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Where do you hide fake electrical switch plates (blanks)?


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Hi, I just bought a magnetic fake electrical switch plate. I'm trying to decide where to hide it since I haven't yet seen them out hidden in the real world.

 

I called the city park superintendent and received permission to place geocaches in any park owned by the city as long as "it's not buried" and "no damage done". I tried placing my magnetic blank plate on light poles within parks; however, since poles are round if you look close it looks weird on the edges of the switch plate. When I looked at metal boxes with locks on them, I thought it could be a well concealed hide to place it on the side of the box, but when a park worker comes along to do their regular maintenance, I'd think they'd notice it immediately, think it's weird and throw it out. I'd also be afraid that cachers looking for it may cause damage to the metal boxes when looking for the fake switch plate, then the park superintendent will get mad at me.

 

Where do people usually hide these magnetic fake switch plates? I'm still new to geocaching, and have never seen them in the wild, so am very curious what to do with mine. I was also thinking of placing it on a light pole which is square shape so it fits on better, but the one I found in one of the parks already has a real switch plate on it and am worried it will look out of place having two of them. (Plus I was thinking of putting one of those fake "bolt" geocaches I just bought next to some bolts near the bottom of that pole under the skirt, and would need them to be 0.10 miles away)

 

Help!

Edited by Nick - Cacher
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A lot of cachers believe it is a bad idea to place a cache in what looks like electrical equipment, my self among them. 2 reasons come to mind: 1. safety, especially kids poking around in electrical equipment looking for a cache and 2. bad PR

Edited by Geodalf
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I would hide them in the bottom of a trash can and never speak of them again. I don't know why anyone would think that sticking fake electrical equipment on real electrical equipment would be a good idea but that seams to be the only place anyone hides them. I would find it much more interesting if they showed up on something that you would never expect it to be on. Kinda make it one of those caches that make you think "what in the world is that doing there?"

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I would hide them in the bottom of a trash can and never speak of them again. I don't know why anyone would think that sticking fake electrical equipment on real electrical equipment would be a good idea but that seams to be the only place anyone hides them. I would find it much more interesting if they showed up on something that you would never expect it to be on. Kinda make it one of those caches that make you think "what in the world is that doing there?"

 

I agree, I like them best where you don't expect them. I found one on the back of a trail sign; there was obviously no electrical connections around. It made me laugh.

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There are two phrases in your post that came to my attention. One was about your ability to concele it and the other about having two of them would look out of place.

 

With this type of hide, you want the general public to see it, but to the person looking for it, there is something out of place. In my opinion, that is what makes a great hide. You want geocachers to find it and non-geocachers to ignore it.

 

Redsox_marc's electrical cover plate on the back of a trail sign is a good example. It is something we always see so unless we are 'looking' our mind will not be drawn to it. Even when caching you will ignore something that is supposed to be there. People dismantle operational sprinklers in hopes of finding a cache. When using a fake sprinkler, it should not look like the ones that are already in the area or property destruction will follow.

 

That said, when placing your electrcal plate, don't worry about it being seen by muggles. Just be sure that a person looking for 'something' would notice that it is out of place.

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Hi, I just bought a magnetic fake electrical switch plate. I'm trying to decide where to hide it since I haven't yet seen them out hidden in the real world.

 

I called the city park superintendent and received permission to place geocaches in any park owned by the city as long as "it's not buried" and "no damage done". I tried placing my magnetic blank plate on light poles within parks; however, since poles are round if you look close it looks weird on the edges of the switch plate. When I looked at metal boxes with locks on them, I thought it could be a well concealed hide to place it on the side of the box, but when a park worker comes along to do their regular maintenance, I'd think they'd notice it immediately, think it's weird and throw it out. I'd also be afraid that cachers looking for it may cause damage to the metal boxes when looking for the fake switch plate, then the park superintendent will get mad at me.

 

Where do people usually hide these magnetic fake switch plates? I'm still new to geocaching, and have never seen them in the wild, so am very curious what to do with mine. I was also thinking of placing it on a light pole which is square shape so it fits on better, but the one I found in one of the parks already has a real switch plate on it and am worried it will look out of place having two of them. (Plus I was thinking of putting one of those fake "bolt" geocaches I just bought next to some bolts near the bottom of that pole under the skirt, and would need them to be 0.10 miles away)

 

Help!

 

you'd be surprised. We had one locally that was on the side of a telephone switching box that had many visits from the service people. It lasted two years. Along the way, the local thugs painted grafitti over it and the phone company repainted the box, including the cache.

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you'd be surprised. We had one locally that was on the side of a telephone switching box that had many visits from the service people. It lasted two years. Along the way, the local thugs painted grafitti over it and the phone company repainted the box, including the cache.

Boy, I'll bet that upped the difficulty by a notch or two! :lol: Can't get much better paint job!
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you'd be surprised. We had one locally that was on the side of a telephone switching box that had many visits from the service people. It lasted two years. Along the way, the local thugs painted grafitti over it and the phone company repainted the box, including the cache.

Boy, I'll bet that upped the difficulty by a notch or two! :lol: Can't get much better paint job!

What I was thinking!!! :laughing:

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I would either use it as a hide a key at home, or hide it in ammo can in the woods. I would not hide one as a cache. I think it leads people to believe they can poke around with electricity, and I would feel horrible if I killed someone, or got them arrested for suspicious behavior.

