WARNING Sherwood now Hostle to Caching .. Got Arested today

[mountainborn]

Tech_guy said:
2. Add to the guidelines that owner contact information MUST be in the contatiner. If topkitty's phone number had been in the cache, maybe a phone call would have helped a great deal?
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Because of this topic we are discussing and other issues, example: bomb squads responding to suspicious containers, I put my name, cell phone number and web domain URL in each cache. The same information on the outside of the container is put on a geocaching label in permanent marker.
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Police are supposed to check up on the suspicious in nature. Give them an investigative lead, like a phone number or a address ( physical or web ) and they will follow up on it every time.
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When the police call you, it is simple to give them all the answers they need.
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At that point the suspicious activity has ceased, and, unless the cache finder shows some attitude to investigators, the incident is revealed as a very cool high tech outdoors activity.
That is the time when the officer leaves because he is no doubt several calls behind already, more pressing issues await.

[JRMoney]

I often hunt caches with my son Curtis, "zombieboy", who's ten. This past summer we had just found a cache in Fayetteville near a soccerfield, after signing the log we came out of the small grove of trees. We were heading back to the truck when a man, who said he was an off duty cop, asked me what I was doing. I told him we were geocahing and took him back to the cache to show him what it was all about. Curtis and I both have GPSr so the cop could tell everything was on the up and up. He said he was a little worried to see a man and a young boy come out of the woods near a public place.

Looking back on it I can see where he's coming from. There are a lot of sicko's out there and I do everything to protect my three sons from lowlifes like that. That was a real eye opener for me, and I'm a lot more careful now. It's just a matter of being and looking proper.

JRMoney

[LadyEngineer]

I believe we all need to look at this event and reevaluate all of our own caches. I say this because I just resently archieved my NRCS Bug motel for this very reason. I had permission from the landowner to place the cache which was out side my office window and just down the street from the local police station. I had personally gone to the police and made them aware of it and all others that I had in Lonoke. I gave them exact locations, desciptions and my name and number plus the gc website so they could tell all of there officers about it. The state police and county police also come into that office so I was hopeing they would also become aware of what geocaching is.

In December an out of town cacher was almost arrested for hunting this cache and was not so happy that I had "in his opinion" lied on my cache page because I had put on there that the local police where aware of the cache. They were but apparently not the one that dragged him into the station.

I use to like placing caches because I love to read peoples logs and see where people come from to cache, now not so much. I had done all that I was suppose to get the cache out there and there was still issues. I don't know how Beth feels, but I do know how it felt when I read the post from the angry cacher to me.

The main lesson I see here is publicity. If we don't get our local police aware of what is happening with geocaching, more and more of us might be facing what releejr is facing.

I was born and raised in Sherwood and am very ashamed of how he was treated there. If you let me know the time of your hearing I'll try to be there for support.

[releejr]

Several things.

• Thank you everyone that has expressed support and concern over what happened to me. I really appreate it.

• I understand from several comments that at least one of us see the things I have said as a cry for attention and general police bashing

I would like to address that second view directly here on the board. I hold not contempt or real anger at Sherwood or her police force, if I hold contempt for anyone it is the owner of the Exxon that insisted on calling the police after I kindly (as I could) explained Geocaching and offering to remove the Cache and have it archived so no one else would come here.

I admit I should have probably waited to post that first message, I was more upset than I should have been, but I honestly belived and still do that the few police persons I came in contact with felt Geocaching was just an excuse to cause problems. I admit my view of their word may have been a bit shaded by my irratation.

Today I have talked to a lawyer that deals with the Sherwood court very often, and he has sudgested that I allow him to talk to the courts and have the case shelved for 6 months to a year, and then if no further problems occur just dismiss it all together.

Now I do not need any opinions or advice on this course and I have not made up my mind what I am going to do, I am just letting the people that have ask me to keep them informed know what is happening ... the rest of you can ignore the comment all together.

