It had to happen at sometime

[Powerplay]

I was doing a cache out at campbelltown today in a bush area and while marking preparations
for the hunt the police turn up and start questioning me about what I was up to and doing in
the area.Had a good chat and explained about geocaching,its seems that this area in parts
illegal crops are grown and a good place for stolen cars to be dumped.I have been caching
for over a year and this is the first time I have ever been approached by the police.

Anyone else ever had these type of encounters while caching.

[caughtatwork]

Something like that

[GammaPiSigma]

...its seems that this area in parts
illegal crops are grown...

How little things have changed. Some 20+ years ago some guys I knew found a crop growing in the scrub on the other side of the creek from that cache. Lets just say a few garbage bags later and they were going through a lot of munchies.
Also, down the end of the road you park on is a short fire trail and I have seen some dubious characters parked down there on more than one occasion.

There is a local "Dumped Car Squad" and I have spoken with them while riding my MTB around the back of Airds (you should see the number of dumped cars in that area) but never had any police pull me up while caching. Must have been your lucky day.

[Shael6636]

So far in my 1st year of caching its happened to me twice now.....

The 2nd took some fast talking and explaining what we were doing, thankfully we came out of it with no problems but the GF was having a minor panic attack after the police had put a "vehicle Reported" sticker on the car

[traineediplomat]

That youtube vid is hilarious

[homedg]

Yep, been cornered 3 times now.
Once with the family on a caching tour to Adelaide.
And twice in one night while doing a Bathurst caching run with RAG's and Deputy Dog.
I still miss Constable Honeypot, She was so HOT in uniform....................

[noikmeister]

I've never been accosted by the cops, but had to call them once when I came across what looked like a wig and then I turned it over it was still attached to skin an crawling with maggots. I marked the sop with my GPS and then went off and did the cache. Then I called it in and was prepared to send them the pictures I took with my phone and the co-ordinates, but they insisted that I take them to it. I couldn't say for sure it was human hair, but I couldn't think what else it could be. I never heard anything else about it.

[reasonjo]

My brother and I were driving from Brisbane to Toowoomba in November last year and did a few caches that were close to the highway. There was one at the big pink elephant (I forget the location name) that I was having some trouble finding so we were shining a torch around (was about 8pm) trying to find the container. I turned around with torch and GPS in one hand and the cache in the other to find a police car a few metres behind me. We got asked a bunch of questions:

Me: Oh wow! You wanna know what we're doing right? (I was a tad excited.. only the second time my bro and I had been caching together and I was having a good time.)
Cop: Um. Yeah.
Me: We're playing geocaching! That's where use a GPS (whilst waving the GPS around) to find a cache (whilst waving the container around) that someone else has hidden!
Cop: (Gives me a very strange look.)

I suspect they probably thought I was a few beers short of a 6-pack but they asked a few more questions, took our names and checked us out on the computer to make sure we weren't badasses and left us there to put the cache back.

There used to be a fruit and veg warehouse on the site, but the building is currently empty. Turned out that the building had been broken into several times in recent weeks - the latest being the night before we were there shining a torch around and looking suspicious.

[grahamf72]

I haven't had any run-ins with the police (yet) but have had been questioned by a couple of security guards. Went out to find a cache in one of the local parks on the first night it was published. Found the cache easily enough, but discovered it didn't have a pen, so went back home to get a pen to sign it. On my return visit I was in the process of signing the log when 2 security guards and a HUGE dog made their presence known. Apparently there is a curfew on the park after 8pm because it is near a boarding school. There are no signs to indicate that though. I had to explain what I was there for, show them the cache and it's hidey hole. It was a little harder to explain what it was all about because I didn't bother taking my GPS with me on the return visit.

[MtnLioness]

I have had this happen a number of times however being a good looking female can work wonders to tough looking security guards, it also helps if you actually HAVE the cache as proof that you're not a Crazy crazy making up stories!

[Wingaap]

I've been sprung by the 'men in blue' a few times now. The most interesting (to explain) was when I was flat on my back with a arm up a pipe (machinery exhibit). Took a bit of explaining...but presenting the cache for inspection (eventually) solved the problem.

[GeoScrubers]

..... Took a bit of explaining...but presenting the cache for inspection (eventually) solved the problem.

Not so convincing if it turns out to be a DNF . . ..

[The Rats]

I must have a target on my head because I seem to have attracted my fair share of run-ins with the establishment. Even as recent as a trip to Wagga in February we were stopped and questioned on our movements. At the time the officer had no idea what caching was, but since we had gps's and headlamps hanging off us he sort of realised we werent making it up, and this was from a place that is hosting 600+ caches in a few weeks.

My worst experience however has to be on a caching trip to Vic with Big Matt & Steeba. I cant remember the cache in question but it was about midnight and we were in the eastern suburbs looking for a cache in the wall of a netball stadium when a car pulls into the carpark, about 100m away. Someone shines a light at us and in a brain explosion we decide to leg-it out of sight, not knowing who it was.

Anyway we're running and running, my mind is going a hundred mile an hour as to where we can hide or how we can get away as we still didnt know who was shining a light at us. Eventually we hear a voice, which is catching up to us and as our old legs are slowly giving out on us we stop running to find that its the Police who have given chase after us (yep I can hear you laughing). Even as officer got closer to us he never identified himself, but alas he knew what he wanted and in doing so had called for backup.

Anyway the cop wants to know what we're doing running away, he also has no idea about caching, he also didnt call-off the other cop cars so within minutes it looks like a scene out of some US documentary. Anyway to cut a long story short after plenty of explaining and with the cops starting to the see the funnier side of it we were allowed to continue our night caching expedition very red faced.

The cops told us that they were actually looking for other people but because we looked suspicious and had run away we automatically fitted their build. I'm glad the cops in question arent like other Victorian cops who shoot first and then ask questions. It certainly was a brain explosion that I'll never forget in a hurry, but I stand by my milli-second decision that the guy with the light never identified themselves. They could have been thugs cruising to cause havoc or anything.

On a brighter note, here in Wollongong we actually go out caching with some of the local Police Officers. The rescue squad who some are registered cachers use the geocaching game as a method of gps training and have on ocassions accompanied me on a cache search.

It certainly makes for a good caching story now. I guess we have to face it that at times our game will have us seen in the wrong light (boom boom).