighters on a regular basis.

Do you mean "to" or "for?" I know of many occurences where geocachers have reported crimes and stopped fires.

I think Col Mustard is suggesting that TV shows misrepresent law enforcement and fire fighters more than the misrepresentation of geocaching....

 

and not that geocachers cause problems for them.

 

[Correcting careless mistyping.]

Edited by beejay&esskay
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I feel the need to point out that you people missed a new episode of Family Guy? Where the heck are your priorities?

I am definatley disapointed in myself... but how was I to know L&O CI would be so bad? Besides I rarely watch new shows... I wait till they rerun them so I can watch daily rather than weekly... or buy the DVD

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You should see the look on my wifes face anytime there is a tv show with anything pertaining to nuclear devices, as she knows I'm going to spend the whole show pointing out all of the technical and tactical problems. Not that I know anything about that. I've said too much, I must go now.... :)

You're one of those techie defense engineer types with a t-shirt that says "If you see me running, try to keep up!", aren't you?!

 

:unsure:

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I was pleasantly surprised geocachers weren't portrayed as recluse freaks, techno-nerds, or some other fringe group. ...like furries.

 

Yeah, and she was kind of cute as geocachers go.

Cute yes, until she started talking with that big chip on her shoulder.

 

Although technically inaccurate, I don't think the show had any negative conentations towards geocaching (other that the trowel).

 

How many trowel TB's will we see outh there this next week?

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You all realize that the kind of arguments you are making here give creedence to the argument that Geocaching is a nerd activity, right?

 

Lighten up. It was a TV show where Geocaching was a plot point. It wasn't a freakin' documentary.

What is wrong with nerds and their activities? ;):mad:

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"Aye matey. Tis not buried treasure 'less it's buried."

 

I mean really. Could you imagine the howl by the non-geocaching community if they placed buried treasure in a tree stump, or in a crack in a rock? Non-cachers would laugh and say how stupid, what's a metter with these people, boy that was a dumb way to bury it, I think I'll shut it off and go get a beer. Of course they needed a trowel! Frankly a shovel would have been even better. More realistic. For the non-cacher, I mean. :mad:

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Sheesh! My condolences to the world of Geocaching from a sympathetic letterboxer. Those digging sequences can hardly be helpful when trying to sell either of our hobbies to hostile park managers.

 

I was, however, amused by the clownfish 'prizes' shown in the episode. I have actually found that very same keychain in a cache that I stumbled on while boxing. At least that was something accurate in their depiction.

 

Many thanks to any cachers who've ever lent a hand to help maintain a letterbox. I have done and will continue to do the same. Get away from that computer... go look for plastic... NOW!!! Funhog

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As far as the episodes go, it was average. As far as exploring the matter of geocaching goes, it was disappointing and seem just barely cover the basics.

 

The episode would have been pretty much the same if they referenced hiking/camping instead of Geocaching. May be CSI will do a better job at integrating this hobby into an episode, but I'm not holding my breath.

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I watched the episode last night, and enjoyed the first 45 minutes or so. Of course, I was (and still am) feeling sick and so I went to bed.

 

I too saw the trowel in the first few minutes of the show, and I was horribly offended. :mad: But, the trowel doesn't look like a trowel you'd use for digging, it almost looks like a masonry trowel, something that a brick layer would use to smooth out mortar? It definately doesn't look like something you'd want to do much digging with.

 

And to be honest, the cache wasn't really burried. From the looks of it, it looked like a hole was dug to hide it in the first place, but when the cops found it, they just brushed the dirt and leaves off with their hands...

 

All weekend, I was waiting for the show. And I, like Jeremy and many others was thinking that they'd show us as total nerds, but they didn't. Which I am grateful for.

 

So they didn't portray geocaching perfectly. They're not the first one, and they surely won't be the last...

 

The show wasn't entirely accurate, but they did fairly well for a tv show.

 

Worst-cast scenario, they could have really made us look bad. They could have had a nerdy engineer, killing people, and leaving mutilated body parts in tupperware, but they didn't. They had an almost reasonable interpretation of geocaching...

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Worst-cast scenario, they could have really made us look bad. They could have had a nerdy engineer, killing people, and leaving mutilated body parts in tupperware, but they didn't. They had an almost reasonable interpretation of geocaching...

May be we can see that on CSI? :mad:;):):D

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