Effective Stealth Techniques

For all your general chit chat, caching or not.
User avatar
Chrisval7
600 or more caches found
600 or more caches found
Posts: 48
Joined: 07 October 12 5:55 pm
Location: Barossa valley

Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Chrisval7 » 30 October 12 5:07 pm

As a result of being in a new place and finding it hard to adjust to high-concentration muggle activity, it occurs to me that we need to wise up to new and creative stealthy searching techniques.

We are visiting Cairns (QLD) and finding it hard to access and replace a cache due to the sheer volume of people in and around the GZ. I have been informed that locals are well versed in stealthy techniques. Think in terms of bending and doing shoelaces right next to a cache site....

I am confident many of you will have much more creative techniques than that. Are you prepared to share them? Keep it legal :wink:
Chris

User avatar
Agent Basil
2500 or more caches found
2500 or more caches found
Posts: 674
Joined: 31 July 08 8:26 pm
Location: Deakin, ACT

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Agent Basil » 30 October 12 5:41 pm

Camera is good. Be artistic and take close-ups of stuff!

User avatar
Team Wibble
2100 or more geocaches found
2100 or more geocaches found
Posts: 1054
Joined: 18 October 04 11:47 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Team Wibble » 30 October 12 5:56 pm


User avatar
Papa Bear_Left
800 or more hollow logs searched
800 or more hollow logs searched
Posts: 2573
Joined: 03 April 03 12:28 am
Location: Kalamunda, WA
Contact:

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Papa Bear_Left » 30 October 12 6:30 pm

Look around. In a place with lots of muggles? Put cache on ignore list and go and find a better one.

User avatar
Yurt
4500 or more caches found
4500 or more caches found
Posts: 1509
Joined: 01 May 09 10:08 pm
Location: Northern Suburbs, Sydney

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Yurt » 30 October 12 7:49 pm

I find busy places much easier than quiet places with a few people around. In a crowd you're just one more crazy person doing something a bit odd. Much easier to hide in plain sight. In a suburban street or in the bush in full view of a house or houses it's far worse and I dislike this sort of cache the most.

Wear a high-vis vest (aka the "Cloak of Invisibility") and you can pretty much do anything I've found - the GPS looks like a data logger for reading meters.

It's a bit like the 'SEP' field from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

User avatar
Chrisval7
600 or more caches found
600 or more caches found
Posts: 48
Joined: 07 October 12 5:55 pm
Location: Barossa valley

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Chrisval7 » 30 October 12 8:30 pm

Team Wibble, that video was pure gold. We want one of those vests - mental note to self to get one. Similarly I had thought one should carry a couple of those portable and light orange traffic cones, which strategically placed around a GZ would give you an excuse to probe around. :lol:

The camera is of course a good solution too. I am in fact a keen photographer so that should be no problem!

Dropped coins - another great tip.
Chris

JABs
4500 or more caches found
4500 or more caches found
Posts: 303
Joined: 04 December 07 3:52 pm
Location: SE Tasmania

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by JABs » 30 October 12 8:45 pm

Kids are great as they have a natural way of climbing over any thing if you stand there long enough so people don't really pay much attention to a kid or two climbing jumping poking pulling etc. except for when they yell in a large voice I FOUND IT or ITS OVER HERE.

nutwood
Posts: 393
Joined: 01 April 11 6:02 pm
Location: Tasmania

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by nutwood » 30 October 12 9:08 pm

Hi Viz vest and a clip board = cloak of invisibility.
In such attire I courteously asked several people to move from a circle of benches whilst I examined them for frogs. They didn't turn a hair and carried on their conversation nearby whilst I found my frog, noted it in my clipboard and departed. I guarantee they'd have struggled to remember the slightest detail.

User avatar
s_mc500
150 or more caches found
150 or more caches found
Posts: 99
Joined: 26 November 10 12:21 pm
Location: Victoria

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by s_mc500 » 30 October 12 9:59 pm

I walk my dog or ride my bike to most cache finds and both have proven to be good distractions.

User avatar
MtnLioness
2800 or more caches found
2800 or more caches found
Posts: 875
Joined: 12 May 09 5:50 pm
Location: Seaton, Adelaide
Contact:

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by MtnLioness » 30 October 12 10:03 pm

Papa Bear_Left wrote:Look around. In a place with lots of muggles? ....
Stop.
Take note of your surroundings, the people around you, what are they doing?
Make a quick assessment of the people in your immediate vicinity and get a good feel for those who may pose a threat, those who may spot you, those who are too preoccupied and those who are simply passing through. Once you have categorized people, you have a smaller threat radius!
Suddenly there are less to worry about.
OBVIOUSLY don't brazenly waltz up to GZ and reach straight for the cache and openly make suspicious activity around gz, think a bit... it CAN be done, in almost ANY circumstance!
Watch the people around you.
Find a break.
Above all, ACT NORMAL, nonchalant even.
People ignore people who have an air of authority about them, if you act like you have every right to be there, then to them, you do!

User avatar
CraigRat
850 or more found!!!
850 or more found!!!
Posts: 7015
Joined: 23 August 04 3:17 pm
Twitter: CraigRat
Facebook: http://facebook.com/CraigRat
Location: Launceston, TAS
Contact:

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by CraigRat » 30 October 12 10:50 pm

I prefer the Stealth Hat method:
Image

User avatar
iamapom
Posts: 92
Joined: 03 January 10 6:03 pm
Location: Northcote VIC

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by iamapom » 01 November 12 1:03 pm

I love city town caching with lots and lots of muggles. Gets the adrenaline pumping. Much better challenge than a leaky sistema in a tree in the bush.
A business suit is the best invisibility cloak there is. Just another middle aged office worker out in the street. While this is great - standing on a park bench is a suit is not, as I discovered.
Peak/rush hours are great in cities - no-one could care that you are doing, especially if dressed for business. But if you go back at 11pm, dressed the same way, when no-one else is around, you'd stand out - especially to the cops. So stealth is about appropriateness of time of day.
The "I have a sudden urgent call" technique works well, as passers-by expect you to be looking into space/down/in weird places when on the phone.
I hear a "hi viz" vest and clip-board works well, but I haven't tried it myself.

User avatar
spatialriq
5500 or more caches found
5500 or more caches found
Posts: 326
Joined: 12 May 11 11:52 pm
Location: Perth

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by spatialriq » 01 November 12 4:37 pm

I take my 3 kids along (4,7 & 10yo's) ... especially handy for extracting the low down caches :D

User avatar
blossom*
3000 or more caches found
3000 or more caches found
Posts: 1589
Joined: 25 February 09 1:59 pm
Location: West Ryde

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by blossom* » 01 November 12 6:32 pm

I am very big on pretending to make calls on my mobile but I tend to get carried away trying to act out the scenario in a realistic way and forget to actually look for the cache!

Yes a bicycle is very good. You can lean it against anything at GZ and it looks normal. Then check the chain, seat, gears or whatever is at the correct level for looking for the cache.

Sensible Shoes
200 or more found
200 or more found
Posts: 6
Joined: 12 May 07 4:50 pm
Location: NSW

Re: Effective Stealth Techniques

Post by Sensible Shoes » 02 November 12 10:00 pm

blossom* wrote:Yes a bicycle is very good. You can lean it against anything at GZ and it looks normal. Then check the chain, seat, gears or whatever is at the correct level for looking for the cache.
I find that a pram or stroller (containing a child, of course), can serve much the same function. Funny how you always need to rummage around looking for food/drink/wipes/toy/shoes/socks right near a cache.

Post Reply