What is a Muggle you ask? In ‘Geo-Speak’, a muggle is a person that does not geocache, and most likely has never heard of geocaching. Where did this term come from? Remember Harry Potter? According to Wikipedia, a Muggle is the word used in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling to refer to a person who lacks any sort of magical ability and was not born into the magical world.
The Wizarding world of Harry Potter exists alongside that of the real world and contains magical elements similar to things in the non-magical world. Many of its institutions and locations are in places which are recognizable in the real world, such as London. It comprises a fragmented collection of hidden streets, overlooked and ancient pubs, lonely country manors and secluded castles that remain invisible to the non-magical population of Muggles. Hmm, sound familiar? Just like geocaching!
Many geocachers tend to think of a Muggle as a person who lacks any sort of geo-magic and is not in or aware of the geocaching game or community. To me, as a geocacher, I believe I see the world a little differently than my non-caching counterparts see the world. Kind of like when Harry visits Diagon Alley or Platform 9 3/4: these are places and things that muggles don’t see, but we geocachers know how to find these places (we have the coordinates!) and we know how to come up with the cache once we are there.
So, why do we need to be aware of muggles? Caches are meant to blend into the environment, and only be discovered by other cachers. If a muggle sees you searching, finding and/or re-hiding a cache they will often get curious and wonder what is going on.
This often leads to 3 outcomes:
- The muggle will ask you what you are doing, leading to a great opportunity for you to be an ambassador of the game
- The muggle might take, damage or destroy the cache after you have re-hidden it. A cache that has been tampered with in this way is said to be “muggled”.
- The muggle will contact the authorities (police) and report suspicious behavior. This can lead to public alarm and possible bomb squad action! (Linky)
Outcome 1 is great and it’s happened to me many times. Obviously we don’t want 2 or 3 to happen, and since we just don’t know how others will react, my best advice is to be careful and avoid muggles by employing some of these tactics:
Patience pays: wait for muggles to go by if they might see you find or re-hide the cache. This helps avoid them finding it.
Notice some muggles? That GPS in your hand looks amazingly like a phone… pretend it is one! Now you look ‘normal’ to them. If your GPS really is aphone you don't even need to pretend!
Try not to yell ‘FOUND IT’ too loudly -it can scare the muggles! Find a secret codeword to replace 'found it' if you are caching with friends
It is often really OK to tell a muggle what you are doing, curious folks can make great cachers once they know about caching.
Looking for a cache can look suspicious to many muggles, and they occasionally call the authorities. Always cooperate!
A dog is excellent muggle camo: no one will wonder why you are poking around at the bushes with your dog along.
Go caching with friends and work as a team to distract muggles while one of you goes for the find and the re-hide.
