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Helping a fellow Geocacher

Update: Sat 05.12.07 @ 9pm EDT – greenbriel just let me know his GPS was found by the NYPD! I will promptly refund all donations. Thanks to everyone who chipped in with support.

A slight deviation from my normal Online Marketing and Ecommerce focus. For those of you who don’t know, one of JP’s favorite hobbies is geocaching. Geocaching is basically a giant easter egg hunt all over the world. It is one of my favorite mashups of online and offline and was one the very first true examples of “web 2.0” or “user generated content” or the “social web” long before such buzzwords were a tickle on the buzzword creator’s tongue. More on that later, this post is intended to raise money for a fellow geocacher who was mugged while out the HRG Riverside cache in New York City. I have corresponded with greenbriel and have his approval to proceed with the donation. Here are all the details:

I received an email this evening from one of my old college friends who I turned onto geocaching. This email comes from the log (what you do online after you find a cache) published by greenbriel who was the unfortunate victim.  I have never met greenbriel but he looks to be new to the diversion. Here is the email/log:

Location: New York, United States
greenbriel found HRG Riverside (Traditional Cache) at 5/10/2007

Log Date: 5/10/2007
GOT MUGGED!

Well I found this nice little cache (only my second find), but as I was
leaving, I was attacked by a gang of 10-15 teenagers. They punched me in the
back of the head and tried to pull my backpack off me. I (probably
foolishly) resisted, because it contained my digital SLR, lenses, the photos
I had just shot for a client, and an ipod. As we tussled, I fell, twisted my
ankle (probably broken - getting it x-rayed today), and my brand new,
beloved Garmin 60csx + 2gig memory card fell on the ground. One of the kids
grabbed it, and they took off laughing in the other direction.

I got off lucky - I kept my camera and ipod, and the guy they attacked
immediately after me has a broken jaw. He was in the precinct at the same
time I was.

I am so incredibly bummed, I saved for a while to buy that GPS, can't afford
another one, and was looking forward to caching in England/Wales, and Maine
this summer. This sucks.

I spent hours in the police station, and they picked up 5 kids, none of whom
I could identify. The police went back to the park after they heard someone
tossed the GPS, but no luck. I'm a bit freaked because I have a 'HOME'
waypoint in there, but everyone tells me I'm being paranoid. I'm hoping they
imagine that they can be tracked by having it (as everyone keeps asking me)
and toss it.

Anyway, up until from this sucky event, I really enjoyed finding the cache!
I signed the log, took a 1 euro coin, and left a Compaq PCMCIA wireless
card. Please leave something nice if you take that.

I also took the coke TB, with the intention of taking it to England in 2
weeks, but without a GPS that's going to be hard. I'm not going back to
Riverside Park EVER, so unless they recover my Garmin (unlikely at this
point) I will probably drop it at the first cache I found, in Prospect Park.

Sorry for the long log, take care of yourselves out there!

<end email/log>

I have found quite a few caches in New York City when I can squeeze them in. I love caching in New York City as it has its own unique challenges and clever cache hiders. However getting mugged should not be one of those challenges. I have established a tip jar on this blog (look to the right) for the express purpose of replacing greenbriel’s GPS Map 60CSx. This is my favorite unit and is never far from my reach. Two of my clients, Eastern Mountain Sports and J&R Music and Computer World sell this unit. I ask for other cachers and thoughtful readers to donate to the cause. J&R is currently selling this unit for $369.88 before tax. I will only leave this tip jar up until we reach the dollar goal. I will personally return (via Paypal) any donations over this amount and will vouch on my word to administrate this donation ethically. For those of you who know me, my word is my bond and for those of you who don’t, write me at jp (at) downtownecommerce dot com to validate any questions you may have.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and let’s get greenbriel back up and running in short order. He leaves for Wales on a camping trip in two weeks so let’s try to get him back “online” before he departs.

Sincerely,

JP

Categorised in: Geocaching

This post was written by DEP Ecommerce Consultants