In short, I will not be caching in Sherwood anymore, but I do not think that everyone should stop, after all it is a beautiful city and has much beauty that people should enjoy. I just hope that everyone will just be a bit more careful and aware (up to this point I would have never thought to check for securty cameras before considering to hunt a cache, but now I will)

I am sorry if I have upset anyone or drawn any of the fun from this sport from anyone, (Topkitty98 & Ladycacher you listening).

Take care and enjoy the weekend.

Gener_Lee ....

[LadyEngineer]

For the record, I'm not upset at the police. I know several friends that are on the force and understand it from their point.

I was upset at my local station when I had gone to them and told them about it and a cacher still had problems, but in fairness, I went back over to the local office today. The assistant cheif and I talked about this at great length, he is all for geocaching, thinks it sounds like fun and has no problem with it as long as proper GC rules are followed because he has gone to the site since the incident with the out of town cacher (he happened to be the officer who didn't know). Plus, our behavior when we cache and when someone ask us about what we are doing says a lot too. If your looking like a hood and acting strange or not being very friendly back, he said that doesn't help the case. (releejr, not saying you did but he said the out of town cacher was not being very forthcoming with him.) He is going to work to get the county sheriffs, his city police officers and all the state police that come into the station aware of geocaching. I am going to help him with any of the things he has questions with. I also gave him this website so he can see who we arkansas cachers are and how we feel about geocaching and issues that we face. Like the fact that we are trying to work with the AGFC, that the state parks support us and that we sometimes make mistakes. I, too, believed like TK that a statue in a "public" parking area was public. Guess I'll think twice or three times before I think that again.

Anyway, the police aren't against us and we know this but we MUST make sure they are aware of us. Since I'm on the steering committee, I will start seeing about making some public information packets that we can print off and give to the local police. When I get them done, I will have Gaddiel or LongDogs post them in the download section.

I'll have to agree with LE about police in general (family would BBQ me if I didn't, lol) but on the other hand I've been getting some odd feedback from multiple sources about the Sherwood force.

That might not be odd if I had meth-heads for freinds/family members, but it's not like these people to bad-mouth fellow officers.

For my part I think I'm just going to steer clear of Sherwood from now on. I prefer to feed my sales tax dollars back into my own town anyway.

I'll also see what I can do about getting the word out about geocaching among the dept's I have contacts in, so they at least know it isn't some made up excuse for casing a neighborhood.

AR_kayaker.

[Team_Pink]

Lady Engineer, if you could make a form to be placed in a cache with owner signature and contact information and make it available for download too I think that would be great.

Just having a form would help me take that extra step to not only get permission but to also get a signature.

I think if you start asking owners for a signature you're going to start getting less permissions. Just my opinion....

[mountainborn]

I once was told by a prominent Arkansas Geocacher that they knew for a fact that it was easier to get a pound of forgiveness than to get an ounce of permission.
That is wisdom that is hard to argue with.
And, it works only if the geocacher is friendly and has no "chip" on their shoulder, or shows no "attitude' towards anyone who may ask what they are doing.
People will always wonder what you are doing, some will ask. Some will demand to know. Example: property owner, neighbor, police, ect..
Those who have a legitimate reason to ask will become more insistent at each request.
The cacher may well become more defensive at each request.
This escalation on each side can cause a good situation to go bad if anger enters the picture.
Remember you, the cacher, are the only one who knows what is going on and you set the tone, pace and demeanor ot this encounter.
Forgiveness will not be forthcoming if you let anger creep into your situation.
And since you are depending on a check mark in a box at a website to guarante your legitimacy at the location, common sence says "be diplomatic".
If you are in this situation and you are less than friendly and forthright, you may well be your own worst enemy.
It is your responsibility to dispell any wories that others may have about you being there.

[Geezer_Veazey]

Very good advice from Mountainborn. It sounds to me like from previous encounters with non-geocacher types, the escalation had already occurred on the gas station owner's part. Sometimes you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time and no amount of good demeanor is sufficient.

As for the Sherwood police, they are probably not all bad. But going back over 20 years ago, I got caught up in their money-making machine. Sounds like they haven't changed much. I imagine that after they read this, I had better avoid Sherwood, myself.