While I agree the situation that occured at the Home Depot is a bit
extreme...
MANY caches placed in urban areas are often placed at business locations...
usually in parking lots (lamp posts) or around back of the stores, etc.
Although these places 'seem' to be public, they are VERY MUCH private
property. THE CACHE OWNER NEEDS TO GET PERMISSION WHENEVER A CACHE IS PLACED
ON PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!! It is stated so clearly on the geocaching.com web
site! Unfortunately, probably 99 percent of the time, the cache owner does
not get permission and just places the cache, thinking the area is public.
Unless you are patronizing the business, then you are trespassing.
I thought a person would have to be asked first to leave, then if they
didnt... they could be considered trespassing. But I am not a police
officer, so I dont really know the extent of that law. But that isnt what
this is about.
It is about getting permission before placing caches on private property. I
can tell of a similar situation at a cache behind the businesses on
Stapley/60. I was searching for the cache when a police officer came up and
asked me what I was doing. I told him I was geocaching and explained what it
was and offered to show him the cache. He wasnt really interested and just
told me I needed to leave or whatever and that I was trespassing. So I left.
I have had similar situations a number of times.
I can tell you of yet another situation I encountered. I parked my truck in
the parking lot of a business to find a cache nearby. This cache was not
actually on this businesses property. But rather on the property of a
business across the street! This cache took me a while to find, but it didnt
take very long for a tow truck to show up to my truck. As I came back to my
truck, I found the tow truck getting into position to hook it up. After some
smooth talking, I was able to leave.
Perhaps some people get a thrill out of the 'stealth' factor of geocaching
in urban places such as these and the need to trespass to find a cache.
Perhaps the cache owners get a kick out of reading logs about situations
like this and even situations like that that occured at that Home Depot.
Frankly, I do not. We all know that it is easy enough to say we are shopping
at the business and not that we are geocaching. But why should I have to lie
to someone when I am approached? I just tell them what I am doing. I am
geocaching. I will offer to show them the cache everytime. If they dont like
it, I tell them how they can email the cache owner to have it removed. If
they ask me to leave, I will leave. These situation are occuring more and
more these days, it seems. But again, these situations should not happen. If
the cache owner got permission in the first place. I would feel so much more
relaxed and comfortable walking toward a cache in an area that is
questionable (in terms of private property) if the cache description simply
said in it "this cache was placed with permission from property owner".
Geocaching.com cant police these kinds of things. It is up to the
geocachers, those that find the caches, to police the game. If there are
people out there that insist on placing caches on private property without
the consent of the property owners... then the cachers that first seek out
those caches should put an archive note log on the cache page. This assumes,
of course, that the cache description doesnt have something stating that
permission was obtained to place the cache. If it doesnt state in the
description that permission was obtained, I can only assume that it was not.
There are several caches placed at Home Depots around the valley, I might
add.
I would bet any amount of money, that if you asked a store owner if you
could place a cache on the property..... most of the time they would be cool
with it (why not!? It promotes the store and brings more people onto the
property).
You will notice that over the past year or more, I have been doing less and
less urban caching. I prefer caches outside of the city areas, as I dont
have to deal with stuff like this. I still do urban caches, but I dont feel
the need to go find every one anymore. There are several within a couple
miles of my house that I have passed up on finding because they just dont
interest me anymore. I have no interest in playing 'stealth ninja' anymore.
I did that for many years back in my childhood days. Ive grown up since. Its
situations like the one that just occured at the Home Depot that turn me off
more and more from geocaching. But soon enough, I find myself out on a quite
and pleasant hike thru the forest to search for a tupperware container or an
ammo box in some quite remote location that keeps the joy and excitement of
geocaching alive for me.
Scott
Team Ropingthewind
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