Man Dies While Geocaching?

from the whoops dept

Geocaching, the process of creating little "caches" of random items for others to find after posting the GPS coordinates online has received some attention over the past few years -- mainly in stories about geeks trying to come up with something (please, anything) to do to justify their new GPS toys. However, it may get a bit of negative attention now. Apparently, a 64-year-old man fell to his death while trying to hunt down a geocache. The story doesn't call it geocaching, but calls it an "internet scavenger hunt" and mentions that he was "using a recently-purchased global positioning system to find his way," so it's likely he was just out geocaching, and slipped down a ravine. Anyone want to take bets on when the first article will come out that somehow describes geocaching as a dangerous "underground" activity? Update: Thanks to Trey for sending in an article with more detailed information, saying that, indeed, it was geocaching.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Derek Kerton (profile), 13 Dec 2004 @ 8:12pm

    Shouldn't We Be Banning GPSes Now?

    We need a ridiculous knee-jerk reaction to be on par with camera-phone bans everywhere.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dorpus, 13 Dec 2004 @ 8:23pm

    Geosniping

    Wouldn't it be cool if a jackass set up a sniper nest, and kept shooting all the geocachers approaching a location? Nerd holocaust.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      zenarcher, 14 Dec 2004 @ 1:43am

      Re: Geosniping

      As someone, who together with my wife and other family members, enjoy geocaching and an appreciation of nature we encounter while geocaching, will try to keep in mind that not all the sickos in society, such as you, are behind bars yet.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2004 @ 2:22am

        Re: Geosniping

        aw, don't be so harsh. Dorpus is just like that, and the day his pie falls out of the sky Techdirt will lose a great deal of lustre. 8-)

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          zenarcher, 14 Dec 2004 @ 3:34am

          Re: Geosniping

          Well, the best I can say is that Dorpus needs to grow up or get something beyond a ditigal life.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            dorpus, 14 Dec 2004 @ 7:03am

            Re: Geosniping

            "Well, the best I can say is that Dorpus needs to grow up or get something beyond a ditigal life."

            What would that something be? In my life, words on the screen have a tendency to turn into women who come out of airplanes. I'm still dealing with the aftermath of a woman who flew in from Japan to see me, her angry boyfriends have been calling me up every day, and since I'm not interested in her, she's been playing the standard Asian mind games -- "I've been throwing up a lot. Do you think I'm pregnant?" or "I have a terrible rash on my arm, I think it's a virus." Yeah, right. I got her to confess she's just BSing me.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2004 @ 6:50am

      Re: Geosniping

      Sorry, it won't work. If nobody makes it back to log the cache then people will realize it's bogus and won't go look for it.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Boilerbob, 14 Dec 2004 @ 7:03am

      Re: Geosniping

      Remember when Dorpus used to just post rants on how much he hated techies? The last 3 posts from Dorpus seems to crossed a line. They are all about killing somthing (mass murder flash mobs, killing video games, killing geo-cachers). I'm afraid his mental condition is worsening.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 14 Dec 2004 @ 7:07am

        Re: Geosniping

        Oh and, if you want to play a free game where you want to kill as many civilians... er, I mean, terrorists, as possible, try this.

        http://www.newsgaming.com/games/index12.htm

        It's trying to make some cheesey liberal political statement, but the scurrying, crying civilians make it too funny.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2005 @ 8:52pm

      Re: Geosniping

      It would be cool If geo-cachers were allowed to carry weapons and fire back at you.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris, 14 Dec 2004 @ 6:26am

    No Subject Given

    So I guess the parenting police will be after me for letting my children participate in such a dangerous activity?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Park Ranger, 14 Dec 2004 @ 8:03am

    No Subject Given

    PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE DORPUS. THANK YOU.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.