But if the park gave you permission, I would choose a spot where there really is no power running. Did you show them what you had in mind? Don't you think they would rather you highlighted the park features, and not their utilities?

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you'd be surprised. We had one locally that was on the side of a telephone switching box that had many visits from the service people. It lasted two years. Along the way, the local thugs painted grafitti over it and the phone company repainted the box, including the cache.

Boy, I'll bet that upped the difficulty by a notch or two! :lol: Can't get much better paint job!

What I was thinking!!! :laughing:

 

In that case, I take it back. :tired:

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you'd be surprised. We had one locally that was on the side of a telephone switching box that had many visits from the service people. It lasted two years. Along the way, the local thugs painted grafitti over it and the phone company repainted the box, including the cache.

 

That is the best thing that I have ever read on a forum. LOL, the difficulty must have gone up when it got painted! It got the perfect camo then!!

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you'd be surprised. We had one locally that was on the side of a telephone switching box that had many visits from the service people. It lasted two years. Along the way, the local thugs painted grafitti over it and the phone company repainted the box, including the cache.

 

There's a cache near me that is a nano on an old train engine. Two days after it was published (and before there was a FTF) the entire train engine was painted black, including the cache. I own a cache that is stuck under a metal railing in a unique location. The entire rail and the cache container was painted red a couple of years ago. It was muggled awhile back so I had to replace the container with something that was red (I used some red duct tape) so that it didn't stand out.

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One of the best I've seen was placed about 7' up on a square metal post, painted the same color as the pole. Took me 15 minutes to find it, as the natural tendency is to look down low. And, it looked perfectly normal being there.

same here. the one I found was even called "lamp post" or something like that. the joke was, this hider would NEVER hide a common parking lot micro, but is famous for hides where you have to climb something. Despite all that it did have some DNF's. :laughing:

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I would find it much more interesting if they showed up on something that you would never expect it to be on. Kinda make it one of those caches that make you think "what in the world is that doing there?"

 

Yep. This is the way I like them.

 

The only one I've ever found was along a bike trail, under a bridge. There was no hint or anything. I thought it was pretty cool!

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Found one under a USPS drop off box yesterday. A big no-no.

 

How so?

 

USPS boxes are private property of the USPS.

 

The penalty for tampering with a postal mail collection device is a fine of $20,000 and one year in FEDERAL prison. Attaching any unapproved device to the mailbox is tampering with the mailbox.

Unlikely that you would get the maximum penalty just for hiding a cache, but I don't want to be a test case.

 

BTW, the penalty extends to anyone who knows about the 'device' but didn't report it, and you just signed a logbook to prove you were there? :lol:

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Found one under a USPS drop off box yesterday. A big no-no.

 

How so?

 

USPS boxes are private property of the USPS.

 

The penalty for tampering with a postal mail collection device is a fine of $20,000 and one year in FEDERAL prison. Attaching any unapproved device to the mailbox is tampering with the mailbox.

Unlikely that you would get the maximum penalty just for hiding a cache, but I don't want to be a test case.

 

BTW, the penalty extends to anyone who knows about the 'device' but didn't report it, and you just signed a logbook to prove you were there? :lol:

 

I won't touch a mailbox and have reported three of them. The way my luck works, I'd get caught putting it back after signing the log. Regardless of who put it there originally, if I return it, then I'm technically putting it there.

 

Our local reviewer's canned archive log for a mailbox claims a $50K fine and ten years in the Federal can.

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Found one under a USPS drop off box yesterday. A big no-no.

 

How so?

 

USPS boxes are private property of the USPS.

 

And light posts are the private property of someone but you see LPCs everywhere. Electrical boxes and electrical panels are private property and people attach magnetic caches to them all the time.

Edited by Glenn
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Found one under a USPS drop off box yesterday. A big no-no.

 

How so?

 

USPS boxes are private property of the USPS.

 

The penalty for tampering with a postal mail collection device is a fine of $20,000 and one year in FEDERAL prison. Attaching any unapproved device to the mailbox is tampering with the mailbox.

Unlikely that you would get the maximum penalty just for hiding a cache, but I don't want to be a test case.

 

BTW, the penalty extends to anyone who knows about the 'device' but didn't report it, and you just signed a logbook to prove you were there? :lol:

 

For some reason I read that as UPS and not USPS.

 

I believe that the key word in that law is tampering. Tampering is defined as "to render something harmful or dangerous by altering its structure or composition". Using that definition of tampering I don't see how attaching a cache to a USPS mailbox makes it harmful or dangerous.

 

I took a look at USC 18 USC 1705. Which is what I assume that you are referring to. I'll quote it here.

"Whoever willfully or maliciously injures, tears down or destroys any letter box or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any mail route, or breaks open the same or willfully or maliciously injures, defaces or destroys any mail deposited therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."

 

I don't see anything about attaching unproved devices being considered tampering. However I agree. I wouldn't want to be the test case.

Edited by Glenn
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Found one under a USPS drop off box yesterday. A big no-no.

 

How so?

 

USPS boxes are private property of the USPS.

 

And light posts are the private property of someone but you see LPCs everywhere. Electrical boxes and electrical panels are private property and people attach magnetic caches to them all the time.

 

What is the maximum penalty for attaching one to a light post?

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