Trespassing Geocachers and How to Check if Youre on Their List | Page 4 | Homestead Security | Forums

This is my story concerning Geocaching and how I came to my low opinion of it.

It was something I had seen mention of on the Internet. I watched a video of a person making their find once. I did not quite get what it was about, but more importantly, I thought it looked like quite the boring and tedious activity. I paid it no further mind. While still in the process of buying my property, I had hit it off with someone that attended the same discussion group I sometimes go to for fun. We'd get into some stimulating conversations with no end in sight. She was into Geocaching, but was still kind of new to it. One evening while walking downtown she said that we were near a Geocache on a public bridge and suggested that I, and two others that were there give it a try. Less than eager, I tried as did the other two. For what seemed like forever but was probably only 10 or so minutes, I looked high and low, under and over, inside and outside. I stubbornly looked longer than the other two. Nothing. Finally she revealed where she knew it to be, but I had looked there. I had searched in vein for a missing cache. I gave Geocaching a sincere try and it only reaffirmed my impression of it being a tedious and boring activity. No harm, no foul.

Months later having closed on my new property, the first thing I did was go pull the bullet ridden realtor's sign that had been used for target practice by persons unknown. Days later I was there with a chainsaw clearing some trees. It was the weekend, and one of my new neighbors was across the street with his son shooting targets. Just as I finished refueling, oiling, and cleaning the chainsaw, he shouts a warning to me to cover my ears, there was about to be an explosion. I put my ear protection back on and told them to go for it.

B-O-O-M-!-!-!

Yikes! I thought they were going to set off something like an M-80, but this was way too loud and I felt a shock wave pour across my body. I asked him about it and they had gotten their hands on some binary explosive at the last gun show. Wow. I was glad I had the hearing protection with me.

The following day while stacking fallen branches from felled trees, I noticed something small zip tied to one of the branches completely wrapped in camouflage tape.

Immediately this freaked me out. Target practice at the realtor's sign had been very close to where this tree had stood... the neighbor had been shooting just across the street... explosives had been set off just the other day, could this have something in it that had failed to blow? It was only a split second thought, but really scared me. I had been using a chainsaw. What if it had blown? ...No, why would you camouflage an explosive? Could it be hidden drugs or some other illegal nuisance? What was this thing? Who put it there, and why? Why would any normal person go to such trouble to conceal this thing With camouflage tape and zip tie it to a tree limb?

Carefully, I looked the item over. On closer inspection, it was a small prescription pill bottle completely wrapped in camouflage tape and zip tied to a tree limb. I tried to peer inside without touching it. All I could make out was a clear plastic and something inside the plastic. Carefully I cut the zip ties for a closer look.

Inside was a zip lock sandwich bag with paper inside. I took the paper out and had a look.

IT WAS A GEOCACHE?!?

I was furious. This stupid thing had scared the hell out of me and had my thoughts racing with concerns for my safety or for other sobering fears. I immediately went from being neutral about Geocaching to being intensely angry.

I decided to go up the road and talk to the former custodian of my property about what I had just found to see if they knew anything. Like me, they were alarmed, but had known nothing about it.

That night I looked up Geocaching to learn more. The rules said that trespassing was not condoned and that permission from property owners should be granted before hiding a cache. I knew from talking with the former custodian that no permission had been granted.

I texted my new friend that was into Geocaching.

That is the last time I spoke to her. I had lost every shred of respect. I tell her I was concerned for my safety, angry, and there had been trespassing, yet her concerns were returning a game piece to a stranger and trying to defend trespassing even after I told her that it was frowned upon.

From those experiences, and with some additional researching, it began occurring to me all the horrible potential of this thing called Geocaching. As it turned out, I was not the first person to think explosives. I won't be the last either. Think about the expense of sending out a bomb squad and officers to secure an area. While objects may be harmless, it is done of necessity. All it takes is one strange item not treated as an explosive to have another Boston Marathon. In this post 9/11 world we now live in, there have been some very real tragedies. You would think Geocachers would have more common sense that something like a black ammo can with wires coming out of it or a tube made of PVC pipe, capped on both ends and wrapped in camo duct tape sitting just out of sight in a high traffic public area is going to sound like a bomb to most people; as it well should.

I used inexpensive plastic No Trespassing signs from Walmart. They were $0.44 each or $44.00 sold on a 100 count roll. They went up fast with a staple gun.

http://www.walmart.c.....l/22937121

Make sure about your local laws which can specify things like:

• the size of the sign
• the wording
• the size of the wording
• the height that the sign is posted
• the distance between posted signs
• the distance signs should be posted from the property line

Take photos stamped with date and time once signs are posted to prove you did it. If a trespasser rips signs down and claims there were no signs, you can prove there were signs and accuse the trespasser of vandalizing your property by ripping them down.

The 44 cent signs mean you can post more of them, wont mind replacing them as much if they get torn down, and since they're plastic, they are water proof. They also go up faster than metal signs.