Yesterday was the first day in NAG’s Gears of Wars 2 COG competition. In case you missed out, here’s a quick update. Three Gears of War 2 COGs were hidden around Johannesburg North, with new GPS co-ordinates with the exact location of each COG being revealed starting yesterday and running until Friday.

If you find the COG, retrieve it and describe exactly where you found it, you will be one of the lucky souls to get your hands on a copy of Gears of War 2. You also get to keep the COG as well as the unique service ID number (CSID) that enables you to unlock extra content from the Gears of War 2 website.

The first co-ordinates for Wednesday were 26º 01.808”S / 28º 00.069”E and Sameer Parker wasted no time in crunching numbers and discovering the first COG. If you need some inspiration, here’s a little more about how he did it.

“It was a very strange experience. I had seen your article around midday, have been so busy with work that I couldn’t have gone. But I promised myself that I would try to go, if by the end of the day no-one had posted about winning the COG. I only got home around 7pm, but decided to head out even though the thunderstorms had reached a fever pitch by then. I grabbed the wife (essential for any late night treasure hunt), my flashlight and GPS and I headed out.

I punched the co-ordinates drove for about 20 minutes, only to find it was a locked park. After a long explanation of what I wanted, the security guard helped me over the fence. I hadn’t seen the picture of the round-about, so with my Garmin in my left hand and my flashlight in my right I headed into the park. Garmins are never particularly accurate so it took me about 5 minutes of searching to realise that it was close to the round-about.

I got on my hands and knees, which wasn’t very smart considering I still had my work clothes on, and crawled around until the flashlight reflected something shiny. I quickly dug it out to reveal a large shiny COG. JOY!!!! I ran over to the wife who at this time had become sufficiently paranoid about standing in a park dark park late at night, in a part of Johannesburg I didn’t know very well. We quickly skedaddled, heading home with my loot. I can’t wait to start playing.”

Well done Sameer and enjoy the fruits of your labour! For the rest of you Gears fans out there, stay tuned for Day two’s co-ordinates and keep us posted if you find it!