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It was bound to happen sooner or later... We all hunt for caches in cemeteries and in some pretty remote places, so it wouldn't have surprised me to find out that a cacher had discovered a dead body - I just didn't expect it to be me, though I am one of those people that things just seem to happen to. I've even seen t-shirts that say "Geocachers know where all the bodies are hidden" and that seems to be very true.
I was caching in the Dallas area with lostlookingforyou and we were excited to have some of The Barrow Gang caches on our to-do list. In addition, surrenderthebooty has a cache very nearby called "Stuck on You - In the Middle" and that was on our list first. So, we pulled up to the outside gate of Grove Hill Memorial Park and started chasing the needle. It led us toward the corner at first where we found a homeless guy "sleeping." He was surrounded by beer cans so we just thought he was passed out and sleeping it off. We then went into Super Silent Stealth Mode because we didn't want to wake him up and tiptoed over to where the cache actually was. I found the cache and took it over to The Don so that he could do the paperwork and The Dancing Half and I decided to check on the homeless guy. Hmmm...he doesn't appear to be breathing...and on closer inspection (which I will save you from because it was really GROSS!) it became apparent that this poor guy was dead. Dang! Time to call 911.
NG: We're at the corner of Samuel and Grove Hill and we've found a homeless man in the cemetery and he's dead.
911: Is he injured? What makes you think he's dead?
NG: He's not breathing (and I also told her about the GROSS stuff)
911: Is he Hispanic, Black, or White?
NG: He's Hispanic or White - it's kind of hard to tell. (What difference does that make?Dang!)
911: What's he wearing?
NG: A green t-shirt and khaki pants (Dang woman! He's not fleeing - he's dead! He's the only dead guy on top of the ground in the cemetery - why do you need to know what he's wearing?)
911: We'll dispatch someone right away.
It's the fourth of July and there's no telling how long it's going to take for them to get here and the dead body was really starting to creep us out, so we decide to move to the inside of the cemetery where the other caches are and wait for the sirens. We went right by one of the caches so we made the find and were doing the paperwork when we heard the sirens, so we went back to the gate to wait. We flagged down the firetruck (why did they send a firetruck?) and ambulance (it's a little late for that!) just as my phone was ringing. It was a police officer on the way to the scene.
PO: Why is someone from East Texas calling in a dead body in Dallas?
NG: Uh...we're up here "visiting" (boy, am I glad I didn't have to explain that one! Who just "visits" in a cemetery?) and just happened to find it.
PO: Is he injured or traumatized?
NG: No sir, he's dead.
PO: Well, I guess he decided to cut out the middle man.
NG: Yes sir, I guess he did. (It was all I could do to not burst out laughing - I couldn't believe he said that!!!) The firetruck and ambulance are already here.
PO: I'm about 20 minutes out so I'll be there soon.
At this point, we asked the fire department guys if they needed us to stay and they said "No, he's dead!" so we went on to the other caches inside the cemetery. We were a little shaken up but there was nothing we could do for the poor guy, so we decided to not let this ruin our caching day. After we finished the rest of the caches inside, we drove back out the way we came in. The firetruck was gone, the ambulance was gone, there were now 2 police cars there, and the dead body was STILL THERE!!! Oh my gosh! We couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Today was a day that we will never forget. lostlookingforyou hit 3000, I hit 4400, and we were FTF on a dead body. Do you think geocaching.com will give us a special icon for it?
Put your trust in God, but keep your powder dry.
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