Does Police Encounter = Less Newbie:)

[Kasma_Gang]

Well today was interesting. Was going for Wave Bye Bye and The Pointe. While wandering apparently aimlessly around the "area" of the Pointe, two police cruisers are coming down the road towards 3180. I quickly grab the cell phone (no not the GPSr pretending to be a cell phone) sit on the ledge of the "area" and pretend to be talking on it. Hard to inconspicuously park there, so needless to say, they felt the need to stop and chat.

Ok, so I am new at this..do I lie, do I tell the truth, will they have a clue what I am talking about?? With heartbeat at about 140, sweating despite the beautiful clear day, I chose the road of honesty.

After the "May I see your ID, Ma'am" stopped the heart altogether, I realized that the GPSr is still in my left hand, cell phone in right no hands for ID searchin'. As I start to set the GPSr on the ledge, one of them says "What is that?" Ok, how well can I explain this to get myself home instead of a trip to the station

After about ten minutes, a quick check on my license (does that not just freak everyone out!) and he actually wrote down the website and said, "Hmmm, maybe I will check that out" and they both left.

Sinking slowly to the ground, no longer able to support myself on these shaking legs, I thought well since I am down here, I might as well "turn another rock or two" and see if I can find this thing! That lastest about 5 more mins and decided to just take a DNF!

So, survived the first cop encounter but still not able to find a wttb without help/more time. NO, no hints I will find this one if it kills me. LOL Especially when I read the logs and everyone else managed to pop in and pop out . UGH

[WTT-B2]

WOW what an adventure !! I have a couple close calls with LEOs and always thought that if they stopped me I would tell them exactly what I was doing and why. Good luck finding the hide !!

Here's a hint : Stones -- oops that the same as on the web hehehe

WTT-B2

[Captain J (Retired)]

Rest assure that my next cache will put you deep into the woods. Won't have to worry about the police watching you.

[houstoncontrol]

The only run-in I've had with the law (at least while caching ;D) -- I was doing some caches at El Franco Lee park when I decided to save myself about a half mile of walking by driving around the barrier and 4-wheeling to where the road ended, then proceeding on foot. After making a big loop and finding several caches, I got back to my cachemobile only to find a couple of Harris County squad cars hemming be in.

Gulp! I just knew I was in big trouble, or at least was going to get a parking ticket. So I fessed up right away what I was doing. One of the cops knew about geocaching and asked if I found any good swag. They had gotten a call about a suspicious vehicle, but once they confirmed my ID and that it was my car, they tipped their hats and left. Whew!

Of course, at the end of my big loop I had found a much better (legal) parking area and a better way to access the caches. Isn't that the way it always is?

[Kasma_Gang]

wttb2 said:

Here's a hint : Stones -- oops that the same as on the web hehehe

WTT-B2

You are an evil evil man ;D Finally broke down and decrypted that on one site (which I have never resorted to doing yet) only to see STONES....UGH are you kidding me. Than I just had to laugh. ;D

[Wild Cat Bud]

We try not to go, be or stay where the LEO might get after us! If we get to an area and it doesn't look kosher to us, we just drive on. Hiders don't always take into consideration that while it might be easy for them to slip into a place and hide a cache and slip out again rather unobstructed, the seeker has the hinderance of, as you put it, having to "wander around aimlessly" and thus often looking suspicious and attracting attention.

I would suggest you print out and make copies of a "what is geocaching" paper to carry with you. You can give that to the questioner and not have to try to talk too much when your nerves are strung and your knees wobbly.

[Wild Cat Bud]

Didn't I try to warn ya that you were having more fun than was legal, didn't I

[Kasma_Gang]

Hey, it was truly not a deal, just a shock. Besides if I wasn't such a newbie, I could have doe the PnG that it was supposed to be. It happened to be lunch hour (my fault know better than to try and cache in high traffic area during that time) and I didn't know what was down the road (fitness/golf course) would attract a large number of PD at lunch. It was an interesting encounter, but truly think I got the PD officer to join the frey, so no biggy. Truly everyone must have had one of these meetings from time to time. It is the nature of the game. Point is, my fault, should have been less conspicuous and left when it wasn't an easy find for me.

All cool, just another experience along the way. BTW have a copy of What's Geocaching in my day pack now. Thx

[Kasma_Gang]

admin said:

Didn't I try to warn ya that you were having more fun than was legal, didn't I

See now that is just mean ;D ;D ;D
Serves me right, truly my bad to stay that long
Didn't want the DNF, greedy