nwogeo.org

OK so my vehicle blocks view of what I am doing. Here is what John Q Citizen might see.

* Occasionally vehicles pull up to that light pole
* Driver gets out and gets back in sits there for a while
* Driver get our and back on again
* Driver drives off
* What is going on over there? A drug deal or what? Better call the cops.

Don't get me wrong, I've done light pole caches, but I wonder what is the point. I much prefer a box placed in the woods. i.e. The - Take a Hike! (On the Buckeye Trail) series.

Mighty_Mo wrote:OK so my vehicle blocks view of what I am doing. Here is what John Q Citizen might see.

* Occasionally vehicles pull up to that light pole
* Driver gets out and gets back in sits there for a while
* Driver get our and back on again
* Driver drives off
* What is going on over there? A drug deal or what? Better call the cops.

Don't get me wrong, I've done light pole caches, but I wonder what is the point. I much prefer a box placed in the woods. i.e. The - Take a Hike! (On the Buckeye Trail) series.

Like I said though, as long as they are not in plain view of the business. Like T-Hunter's well placed C.A.D. series. If I'm doing an urban cache and there are muggles around, then I just sit there and watch them and then grab the cache at the most opportune time. I'm not definately NOT trying to defend poorly placed urban caches, because most could have been thought through and placed in better spots. I don't get the opportunity to go out caching but about once every 2 weeks, so I usually map out an area and hit every cache in that area, no matter what kind it is or where it's at. So far (knock on wood), I have been questioned only a couple of times about what I was doing while out caching and it wasn't while I was urban caching. I only have 231 finds, so maybe I've been lucky or I've just been sneaky enough.

Mighty_Mo wrote:OK so my vehicle blocks view of what I am doing. Here is what John Q Citizen might see.

* Occasionally vehicles pull up to that light pole
* Driver gets out and gets back in sits there for a while
* Driver get our and back on again
* Driver drives off
* What is going on over there? A drug deal or what? Better call the cops.

Don't get me wrong, I've done light pole caches, but I wonder what is the point. I much prefer a box placed in the woods. i.e. The - Take a Hike! (On the Buckeye Trail) series.

Oh yeah,
Thanks for the T.A.H. comment!!!

Maybe, along with cache placing guidelines, we also need to put up listings for:
"Top 10 'How not to look conspicuous' Ideas" at a busy cache location"

10. Sit it car, act like taking a nap or reading paper until muggles clear. Many do this anyway, and they don't even geocache.

9. Drive in circles until you find the right angle to best use your geo-mobile as cover. Get an SUV, worth the money for this reason alone.

8. Always park driver's side to the cache. Maybe you can just roll down the window and lift up the skirt. Or bring wife/patsy along to get caught next to you.

7. Put your GPS to your ear and walk around car like in an intense conversation. Or use your real celphone if have one. Act frantic!

6. Look like you are checking over your car's tires. Don't raise the hood, that might attract muggles. Don't want THAT to happen!

5. As stated before, the true geocacher has maintenance safety gear to use as a disguise. Sheryl's family are electricians, maybe we can get a hardhat or two to use. Maybe a pharmacist's outfit would work (in-joke).

4. Set alarm clock to go off at 2am, grab them when only cars on the roads are drunks and the police. Sounds safe to me.

3. Ignore listing, wait until something happens to or at cache, then gets shut down. Record find saying "Sorry, forgot to get around to posting this one" FREEBIE!!

2. Have you buddy write your name down on it for you. Bring him a sandwich while he's staying overnight in lock-up.

And the number one way to not look conspicuous:
1. Stay home and read a book on lamppost design. You'll never be caught doing it that way. And at least you'll probably learn something.

TeamMina wrote: 10. Sit it car, act like taking a nap or reading paper until muggles clear. Many do this anyway, and they don't even geocache.

9. Drive in circles until you find the right angle to best use your geo-mobile as cover.

8. Always park driver's side to the cache.

I have used the above methods with good results and have not drawn attention to myself. For #10, I always have a word search in the car, so I usually work on one at such times.

BarnacleBear wrote:In geocaching is
common sense
an oxymoron?

That's a good question...hmmmm?

MORON OX

BarnacleBear wrote:In geocaching is
common sense
an oxymoron?

I'm thinking more like affliction.

Ok, since somewhere on this thread, it was mentioned that maybe someone should come up with some guidelines, I have taken it upon myself to try...

I have started another thread called "Caching Guidelines" where I will post my draft and then everyone can have at it with comments and suggestions.

LINK: Caching guidelines (NWOGEO statement developement)

LINK: Here we go again

The cachers obviously chose the worst lightpost in the parking lot anyway.
They were spotted immediately in the act of actually PLACING the cache.

At least, if there's any good news, it sounds like it didn't even get far enough to get published. Wonder if the FTF is still up-4-grabs!

1. The are scant good reasons to place another cache in a business parking lot.

2. There are numerous good reasons not to.

Some may disagree, some may just not get it, some may chose to ignore the implicatiions.

Just my opinion. My opinion and 35 cents will get you a 35mm filmcontainer.

TeamMina wrote:The cachers obviously chose the worst lightpost in the parking lot anyway.
They were spotted immediately in the act of actually PLACING the cache.

At least, if there's any good news, it sounds like it didn't even get far enough to get published. Wonder if the FTF is still up-4-grabs!

Some guy in a SCUBA suit got FTF. Took him 5 hours.

Thought it might be a good time to give this thread a bump to the top. Lots of new cachers among us and some already have police encounter stories.

The problem hasn't gone away and it's easy to find reports online with google, see this article from only yesterday Another Scare

It is a great idea to BUMP this thread, BearClaws! The bigger moral of the quoted story, however, is if you're out hunting a cache & you are approached by a security/police/store employee/adult.....DON'T give a vague description such as "it's a box....and there's more around!" Explain to them what it is, show it to them. Make a note or send a message to the cache owner when logging this. That way if it goes missing, it's not a complete shock and no bomb squads get called. I've always told people what we're doing (even in a vague sense of it's a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt) so as not to make it sound mysterious to overactive imaginations! My 2 cents, take that an $1.57 you can get a cup of Starbucks coffee.