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RomeSentinel.com Reported on a cache thief that was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

 

Now the question is if it will stick.

 

by sean i. mills Staff writer

 

An electronics engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory was arrested Tuesday afternoon for stealing a trinket from a GPS-based game of hide and seek.

 

Paul L. Repak, 58, of Lewis Road, Boonville, stole a small magnetic case from its hiding place on the Griffiss Park at about 4:15 p.m., according to Detective Commander Timothy J. Bates. The case was hidden as part of a game called "geocaching", where people hide small trinkets in their neighborhood and then other players use the Global Positioning System to follow the coordinates and find the trinkets.

 

The point of the game is then to either put the trinket back or replace it with something new for other players to find.

 

"When the geo-thief takes a cache container and does whatever it is he does with it, all the swag, log book, geo-coins and travel bugs are lost forever," said local geocacher Carole Darling, of Kent Street. "The game is ruined for other players."

 

Darling said she hid the magnetic case two days ago on public property near the new sculptures on Griffiss, and was driving by the site Tuesday when she saw that someone had found it. Darling parked nearby to speak with the person, but when she approached him, he took off running into a nearby wooded area, police said.

 

"If you’re a geocacher, you don’t run," Darling said. Suspicious of the man, Darling said she called police because geocachers in the area have had a problem for years with people stealing the trinkets.

 

"Someone had been going around taking the items, the trinkets," Det. Bates stated.

 

When police responded to the scene, Bates said Repak’s car was still there. The officers staked out the vehicle until Repak emerged from the woods, and he was arrested after he was found with the magnetic case.

 

Bates said Repak is charged with petty larceny and fifth-degree possession of stolen property. He was released after posting $100 cash bail, and is scheduled to appear in City Court.

 

Repak is an electrical engineer in the Cyber Operations Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate, authorities said. Calls to the Air Force Public Affairs Office were not returned this morning.

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RomeSentinel.com Reported on a cache thief that was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

 

Now the question is if it will stick.

 

I can see how it would stick and hope it does.

 

When the argument is made that the person "took an item that did not belong to him for the purpose of depriving others of exercising true intended use of the item" then that is theft.

 

Either way, I bet their cache maggot problem stops dead in it's tracks.

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Yet another bunged geocaching report (what's up with all the "trinkets", anyway???) but a huge tip of the hat to the police that took the report seriously! I hope we can somehow find out how this turns out!

 

Maybe write the Rome Sentinel and ask them to keep following the story perhaps?

 

I mean, I'm just thinking outside the box and all, right?

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A good lawyer against a bad one could make it stick. It's still illegal to steal an abandoned car with the keys left in it, this is just a little smaller. Just wish they could search his place for more stolen goods

 

The question is what the definition of abandoned is. I say that a cache is not abandoned it is cached. Thus the name geocache. But that is just my opinion and I do not set legal precedent.

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I don't believe the story... Why would a police officer stand around and wait for someone who ran into the woods with a magnet that someone left in a public place? I'm assuming it was a micro cache... I would love to stand in the courtroom and hear the judge laugh this one out of there! The only possible explanation is that the owner of the cache pushed the officer to press charges. It's not the officers job to judge the worth of the complaint. I'm sure he'd rather have the DA or judge laugh at this one.

 

That being said... I wouldn't be very happy if it was one of my caches.

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Yet another bunged geocaching report (what's up with all the "trinkets", anyway???) but a huge tip of the hat to the police that took the report seriously! I hope we can somehow find out how this turns out!

 

Maybe write the Rome Sentinel and ask them to keep following the story perhaps?

 

I mean, I'm just thinking outside the box and all, right?

 

I know one of the people who called it in. I'm not gonna release a name without permission. If and when I hear something I will share with the class.

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Well it weakens my response in the Dazed and Confused thread:

It has always been the case that the police won't or can't do much about cache pirates. First of all the value of items in caches (even including travel bugs and coins) is seldom more that a few dollars. The police have more to worry about than such petty theft. Second, of course, is that fact that caches are intentionally left in public places and people are invited to trade for items in the cache. This might make it difficult to prosecute someone for stealing from a cache. At the least, any DA who filed charges in such a case would face a lot of ridicule for wasting public funds when there are "real" crimes to worry about.

We'll see if the DA pressed charges or if he'd rathter not take public ridicule of being known for spending the public's dollars going after all those hide-a-key thieves. :)
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This one is a righteous bust apparently... witness, stakeout, caught with the cache... cool, go to jail, do not pass go.

 

But do we really want Muggle Lawyers involved in geocaching?

 

Petty disputes, harsh feelings, ill will and unfounded allegations exist in this game. Are they now to become a matter for legal maneuvering?

