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Trespassing Geocachers and How to Check if Youre on Their List
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K
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7 Feb ’14 - 12:34 pm
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here is the law

§402. Criminal trespass

1. A person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing that that person is not licensed or privileged to do so, that person:

A. Enters any dwelling place. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime; [2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).]

B. Enters any structure that is locked or barred. Violation of this paragraph is a Class E crime; [2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).]

C. Enters any place from which that person may lawfully be excluded and that is posted in accordance with subsection 4 or in a manner reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders or that is fenced or otherwise enclosed in a manner designed to exclude intruders. Violation of this paragraph is a Class E crime; [2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).]

D. Remains in any place in defiance of a lawful order to leave that was personally communicated to that person by the owner or another authorized person. Violation of this paragraph is a Class E crime; [2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).]

E. Enters any place in defiance of a lawful order not to enter that was personally communicated to that person by the owner or another authorized person. Violation of this paragraph is a Class E crime; or [2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).]

F. Enters or remains in a cemetery or burial ground at any time between 1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise the following day, unless that person enters or remains during hours in which visitors are permitted to enter or remain by municipal ordinance or, in the case of a privately owned and operated cemetery, by posting. Violation of this paragraph is a Class E crime. [2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF).]

[ 2001, c. 383, §56 (AMD); 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF) .]

4. For the purposes of subsection 1, paragraph C, property is posted if it is marked with signs or paint in compliance with this subsection. Proof that any posted sign or paint marking is actually seen by an intruder gives rise to a permissible inference under the Maine Rules of Evidence, Rule 303 that such posted sign or paint marking is posted in a manner reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders.

A. Signs must indicate that access is prohibited, that access is prohibited without permission of the landowner or the landowner's agent, or that access for a particular purpose is prohibited. [1995, c. 529, §2 (NEW).]

B. [2011, c. 432, §4 (AMD); MRSA T. 17-A, §402, sub-4, ¶B (RP).]

B-1. Paint markings made pursuant to this paragraph mean that access is prohibited without permission of the landowner or the landowner's agent. Paint markings made pursuant to this paragraph must consist of a conspicuous vertical line at least one inch in width and at least 8 inches in length and must be placed so that the bottoms of the marks are not less than 3 feet from the ground or more than 5 feet from the ground at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than 100 feet apart. Paint markings may be placed on trees, posts or stones as described in this paragraph. The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Bureau of Forestry shall adopt rules to determine the color and type of paint that may be used to post property pursuant to this paragraph. Rules adopted pursuant to this paragraph are routine technical rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A. [2011, c. 432, §5 (NEW); 2011, c. 657, Pt. W, §§5, 7 (REV); 2013, c. 405, Pt. A, §23 (REV).]

C. Signs or paint must mark the property at intervals no greater than 100 feet and at all vehicular access entries from a public road. [1995, c. 529, §2 (NEW).]

D. Signs or paint markings are required only on the portion of the property where access is prohibited or limited. Signs or paint posted in accordance with this section have no effect on boundaries of property and do not constitute claims of possession or adverse use in accordance with state law. [1995, c. 529, §2 (NEW).]

D-1. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a landowner who posts that landowner's land by paint markings and who intends to prohibit access without permission of the landowner or the landowner's agent or intends to prohibit access for a particular purpose may do this by posting in a prominent place one or more qualifying signs that by words or symbols set forth the nature of the prohibition. The landowner need not post the qualifying signs at 100-foot intervals. [1999, c. 115, §1 (NEW).]

E. A person commits criminal mischief and is subject to prosecution under section 806 if that person, without permission of the owner or owner's agent:

(1) Knowingly posts the property of another with a sign or paint mark indicating that access is prohibited, that access is prohibited without permission or that access for a particular purpose is prohibited; or

(2) Removes, mutilates, defaces or destroys a sign or paint mark placed for purposes of this section. [1995, c. 529, §2 (NEW).]

Nothing in this subsection limits any manner of posting reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders.

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earthenstead
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13 Feb ’14 - 9:33 pm
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Part 2

Even if permission was given to hide a cache by the property owner, unless the GPS starting point is well inside that owner's property boundaries, it is likely that Geocachers seeking that cache will trespass onto nearby properties during their search. Again, this is because the GPS location provided for a cache is only approximate. While the US Government no longer tampers with GPS data, there is still a margin of error of up to 15 meters (about 50 feet) for most handheld devices. Greater accuracy is possible literally within millimeters for some high end surveyor's equipment, but that is bulky and very expensive equipment. Your average Garmin handheld or smartphone is simply not accurate enough. This margin of error is considered part of the "game".

