How to identify a Cacher?......

[ktmadventurer]

I'm getting close to actually trying this all out - again.
I came so close to my first one last weekend out at Valley of Lagoons, but the river was up, the 4WD had no extra fuel to "lend" me, and being winter (as such in N. Qld...) I wasn't going swimming....

One thing crossed my mind about Muggles...
How do we know if someone ferreting around in the bushes is a Cacher or a Muggle?
I presume a GPSr may be a clue, but is there some secret identification to set us apart from Mere Mortals?
And secondly, is it ethical/appropriate to approach a Cacher while they are busy?

I'm sure the responses to this could be interesting!

[musta9]

If their looking in bushes and trees

[lemmykc]

I remember the MEGA event and the identification in the field. During the day, many people would go out blitzing the town finding all of the nearby caches. Because there were more cachers than actual caches (that everybody could find, anyway) there would often be mini-events at the caches. When you were looking for a cache, people would come along and you knew that there was a good chance they were a cacher.........

Then there was the OZ MEGA name tag that confirmed it all

[Yurt]

If you approach and they try to act all inconspicuous pretending to talk on a phone etc then you just hold up your precious GPSr. The same effect cannot be achieved using a iphone or android thingy of course.

[LouiseAnn]

I usually try "Have you found it yet?" Surprisingly I haven't had a blank stare yet......

[gmj3191]

My brother in law is a muggle, but an informed one.
He was out walking his dog recently when he sprung micaparamedic searching for a cache about 1km down the road from his place.
I haven't seen him yet to hear exactly how it happened, or what gave the game away but my b-i-l is pretty observant.

[gd___]

Just don't say "are you here for the same thing I'm here for?" as that can be misinterpreted.

[Toriaz]

If you can see a travel bug sticker on the window of their car, that's a pretty good giveaway .

We were trying to out wait someone last Monday, and were wondering if the people in the other car were also cachers trying to out wait us.

It was a multi where one waypoint is only about 70 m down the road from GZ. We were at GZ, they had pulled up next to the waypoint. We figured out where the cache had to be, couldn't access it with just our hands, but didn't want to do more with muggles sitting there behind us. We made it as obvious as we could what we were doing, so that if they were cachers they would know that it was okay to join us. They eventually drove away, so we either scared off some cachers or they really were muggles who just happened to park at the waypoint .

[Team Wibble]

I usually try "Have you found it yet?" Surprisingly I haven't had a blank stare yet......

Surprisingly, this doesn't always work. We were trying to search for a cache once and a muggle asked us that question, so we thought... phew! and started to talk to them... it quickly became apparent that we were talking about entirely different things. I can't for life of me remember what they were talking about, but it made for a very quickly awkward conversation!

Even after 8 years of caching we still can't reliably identify cachers 100% of the time out in the field.

[gmj3191]

An understanding of the basic defect in the inherited disorder caching requires cloning of the caching gene and definition of its protein product. In the absence of direct functional information, chromosomal map position is a guide for locating the gene. Chromosome walking and jumping and complementary DNA hybridization were used to isolate DNA sequences, encompassing more than 500,000 base pairs, from the caching region on the long arm of human chromosome 7. Several transcribed sequences and conserved segments were identified in this cloned region. One of these corresponds to the caching gene and spans approximately 250,000 base pairs of genomic DNA.

[Just a cacher]

So, if we meet someone suspicious when out in the field, we just ask for DNA testing?

[Bronnie_1990]

I've had the "Have you found it yet??" comment backfire on me as well, when i was hunting for a bunch of frogs a couple of months ago. Seriously, who wonders around, looking in trees, in the middle of a small forrest, in the middle of canberra?
(That was an awkward conversation. Yes, those frogs were..real. Yes, i keep them in pets. i'm getting out of there.)

There's a cache outside my work, that i've busted one person looking for. I asked the age old question of "Found it yet?" (which was obviously no, as they were looking about 50m away..), they had the best reaction ever! after an embarrassed shrug, i yelled "it's over this way!!" pointing to GZ, which got a comment of "err...i'll find it myself!!"
(reading his log was hilarious. "..Was pointed in the right direction, by ...i think it was another cacher..")

[nutwood]

I look for the twist of the wrist as they slip the GPS into a pocket. I've been working on this myself, it's very hard to innocently pocket a GPS. I'm now coming around to the other school of thought that bends industriously over the GPS, apparently working on an SMS message.
I feel there's a more advanced level to be strived for. One where people instantly figure what you are apparently doing and instantly wish to look the other way and depart.
A parking ticket printer has limited applications. A sleazy look and a old raincoat could cause more problems than it solves. A collection tin would work until someone wished to donate. A bundle of religious handouts perhaps? All of these hardly explain why you're rummaging in the bushes, OK, perhaps the raincoat!

[Dvixen]

I'm easy to identify these days - Tiger-monkey is shouting TREASURE! when we are looking for caches. THE GPSr on the pram was a dead giveaway for a while.

I was stopped at traffic lights near one caches GZ, where a couple were quite obvious about looking and trying to not be obvious about it. I rolled the windows down and pretending not to see them I started yelling WARMER! COLDER! HOTTER! until the light changed. (I drove off) No mention of the crazed driver in the logs, so they may have actually been muggles. *blush*

[Earthbound Chief]

An understanding of the basic defect in the inherited disorder caching requires cloning of the caching gene and definition of its protein product. In the absence of direct functional information, chromosomal map position is a guide for locating the gene. Chromosome walking and jumping and complementary DNA hybridization were used to isolate DNA sequences, encompassing more than 500,000 base pairs, from the caching region on the long arm of human chromosome 7. Several transcribed sequences and conserved segments were identified in this cloned region. One of these corresponds to the caching gene and spans approximately 250,000 base pairs of genomic DNA.

Been watching reruns of Yes Minister have we?