 

'He stole my geocache'. An unfounded and unprovable accusation (unless the cop or witness sees him take the cache) can make geocachers the subject of a criminal investigation, litigation and perhaps prosecution?

 

'He visited the cache and after that no one could find it, therefore he stole it. Prosecute him!'

 

'A red Jeep TB was logged into the cache but it is not there now, so the CO must have stolen it. Prosecute him!'

 

'He should have known that the lid of my cache was fragile, he broke it anyway, that's vandalism. Prosecute him!

 

Sheesh. Where will it stop? :)

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Well it weakens my response in the Dazed and Confused thread:

It has always been the case that the police won't or can't do much about cache pirates. First of all the value of items in caches (even including travel bugs and coins) is seldom more that a few dollars. The police have more to worry about than such petty theft. Second, of course, is that fact that caches are intentionally left in public places and people are invited to trade for items in the cache. This might make it difficult to prosecute someone for stealing from a cache. At the least, any DA who filed charges in such a case would face a lot of ridicule for wasting public funds when there are "real" crimes to worry about.

We'll see if the DA pressed charges or if he'd rathter not take public ridicule of being known for spending the public's dollars going after all those hide-a-key thieves. :)

Stealing a Cache or it's contents is no less a real crime that shoplifting a candybar, and that cartainly can be prosecuted.

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A good lawyer against a bad one could make it stick. It's still illegal to steal an abandoned car with the keys left in it, this is just a little smaller. Just wish they could search his place for more stolen goods

 

I understand that they did search his car and found stolen logbooks and magnetic key holders, as well as lists of caches and their coordinates.

Where are my Geocoins?? Haha

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This one is a righteous bust apparently... witness, stakeout, caught with the cache... cool, go to jail, do not pass go.

 

But do we really want Muggle Lawyers involved in geocaching?

 

Petty disputes, harsh feelings, ill will and unfounded allegations exist in this game. Are they now to become a matter for legal maneuvering?

 

'He stole my geocache'. An unfounded and unprovable accusation (unless the cop or witness sees him take the cache) can make geocachers the subject of a criminal investigation, litigation and perhaps prosecution?

 

'He visited the cache and after that no one could find it, therefore he stole it. Prosecute him!'

 

'A red Jeep TB was logged into the cache but it is not there now, so the CO must have stolen it. Prosecute him!'

 

'He should have known that the lod of my cache was fragile, he broke it anyway, that's vandalism. Prosecute him!

 

Sheesh. Where will it stop? :P

 

Sad day for the game. :)

 

Heavens! Did a piece sky fall in your coffee?

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A good lawyer against a bad one could make it stick. It's still illegal to steal an abandoned car with the keys left in it, this is just a little smaller. Just wish they could search his place for more stolen goods

 

I understand that they did search his car and found stolen logbooks and magnetic key holders, as well as lists of caches and their coordinates.

Where are my Geocoins?? Haha

 

Under the legs of his wobbly coffee table, maybe?? Heehee

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This one is a righteous bust apparently... witness, stakeout, caught with the cache... cool, go to jail, do not pass go.

 

But do we really want Muggle Lawyers involved in geocaching?

 

Petty disputes, harsh feelings, ill will and unfounded allegations exist in this game. Are they now to become a matter for legal maneuvering?

 

'He stole my geocache'. An unfounded and unprovable accusation (unless the cop or witness sees him take the cache) can make geocachers the subject of a criminal investigation, litigation and perhaps prosecution?

 

'He visited the cache and after that no one could find it, therefore he stole it. Prosecute him!'

 

'A red Jeep TB was logged into the cache but it is not there now, so the CO must have stolen it. Prosecute him!'

 

'He should have known that the lid of my cache was fragile, he broke it anyway, that's vandalism. Prosecute him!

 

Sheesh. Where will it stop? :)

 

This is not just a he said/she said sort of case. He had the cache in question in his possession and others were found in his vehicle. They have had a serious issue with caches going missing in that area for longer than I have been caching. With any luck that will stop. Only time will tell.

 

For the record, I am betting that it results in an ACD.

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This one is a righteous bust apparently... witness, stakeout, caught with the cache... cool, go to jail, do not pass go.

But do we really want Muggle Lawyers involved in geocaching?

I certainly hear your point, and obviously, as a general rule, no. But... it would be very nice to be able to have a case to point to whenever the question arises about "is it really theft" or "is it really private property when abandoned", etc. Don't get me wrong... this is NOT going to the Supreme Court. I think if anything, the County Clerk will end up dealing with it. But I'm glad to see it, nontheless.
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Found the Cache...Took everything, left my fingerprints...is that a fair trade??

Depends on who you are.

