Dodge County Sheriff warning

[5 Campers]

This was on WRPNAM Ripon

DODGE CO AUTHORITIES CONCERNED WITH GEOCACHING

Dodge County authorities are starting to raise concerns about geocaching – in which players use G-P-S coordinates to find containers of small treasures and write about their discoveries on-line. Sheriff Todd Nehls says his officers have been getting calls from people who find the geocache containers, and assume they’re homemade bombs. On Wednesday, a resident near Theresa complained that a pill bottle was duct-taped to a highway sign. Geocaching has caught on in Wisconsin over the last decade as safe, family-friendly entertainment. And Geocache-Dot-Com lists over 15-thousand hidden containers in the Beaver Dam area alone. Nehls says non-players report the containers as signs of possible drug-or-terrorist activity. The sheriff says he wants geo-cachers to know that their pastime could be misconstrued, and lead to wasted time for law enforcement.

[Todd300]

Already posted in another thread

http://wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=189685#189685

But thanks 🙂

[JimandLinda]

Many thanks to the WGA President for his comments in the article appearing in the Fond du Lac Reporter (fdlreporter.com). Sheriff Nehls then posted a ‘thank you’ for the info!

Good job, Pete! 😀

[gotta run]

A very good reply; thanks for being responsive on that.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[gotta run]

First let me say that I am encouraged by the fact that the bomb squad was not called for this cache. Which either means we are making progress, common sense prevailed, or perhaps that Beaver Dam simply does not own a fancy bomb detonating robot it likes to practice using.

Anyhoo, I was trying to recall the types of hides that have gotten police calls on as reported here over the past several years. I can remember hides near schools, hides in parks, and hides in road signs. I cannot recall reports of calls on boxes in the woods, but I could be wrong. (well, there was a safe that peach found, but that’s a whole ‘nuther topic.)

Obviously not every hide can be made in the woods. But, with road signs .1 miles apart considered prime real estate for many new cache listings, it just might be worth thinking about how it does look to the general public for a car to pull over to the side of the road to release a gaggle of people holding little devices, getting up close and personal with various objects in the public right of way.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[GetMeOutdoors]

Since it took me a while to find it….

While Geocaching has been a worldwide activity for now over 10 years, there still seems to be a need to educate those not involved in the activity of what it is all about. There are multiple resources available to explain the game, both the physical and the social sides of it. The Wisconsin Geocaching Association maintains a web site wi-geocaching.com as a Wisconsin contact. In addition, Groundspeak hosts the main listing site for the game at http://www.geocaching.com. A clarification on the article stating that there are 15,000 caches hidden in the Beaver Dam area: there are currently listed 436 caches within 20 miles of Beaver Dam. The 15,000 may have been determined using a 100 mile radius default setting that was on the listing site.

The WGA has worked well with the WDNR as well as many Law Enforcement personnel and continues to develop education materials to further explain the game. These materials are available on the wi-geocaching.com web site.

[tupperqueen]

Thanks to those who informed me about this article at the Sheboygan Meet & Greet today. As the owner of many caches in Theresa, including several in signs along the road, does anyone know which cache was discovered? I would be happy to talk to local law enforcement and/or nearby muggle neighbors to keep the game going.

[Knowschad]

Another source of information to point them to is the Land Management and Law Enforcement area of the Geocaching website (which is fairly new):
http://www.geocaching.com/parksandpolice/default.aspx

[JimandLinda]

Thank you! I didn’t know that Law Enforcement Agencies were entitled to a free Premium Membership! I may need to print and distribute a few locally.

Thanks again, Knowschad! 😀

[CodeJunkie]

I’m curious about the GC.com info. Their brochure states the LEO / Park account “will see the exact coordinates”. Does this hold true for non-traditionals (i.e. puzzle finals, multi’s, letterbox hybrids, etc.)? Or do they just see the same starting / bogus coords we do for these?

[w-way]

Cache placers should mark containers so muggles don’t get the wrong idea so quickly. I know I haven’t put the logo on the outside of all my caches, but now I might.

[Todd300]

That will be hard to do on nanos 😛

[w-way]

True but they are not as easy to spot.

[Ashen15]

Directing LE to the DNR info for WI would also be helpful to show that geocaching is something the state is aware of and even involved in.

It isn’t ideal but if this becomes a bigger issue in the future, more counties that require forms to be submitted would be a pain but might help protect the game.

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