› Forums › Geocaching in Wisconsin › General › Permissable Hides
- This topic has 15 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 2 months ago by
MikeB.
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10/26/2007 at 6:26 pm #1725629
Maybe one of the approvers can chime in on this.
Are magnetic caches allowed on US Postal Mail Boxes? I have been seeing more and more of them and expecially on the R2D2 mail boxes.
In my mind this is a huge red flag. All it takes is a passing car to see someone put a black magnetic container on the mailbox and walk away.
I specifically want to know if they are allowable locations. ie private property, etc.
Uncle_Fun
10/26/2007 at 9:07 pm #1880569Allowable I’m not sure, but I’d avoid them … someone some where could probably figure out a way to interpret the law and make it a federal offense if it isnt already.
10/26/2007 at 9:22 pm #1880570I think even if it is allowed (and I sure hope it is not), it shows very bad judgment. The last thing we need is to give a reason to governing bodies to further regulate or eliminate our caches……
10/27/2007 at 1:30 am #1880571I have purposefully never hid a cache on a mailbox. I guess I have used good judgement 😀
There are plenty of guard rails, garbage cans, benches, signs, poles, fences and other metal objects to attach a magnetic keyholder to.
You could email the cache owner to discuss “right from wrong”. Perhaps they might not have the same good judgement as you, especially if the owner is a new cacher.
10/27/2007 at 1:34 am #1880572They are not allowed under any circumstances, no if, ands, or buts.
10/27/2007 at 3:18 am #1880573I was always told a USPS mail box is Government property and tampering with a mail box is a federal offense. Any use of the mailbox for any purpose other than mailing a letter or package is tampering.
10/28/2007 at 2:31 am #1880574Do not give paranoid muggles a reason to fear.
10/28/2007 at 6:17 am #1880575There were some serious issues down in Chicago regarding this, where someone had placed a cache on a mailbox across the street from the Social Security office. This led to BIG problems, as you might expect.
The good thing is that I haven’t seen this done around our area, and you would think that I would, given my concentration on 1 star terrain lately. That said, it is pretty difficult for us to know that a cache is hidden this way from the information we get. If you find a cache hidden in this fashion, please let one of the reviewer know so that we can address the issue. We depend on you guys to let us know if something is not right.
In addition to mailboxes, other things we need help on are:
- buried caches
- caches hidden without a container or a log
- “unmanned” virtuals
- caches not being maintained (give the owner a month or two before complaining)
- caches apparently hidden on private property without permission (usually detectable by the shotgun blasts)
- any other guideline violations which you think we somehow missed (railroads, schools, dams, SNAs, you name it)
I know that some of you do this already, but we can use all the help we can get.
10/28/2007 at 3:32 pm #1880576It wasn’t a geocache, but a few years ago someone taped an envelop to the bottom of a mailbox in Cedarburg as part of a Halloween party scavenger hunt. Someone else saw them put it there, called the cops and the hider was arrested. Just another example of why mailboxes are off limits.
10/29/2007 at 1:56 pm #1880577The only mailbox cache I’ve ever seen was down in Illinois where you had to find one that was part of the promotion where it had been painted to look like R2D2, grab a number off the side, and use that to find the actual cache container that was hidden nearby. I felt weird just looking over the mailbox for the number I needed. It would have been even more uncomfortable to be looking for a magnetic container.
10/31/2007 at 2:04 am #1880578After a recent find in Florida ..
what about the sprinkler head caches? I had been told they were banned a while back but there definitely is one alive but not doing too well with a hole in the cover that I found a few days ago .. yeah, I know, get my logs done ..
10/31/2007 at 1:59 pm #1880579Sprinkler head caches are allowed (just ask your fiance’!), but as with ALL geocaches, you need permission to place them.
10/31/2007 at 2:16 pm #1880580I gotta say that I felt really odd while hunting a cache in Chicago. At the time I had no idea it would be on a mailbox, but that is where I found it. We only had to search for a minute or two to locate it, but in that time, we got a lot of funny looks, and even got the attention of the security guards in a nearby building although when they came out, they gave us a quick glance and walked right by. The cache was Batcolumn. It was our first, and our last mailbox cache.
These are federal property, so I would guess hiding caches on them would not be permitted any longer. But are old ones grandfathered?
10/31/2007 at 6:36 pm #1880581I should clarify .. Sprinkler head as in stuck into the ground, in a flower bed sprinkler head ..
11/01/2007 at 1:50 am #1880582@Auntienae wrote:
I should clarify .. Sprinkler head as in stuck into the ground, in a flower bed sprinkler head ..
I have seen many fake sprinkler heads, planted in the ground, a fairly popular hide in the River Falls/Woodury area. These are fine, I think, as long as they dont lead to tearing apart real sprinkler heads. I guess I prefer these to micros stuck into manicured garden areas that inevitably lead to damage to gardens that the community is paying for and are intended for all to enjoy.
As in all hides, permission, and common sense need to prevail. If the hide is going to lead to potential damage to someone else’s property, or to dangerous activity like things stuck onto high voltage transformers, then it is best to think of something else.
zuma
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