geocaching

Geocaching

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I’ve always wanted to try out geocaching (I know it’s been around forever) but I didn’t have a GPS device until my iPhone4 – and now I have an app for that. 🙂 I downloaded the geocaching app from Groundspeak that grabs data from the geocaching website and helps you locate caches near you.

I went out with my friend MJ this past weekend and we poked around near our neighborhood. Our first attempts were unsuccessful – either we didn’t look hard enough or caches went missing. But we eventually found a couple of them. You’re basically hunting around for a camoflaged container that contains at the very least a log book you can write your name and the date in, and sometimes includes little trinkets that you can take and leave – my signature trinket is a green button. I put together a little pack of them to take with me from my button collection. It felt like Gowalla or Foursquare on steroids – why bother with “checking in” places when I can find a secret hidden treasure instead?

So at lunch today I went off and found the cache near work. I couldn’t opening it to leave a log note, though; too many muggles around. I’ll have to go back.

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Security Authorities Mistake Geocaching for Terrorist Acts

And in future bone-head spastic terror panic of the month news, the Department of Homeland Security will be arresting your 10 year-old brother after mistaking him for Osama bin Laden. Really, people. This is pretty damned stupid.
According to CNN:

Scot Tintsman found that out when he stashed a green bucket under an Idaho highway bridge last September, intending to fill it with goodies for other players to find using Global Positioning System units. But before he could finish adding the requisite trinkets and log books and posting its GPS coordinates on the Internet, a bridge inspection crew found it.
Rounding a corner on his motorcycle to finish rigging his cache, he was greeted by a barricade of police cars and a bomb squad. He struggled to explain the misunderstanding.
“I got off my bike and three officers approached me very cautiously, hands on their holsters,” he said. “I was trying to turn off my MP3 player and I think they were worried I was going for a detonator.”
…
Tintsman, whose geocache sat high above the whitewater of Idaho’s Payette River, was charged with placing debris on public property, a misdemeanor punishable by six months in jail and a $300 fine.
County prosecutor Matthew Williams said that he is not seeking jail time but that he would like restitution for the expense of the law enforcement response.

No word on whether Tintsman will in turn seek $300 from Authorities as a fine for “Public Displays of Utter Idiocy.”

Continue ReadingSecurity Authorities Mistake Geocaching for Terrorist Acts