Today's society is paranoid. Sad, but true; we are all affected by the actions of terrorists. People everywhere are afraid and suspicious of many actions that once were viewed as normal. There was a time when spotting someone geocaching (or playing) with a group of children in a public area might have prompted smiles and a warm feeling. Today, things are different.

Consider a recent geocaching episode in Indiana. As reported in a local newspaper, "An Internet game gone awry forced police to shut down three businesses and evacuate all employees and customers on Tuesday."

Yes, that Internet game is geocaching. When police stopped (a suspect), he had his two children (and two children that he was baby-sitting) with him, according to the article. The "suspect" freely admitted that he was geocaching with the kids in the area.

Sure, this is an isolated incident, when you consider the astronomical number of geocaches and geocachers in the world today. But, it is not a unique situation. In recent months, a geocacher was detained after visiting a cache near an airport, a bomb squad destroyed a cache near a school, and a theme park was shut down for several hours because of a misidentified geocache. Arguably, there have been enough similar situations to create concern among the ranks of geocachers.

Our hair-trigger society is suspicious of nearly everything it does not understand. If you've ever tried to explain geocaching to someone, you know already that most "muggles" do not understand it.

Although the problem is not rampant, it has provoked questions in the caching community. The most common is, "How do we prevent these incidents?"

One simple solution is to insure that permission is acquired before placing a geocache...not. In the situation in Indiana described above, the cache owner had permission from the owner of the business to place the cache at the business. It was a concerned third party who knew nothing about geocaching who reported suspicious activity to police (who also knew nothing about geocaching).

So let's make sure every geocache is clearly labeled; that will make it obvious to everyone that we're just playing a game here...not. Geocaches are usually well hidden. If someone reports suspicious activity near a container, chances are the authorities won't get close enough to read the label, and if they do, why should they believe it?

So, what is to be done? We could just ignore the problem; maybe it will go away. Or, we could employ an often-forgotten tactic: common sense.

Don't hide caches that are likely to be disruptive. In some cases, the container itself may be disruptive. Don't hide a container that looks like a cell phone under the steps of a public building. Don't disguise your cache to look like an abandoned pipe near a bridge. Don't hide a cache near a school or business, even with permission, without assuring that everyone concerned is properly educated about our game.

The seekers of geocaches also bear responsibility. Again, use common sense. Don't seek a cache if you feel that you may be disruptive. If a cache you're hunting is near an airport, a business or a school, don't assume that just because the cache is approved and placed with permission, that you won't be disruptive. Maybe your timing could be better. Maybe you can just scrap your plans altogether.

Disruption is in the eye of the beholder.

Another solution, although a daunting one, is to join local geocaching groups to educate the public and law enforcement about our hobby. After all, in most every case involving disruptive caches, it is these very agencies that are called to defuse the situation.

An obvious answer to the problem is to hide caches way out in the countryside, or halfway up a mountain. No one will even know you're there, so no one will be suspicious.

This is not the perfect answer, either, because it is not practical. There will always be urban caches and a desire for them. Besides, if we let the terrorists dictate where we can geocache (without disrupting society around us), then we're loosing the battle.

Go ahead and geocache. Be clever. But, be smart. Use uncommon sense.