Steven,
"Penguins In Sonora" must have been quite a rush for you! I'm sure the issue with the guy on the bike wasn't about you snapping a photo of him .. it was about whether he could intimidate you into giving up your camera and running off.
I don't think I would have been as nice as you were to him. Criminals like him feed on intimidation and the weakness of their victims. You stood your ground and that was enough to dissuade him. Evidently he wasn't looking for a confrontation - if he were he would have attacked you.
I had a similar adrenaline rush at The Lost Dutchmans Gold! cache (GCA256). It was the first of two trips to the location. It was too dark to get the information I needed, so from a distance I snapped some photos of the tombstone in hopes of getting the necessary information for the cache. After I snapped some photos I turned around and saw two transients about thirty feet away (they just seemed to appear out of nowhere!). It was an eerie situation. There was nobody else around; it was dark out; I was next to the graveyard and there was a train unhooking cars about 100 feet away. One of the guys tapped the shoulder of his buddy and pointed toward me. They then started walking my direction. As soon as I saw them coming toward me I realized I could be in trouble. I dropped one of my crutches and reached behind me, unsnapped my holster and released the safety on my gun. I didn't pull the gun, but the action I'm sure was enough to dissuade these guys from any criminal activity they may have been pondering. They stopped short several feet away from me and asked me what I was doing. I explained that I was there to take a photo of Jacob's tombstone. They then turned around and walked off. They never saw the gun, but my action was evident that I wasn't going to be an easy prey.
You asked: "with nighttime caching, do I need to reconsider where and how I cache?" I think you are the only one who can answer that! How uncomfortable did the experience make you feel? Do you have enough confidence in yourself to handle someone who may want to get physical? Evidently you stood your ground against someone who tried to intimidate you; but are you willing to take a chance against someone who may pull a weapon? You have a family to consider! If you do decide to do nighttime caching alone, you may want to consider carrying a gun for protection.
The individual you encountered may have a history of robbing people in the area. I would have notified the police of the situation.
I do want to congratulate you on standing your ground. You did good!
Take care,
Rand (RandMan)
----- Original Message -----
From: Steven Stringham
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 7:24 PM
To:
listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Caching in Tucson Last Night
Boy, I had some fun last night in Tucson.
Check out my log on Penguins GCBFD5.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7800ea77-aa1e-47cf-b162-ccc6159c4788
So, I started off with quite the adreniline rush, .... I love this game. What a night.
But, with nightime caching, do I need to reconsider where and how I cache?
Penguins was an interesting learning experiance for me.
Thank you
Steven Stringham
StringCachers
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