If you read the log entries on various cache pages, you will see that there is no average Geocacher. Men and women, young and old, single people and entire families participate. As with any average sampling, you will have good people, and those up to no good... including criminals.

Geocaching is the perfect excuse for a criminal. A thief that wanted to checkout an area (or commit a theft) could first check online for nearby Geocaches, and then if questioned by anyone, claim that they are simply Geocaching. It's the perfect catchall excuse for being someplace that you have no business being. Worse yet, the same excuse would be perfect for a stalker, would-be rapist, or any other nefarious motives.

Geocachers sometimes make some really stupid choices as the container for their cache. A popular (and stupid) choice is old ammo cans. Some Geocachers have even decorated the outsides of their cache containers with wiring and electronic looking apparatus that has resulted in actual bomb scares. Given the very real threat of bombings around the world dating far earlier than 9/11, who's to say that Geocaching wasn't the perfect opportunity for an actual bomber? What if a real Geocache had a bomb placed inside of it set to explode for the next unwitting person to open it? Or a new bomb placed?

https://www.google.com/#q=geocaching+bomb+scare

The simple fact is, while Geocaching can be an innocent and well meaning game, it's potential for mayhem is enormous.

Who is being invited to your property without your knowledge? You had better check the list and make certain you (or your neighbors) aren't on it.

To find out, check the interactive world map at Geocaching.com.

Here is a link to the map zoomed out and centered to show the entire globe.

http://www.geocachin.....3&z=2

You'll notice there are caches on remote oceanic islands, and everywhere from Antarctica to Siberia. Impressive and equally scary.

From the main website, use the "Play" drop down menu for the "View Geocache Map" web link which is: http://www.geocaching.com/map/

You can learn about the history of Geocaching here: http://www.geocachin.....story.aspx

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earthenstead
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13 Feb ’14 - 9:35 pm
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Thats about it.

Parts 1 and 2 are really just rough drafts. I'm not happy with the job I did writing either. I like part 2 the least.

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K
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16 Feb ’14 - 4:00 pm
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Great info, what are you writing this for? A class, blog post, etc? You said you didn't like either parts, what didn't you like?

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earthenstead
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16 Feb ’14 - 5:16 pm
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I suppose its a personal experiment of sorts. As stated in my intro post, I have quite the journey ahead of me, and in preparing for this next leg of that journey I decided that a blog to chart everything and forums for discussion would be a good idea.

I have 10 blog posts so far. All are kept private in "draft" mode. Most of them are really various note taking. Gathered tidbits. I'm not sure they are fit to go public, and I'm not sure what I am comfortable with. I am by nature a private and guarded person, yet I also like "informing" (mbti term) which in essence means educating.

In person, there is no conflict, but online, I give a good deal of consideration to what I am comfortable sharing. This forum is still growing and is much more personal in nature which makes me more comfortable sharing more (It also helps that you don't try to usurp the Intellectual Property of members by claiming that what they post is now yours... *ahem* other forums that will remain unnamed.)

What I've done in this thread is attempt to write a formal article. There is a story behind how I came to my rather uncommon perspective on Geocaching, but I will share that later.

It would be a formal article to post on my blog, probably in "page/article" format rather than within the main blog. I don't know if I want to do that. I've abandoned much of that sort of formality.

I don't feel like I've presented the core ideas that I want to illustrate with the article in a clear fashion. It just feels somewhat jumbled and confused in it's current form. Like I need to take myself all the way back to picking through it and writing a formal outline from which I then re-write the entire thing.

So on two fronts, I am testing the waters of writing a formal article, while at the same time I am figuring out what you might call my online identity for "Earthenstead".

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K
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16 Feb ’14 - 5:37 pm
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Understood, no I would never do that with my members intellectual property or personal pictures, It makes me very angry when someone does that with me. I have asked several members if I could share their thoughts as blog posts and they have agreed, if they ever want it removed, I would in a heart beat. Unlike some other places that I have asked several times to remove my stuff and they have refused, lesson learned on that one.

When your blog goes live let me know

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earthenstead
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16 Feb ’14 - 5:44 pm
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It was live before I even signed up. But like I said there is literally nothing posted publicly right now. I'll do that when I have something to post public that feels right.

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easytapper
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16 Feb ’14 - 8:16 pm
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When i read your first post, I thought, "what's the big deal?? This guy's kind of being anal about the whole thing." But the more I thought about it, I can see where it could be a huge problem. 1-2 people geocaching? Not a problem (especially if they're respectful). But dozens (maybe hundreds)? Yeah, that's a problem.

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