I think I have a favourite kind of urban hide: The Lamp Post Cache (LPC), aka the Skirt-lifter.

Aside from the obvious smirk you get from the nickname, they really are a great urban camouflage.

LPCs are hides located under the skirt of a lamp-post or other similar device.  Typically, the skirt conceals the bolts that hold the lamp-post to its concrete foundation or pylon.  Most skirts look like they are fixed in place but in fact they can be lifted up to give maintenance workers access to those bolts.  This creates a hollow space big enough for a large micro or a very small container cache such as a snack Lock & Lock.

Unlike most purely urban hides, the LPC leaves no visible sign that something is out of place.  Magnetic nanos, fake bolts, fake electrical plates, and bisons on strings inside poles all have tell-tale signs that something is out of place, and these eventually get noticed by muggles.  Of course, making the find by spotting these signs is the biggest part of the fun of finding these caches, but for near-perfect hide stealth, nothing beats the LPC.

Wait, what, “near” perfect stealth?

Yup, they come with a caveat.  Although LPCs are completely invisible, there is a pitfall.  When making the find, many cachers find, to their surprise (and sometimes horror) that as the skirt is slid up the pole, it inevitably makes a startlingly loud scraping sound that is resonated and amplified by the large aluminum speaker cone being rubbed against the pole like a bow on a violin string.

Woops!  Busted!

If you suspect a cache might be a LPC, check the paint on the pole for vertical scraping.  If it looks like the skirt has been frequently lifted, you’ve probably found the cache!  But if there are muggles within 100 feet, you might want to come back later!