The hook executed by Michael Jackson on the 1984 Rockwell Hit
“Somebody’s Watching Me” often runs through my
mind when I’m geocaching in town. It’s always hard to
find a place in an urban environment where you don’t feel
like somebody’s watching you. In fact, often if feels like
everybody’s watching you. If you keep your eyes peeled,
you’ll see cameras on buildings and poles that are keeping
track of your every move. Several of my caching partners are just
creeped out by all that attention. They feel so uncomfortable when
searching for caches in urban environments that sometimes it takes
the joy right out of it.
When I first started caching, it didn’t take too long before
I found my first “skirt lifter.” I tend to refer to
them as LPCs. Once the mystery of the skirt lifter is revealed, all
future skirt lifters are pretty easy, if you can overcome the
awkwardness of being in a parking lot full of people wondering what
you are doing messing around by the pole. As The King of Stealth, I
learned many tricks of the trade that I have used at caches like
these, and others, to conceal my activities. But not everyone
learns these techniques. Not everyone wants to learn these
techniques.
Case in point: my wife. One night we are out and I drove up to an
obvious skirt lifter in a familiar department chain parking lot. I
wanted to take a glance at the map to determine our next location
and figured she could pop out of the geomobile and slide literally
three feet to grab the cache container and bring it back so we
could sign off. She refused. I mean, she refused. She refused and I
was confused. I guaranteed her it was under the cover. She
didn’t care. She did not want to be seen in a public parking
lot messing with a light post. So, I did the honors with, of
course, stealth.
I have since learned there are many who abhor searching for a cache
in an area where others may be watching, even if the cache is an
obviously easy LPC grab. The presence of potentially peering eyes
transforms a simple park and grab into a seriously difficult cache.
The terrain may be light, but the difficulty pushes up
dramatically.
This cache is positioned in a location where you will have eyes
on every side. On one side, you will have literally hundreds
passing you by on the frontage road and interstate during your
search. On the other side, you are likely to have many watching
your every move from the nearby businesses. If they aren’t
peering at you from the giant windows, they may be outside leering
at your every move.
But worry not. Enjoy your search. And don’t forget to use
your best stealth mode as you make your search. Because it’s
not just this cache, it’s most every cache, where
somebody’s watching you.
