mjb

Thanks, mjb! I've always wondered about your side of things. Could you give us some numbers about how often your bomb squad is called to respond to a civilian observation and how often the device in question turns out to be dangerous? I was particularly fascinated by your description of unexploded ordnance left by amateur weapons manufacturers. It sounds like that's a serious problem in your area. Can you give me some numbers about how often they're found and how often someone's injured by them? Thanks again! Hi, I'm sure someone has the exact figures but my gut instinct is that less than 5% of the suspicious calls we get turn out to be something real. That said, all it takes is one real item handled like it was just another false call and kaboom, another name goes on the wall. As to homemade devices we see the most injuries around the 4th of July and New Year’s Eve. Again it not a rampant problem in our area, just something we have to keep in the back of our minds when we are responding. Omaha is a safe town and a great place to raise a family!

There is never a fine or charges for something like this. If the CO were to do something like write "Bomb" on the side of their cache then we might look differently at the situation. We are a regional Bomb Squad that has been trained and certified by the FBI. We will go anywhere in the area they need us without charge to the calling agency!

Might have considered it, however, there is such negativity surrounding NM /NA logs they might have been fearful of reprisals and log deletions from the CO **(just sayin)** I wonder why people seeing something in a tree immediately think "bomb." Like they think that the bad guys are thinking, oooo, here's a strategic tree, I'll blow it up at some future time. For maximum symbolism and panic, I'll blow it up on Arbor Day. 15 years ago I would have said the same thing however, times have changed and not for the better. Along the same line of thinking, who would have thought an unattended backpack, among hundreds of other bags and packs, at one of the largest public events of the year, the Boston Marathon, would kill 3 people and injure 264 more?

Muggle saw this: If you look at the photo it certainly looks like the end a pipe bomb to me. You would be surprised how many people in the area make pipe bombs of all sizes from empty Co2 cartridges to full-size 2 liter whoppers. Many view these as fun “firecrackers” that make a crazy loud boom. Most don’t realize that they could lose an arm or leg or even kill themselves if their homemade device prematurely functioned. Almost all don’t realize they are committing a felony by building these destructive devices. The most common scenario we face is a person that lights one of these devices. When it does not function they wisely decide to leave it alone. Unfortunately they don’t call anyone to let them know they have left behind an unexploded device. Later a citizen is out and about and they find the device. Some of them wisely call 911 to report it and eventually we get the call and come out to safely take care of it. Some decide to fiddle with it and are injured bad when it “goes off”.

Good question! When a citizen spots something that they deem to be suspicious they call 911. 911 in turns usually call the police. Police officers come out to look at the suspicious item. If they have any doubts they call the Bomb Squad for a final determination. Officers have been trained to error on the side of caution. There are many dead officers that thought something that someone else thought was suspicious was safe to handle. Geocachers are looking for a particular item at a very specific location. Because of this when they find a Geocache site they rightfully don’t consider it suspicious. If they are careless in their approach or exit from the site however a “muggle” will snoop around after they are gone and report anything they find as suspicious. The bigger the cache the more likely it will be called in as a suspicious item by a “muggle”. Those that place caches should follow the guidelines set by geocaching experts to ensure there cache does not cause public alarm and stays fun and active for a long time!

FWIW, that comment was posted by me in jest (hence I added the smiley), it wasn't a serious suggestion NP did not upset me in the least bit!

Hi Folks, I would be happy to answer any questions I can about our, (Omaha Bomb Squad), response to the Memorial Park cache. Keep in mind that these responses are my responses and are not the official position of the City of Omaha, the Omaha Police Department, or the Omaha Bomb Squad of which I’m a member. Some questions I will not be able to answer with extreme detail because it will compromise operational security and put my life, my team mate’s lives, and of course citizen lives in jeopardy. Question: How hard would it be for police to look up geocaches when they get a bomb report? All they would have to do is look on the geocaching map. It would be fairly obvious if there was a geocache in the reported location. Of course it would be possible for someone to place an actual bomb and list it as a cache or put a bomb in a cache but it would be unlikely. Interesting so few law enforcement organizations know nothing about geocaching. This info ought to be part of standard training for bomb squads. Answer: When a “muggle” reports something as a suspicious device we have to take protective measures to make sure it is truly a Geocache site. How hard would it be for someone to “steal” a known Geocache site and plant something that could harm the next person to find the site? Unfortunately there is no way to prevent criminals and terrorists from taking a fun sport which I to enjoy and making it into something scary! Comment: Surely he should have posted an NM? Answer: It’s been awhile, I joined back in 2001 and have not had an active log until 2006 and of course October 2010. I could look up what a NM is but it would not have changed what I had to do regarding this call. Question: I want to know what was used for the cache log. It survived being blown up by the bomb squad. I have heard of Write-in-the-Rain paper, but that log must be something awesome. Answer: We have many tools available to us when dealing with various situations. We try to use the least destructive method to deal with a suspicious device for various reasons. Believe it or not we can use methods that will “blow a device up” but allow us to reconstruct the device and tell us how it was built, who build it, and how it functioned. On this particular device with the use of a robot and some other confidential tools we were able to “blow up the package” and recover the contents intact. I was on the phone with the cache owner, a very nice person by the way, within hours offering to return the items contained in the cache.

The following travel bugs have not been heard from since January 2006. If anyone can update their current location I would appreciate it. Pink Skydiver 05-11-05 Zam-Traveler 01-18-05 Anakin-Traveler 01-22-06 Owners email MJBahr007@aol.com