The first time Rod Crossland found a geocache hidden in his community, he knew it was his kind of game.
About a year ago, Crossland was hanging out in downtown Muncie when a friend showed him the location of a treasure in Dave's Alley.
"So I bought a GPS [global positioning system], and when my nephew got here, we had a pirate day and went geocaching," Crossland said.
According to Geocaching.com, geocaching is a relatively new game that involves using the Internet to look up treasures around the world, entering the coordinates into your GPS, then hunting for the hidden treasures.
"The most important thing you need is a GPS, and you can pick one up on eBay for around $50," Crossland said. "You can also pay $20 or $30 to be a registered premium member of Geocaching.com."
Crossland's wife, Dr. Carolyn Kapinus, associate professor of sociology, said her husband's interest in geocaching has become a big part of their lives.
"My husband doesn't have hobbies," Kapinus said laughing, "He has obsessions."
Although she is not into treasure-hunting, Kapinus said she supports her husband and enjoys hearing about his adventures.
"He tells me about all the interesting places he's found around here - places I never knew about," Kupinus said.
Setting out to discover new places to share with his wife and more treasures to add to his list of geocache finds, Crossland equipped himself with a handheld GPS, a small plastic T.-Rex and downloaded paper coordinates.
"The T.-Rex is my team mascot," Crossland said smiling, "I take him on all my treasure hunts."
First he visited the treasure in Dave's Alley, which was Crossland's first find a year ago and a surprisingly difficult treasure to locate.
"They can be as little as a few centimeters or as big as a tupperware container - sometimes even bigger," Crossland said. "Usually, they have some paper and a pencil so you can log your visit."
Crossland looked serious as he spoke about the rules of the game. "Some caches have little trinkets you can take, but you should leave something if you take something," he said.
Treasures can be hidden anywhere; although the coordinates on the Web site have difficulty ratings, you cannot always rely on the ratings Crossland said.
"People get really creative with hiding these things," Crossland said. "It's funny because sometimes the hard ones you stumble into, and the easy ones you have a lot of trouble finding."
There are at least five geocaches around the Ball State campus he said, including one he visited in Emmerson Memorial Greenspace Park on the corner of Ashland Avenue and Pauline Avenue.
After looking at his coordinates print-out for the geocache, he followed the GPS signals and unscrambled some clues using a code.
Despite Crossland's disciplined and focused efforts, after 20 minutes, he was still unable to find anything that resembled a treasure.
"The clue is 'Guarded by the electric duck,'" Crossland said looking confused. "I don't know what that means."
When he ventured curiously over to the park's electric poles, he attracted the attention of concerned community citizens looking out of their windows.
When University Police Department officers approached Crossland in the park, they explained they had received a call about suspicious characters snooping around the park.
"We are just Geocaching," Crossland said to the police while holding up his GPS and papers from the Internet.
The police apologized for the interruption and left.
"That was funny," he said, looking disappointingly down at his GPS, "but I am bummed out we couldn't find the treasure."
Although this geocache had defeated them, Crossland said it was a hard one to find. "There are a lot of people who couldn't find it."
Crossland also said hunting treasures is a competitive sport for him.
"I have about 59 finds logged," said Crossland. "That's just a beginner really; there are people with, like, 500." Despite the high cost of gas, Crossland said one of the great things about geocaching is that it is relatively inexpensive and available to anyone with Internet access.
Crossland also said he encourages his friends to go treasure hunting with him or on their own.
"It's the thrill of finding something that is hidden," Crossland said. "It gets you outside and you can see places you would otherwise never know existed."
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