 

Anyway, I'm curious about the outcome of this. Even if he gets slapped with a light fine, what does it mean? That he'll be more vengeful, but more careful, when raiding geocaches in the future?

 

One thing this proves is that even a 58 yr old can act like a juvenile delinquent.

Edited by Chrysalides
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This one is a righteous bust apparently... witness, stakeout, caught with the cache... cool, go to jail, do not pass go.

This is not just a he said/she said sort of case. He had the cache in question in his possession and others were found in his vehicle.

My opening statement acknowledges that.

 

The rest of the post reflects my concern that the extremely few legitimate arrests (this is the first that I have heard of) will create an atmosphere where every cacher with an issue real or perceived reaches for a cop or lawyer.

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one thing you all perhaps do not know is that this particular geographic area is/has been home to one of the longest-running, most persistent, and prolific cache maggots ever.

 

rome is the maggot's GZ. if this isn't THE maggot, i hope it jolly well send the appropriate signal: your game's up, pal.

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This one is a righteous bust apparently... witness, stakeout, caught with the cache... cool, go to jail, do not pass go.

This is not just a he said/she said sort of case. He had the cache in question in his possession and others were found in his vehicle.

My opening statement acknowledges that.

 

The rest of the post reflects my concern that the extremely few legitimate arrests (this is the first that I have heard of) will create an atmosphere where every cacher with an issue real or perceived reaches for a cop or lawyer.

 

I suppose it is possible but I don't see your examples having the supportive evidence. They end up being nothing more than he said/she said cases.

 

In the long run I don't think this is going to start any world wide crackdown on cache theft.

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one thing you all perhaps do not know is that this particular geographic area is/has been home to one of the longest-running, most persistent, and prolific cache maggots ever.

 

rome is the maggot's GZ. if this isn't THE maggot, i hope it jolly well send the appropriate signal: your game's up, pal.

 

We can hope that that is the case. I know that those who cache in the area would like to see an end to the piracy.

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one thing you all perhaps do not know is that this particular geographic area is/has been home to one of the longest-running, most persistent, and prolific cache maggots ever.

 

rome is the maggot's GZ. if this isn't THE maggot, i hope it jolly well send the appropriate signal: your game's up, pal.

 

We can hope that that is the case. I know that those who cache in the area would like to see an end to the piracy.

 

I noticed at the end of the article it stated something along the lines of "calls to his employers have not been returned". I'm sure his work, especially the US government isn't super happy about one of their high end engineers being arrested for theft.

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one thing you all perhaps do not know is that this particular geographic area is/has been home to one of the longest-running, most persistent, and prolific cache maggots ever.

 

rome is the maggot's GZ. if this isn't THE maggot, i hope it jolly well send the appropriate signal: your game's up, pal.

 

Is it the same guy who has been sacking the Adirondacks? It would be great if this is THE guy.

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one thing you all perhaps do not know is that this particular geographic area is/has been home to one of the longest-running, most persistent, and prolific cache maggots ever.

 

rome is the maggot's GZ. if this isn't THE maggot, i hope it jolly well send the appropriate signal: your game's up, pal.

 

Is it the same guy who has been sacking the Adirondacks? It would be great if this is THE guy.

 

Same basic area. Rome, Utica, S.Adirondacks. It would be nice if this ended that problem.

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Well it weakens my response in the Dazed and Confused thread:

It has always been the case that the police won't or can't do much about cache pirates. First of all the value of items in caches (even including travel bugs and coins) is seldom more that a few dollars. The police have more to worry about than such petty theft. Second, of course, is that fact that caches are intentionally left in public places and people are invited to trade for items in the cache. This might make it difficult to prosecute someone for stealing from a cache. At the least, any DA who filed charges in such a case would face a lot of ridicule for wasting public funds when there are "real" crimes to worry about.

We'll see if the DA pressed charges or if he'd rathter not take public ridicule of being known for spending the public's dollars going after all those hide-a-key thieves. :)

 

IF this turns out to be true, the difference is the cache itself (which is never meant to be traded) was taken, not just the contents (which are meant to be traded).

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If he is convicted, and appeals, I'll happily write an amicus brief on behalf of Geocaching.com

 

In fact, trial courts will sometimes take amicus briefs. If this actually goes to a hearing, I'll write one. There are actually some interesting property issues here.

 

There are some interesting property issues. While they are left in public and publicly accessible locations caches aren't abandoned. We maintain them. We refer to cache owners. We have rules for the transfer of ownership. Are some caches abandoned? Sure, but some bicycles are also abandoned. That doesn't make it OK to take a bike off the rack in front of the library, locked or not.

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I would love to stand in the courtroom and hear the judge laugh this one out of there! The only possible explanation is that the owner of the cache pushed the officer to press charges. It's not the officers job to judge the worth of the complaint. I'm sure he'd rather have the DA or judge laugh at this one.

