Now to play devil's advocate... What if the guy sneaking around a historical location wasn't a friendly cacher and he actually had evil intentions? If the caller reported the person and officers that responded didn't know anything about Geacaching, how could they distinguish the person and the package from a bomb? Remember, stickers can be all over the box refering to Geocaching or 'not a bomb'. But if you had no idea what the hobby was all about, given recent events of our society... Would you open the container? Let me add this to your decision. Military friends of mine come back from Iraq telling about bombs in dead animals along the roadside. If someone will put a bomb in an animal, why not in a box that is under a historic train? I would think to myself, why else would this container be here? Seems a little out of place!!
I don't know what your answer is for the situation. But if I had no idea what Geocaching was and how fun it can be, I would probably error on the side of caution. I have a wonderful wife that I intend to go home to at the end of my shift, and I wouldn't consider opening it if a safer option existed.
In this situation the Sheriff has a little egg on his face for being careful. I think that is a better result than if he ended up with blood on his hands for being careless.
Maybe one remedy for this type of situation, is to go and education your local law enforcement. Explain to them that there are hundereds or thousands of places where small containers have been hidden within their jurisdiction and in an attempt to avoid problems of possible bomb threats you want them to know of the hobby. Have them bring up the website there in their office and hopefully the officers will take some time to learn more of this hobby spreading in each community. Try and 'sell it to them' as a training aid for using a GPS.
I wish I had answers to keep these stories from happening, but I don't. I wish everyone, especially other officers, knew the amount of family fun that can be had with Geocaching. It's unfortunate that Terrorism has effected us all the way it has.
I liked the earlier post from Sept1c tank,"I think I'll do my bit in the fight against terrorism, and go geocaching."