 

 

Hey, I just served jury duty on a case where an ex-girlfriend stole 7 seasons of DragonBall Z from her ex-boyfriend. It was pretty ridiculous to hear the county judge intone seriously, "Dragon Ball Z DVDS" over and over again.

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Well it weakens my response in the Dazed and Confused thread:

It has always been the case that the police won't or can't do much about cache pirates. First of all the value of items in caches (even including travel bugs and coins) is seldom more that a few dollars. The police have more to worry about than such petty theft. Second, of course, is that fact that caches are intentionally left in public places and people are invited to trade for items in the cache. This might make it difficult to prosecute someone for stealing from a cache. At the least, any DA who filed charges in such a case would face a lot of ridicule for wasting public funds when there are "real" crimes to worry about.

We'll see if the DA pressed charges or if he'd rathter not take public ridicule of being known for spending the public's dollars going after all those hide-a-key thieves. :)

 

IF this turns out to be true, the difference is the cache itself (which is never meant to be traded) was taken, not just the contents (which are meant to be traded).

 

The story was told to me by the person who called the police. I just don't feel comfortable naming that person without talking to them first.

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Has anybody else Googled "Paul L. Repak"? Looks like a pretty smart feller (try saying that ten times, quickly!) At the very least, I think this should be quite an embarrassment to somebody like that.

Has anyone googled Sean Mills, the writer of this article?

I'm gonna need another source before I believe a word of it.

OK, point well-taken, but its really the publication and its editors that you need to look at, not the author of the article. Did the editor also work for The Onion? Would the publisher fire the editor on the spot for allowing a bogus article to be published in his/her rag? Would the advertisers pull their money if the rag lost credibility due to a phoney article? And most of all, has Sean Mills recently turned himself in to any rehab programs?
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Has anybody else Googled "Paul L. Repak"? Looks like a pretty smart feller (try saying that ten times, quickly!) At the very least, I think this should be quite an embarrassment to somebody like that.

Has anyone googled Sean Mills, the writer of this article?

I'm gonna need another source before I believe a word of it.

OK, point well-taken, but its really the publication and its editors that you need to look at, not the author of the article. Did the editor also work for The Onion? Would the publisher fire the editor on the spot for allowing a bogus article to be published in his/her rag? Would the advertisers pull their money if the rag lost credibility due to a phoney article? And most of all, has Sean Mills recently turned himself in to any rehab programs?

 

I'm not denying it may be true. But the romesentinel.com website is sparse on contact information. I did read a few other articles and it "appears" to be legitimate. GOF also claims to know the person making the report personally. There's also the long history of caches being stolen in the area.

 

I'm inclined to want to believe it. I just am not really comfortable with that site. I'm more comfortable with GOF's personal knowledge of the person involved.

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one thing you all perhaps do not know is that this particular geographic area is/has been home to one of the longest-running, most persistent, and prolific cache maggots ever.

 

rome is the maggot's GZ. if this isn't THE maggot, i hope it jolly well send the appropriate signal: your game's up, pal.

 

Is it the same guy who has been sacking the Adirondacks? It would be great if this is THE guy.

 

Same basic area. Rome, Utica, S.Adirondacks. It would be nice if this ended that problem.

 

Holy Crud! Flask and Gof are correct. This guy (assuming they have the right guy) from Rome/Utica/Southern Adirondacks, is most likely the longest tenured and most prolific cache maggot in the entire world!! His body of work dates back to 2004, I believe.

 

Now whether or not he should have been arrested, or if the charges will stick, that is highly debatable. :)

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Holy Crud! Flask and Gof are correct. This guy (assuming they have the right guy) from Rome/Utica/Southern Adirondacks, is most likely the longest tenured and most prolific cache maggot in the entire world!! His body of work dates back to 2004, I believe.

 

Now whether or not he should have been arrested, or if the charges will stick, that is highly debatable. :)

 

Even if he's not convicted, at least everyone now knows who he is.

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Holy Crud! Flask and Gof are correct. This guy (assuming they have the right guy) from Rome/Utica/Southern Adirondacks, is most likely the longest tenured and most prolific cache maggot in the entire world!! His body of work dates back to 2004, I believe.

 

Now whether or not he should have been arrested, or if the charges will stick, that is highly debatable. :)

 

Even if he's not convicted, at least everyone now knows who he is.

 

This is very true. :P

 

Reading the whole thread, I can see where some of the posters are suspicious of the article. It's a rather cheesy looking website for a small town newspaper in upstate, NY. But I have no doubt this happened. I'm rather shocked they arrested the guy, but it happened.

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