Yet another bomb scare.....

[+Insp Gadget]

I found GC1CQD7 yesterday afternoon and I guess a neighbor spotted me and called the cops after I left. The RCMP came out and since the cache looked like a pipe bomb and there was nothing written on the outside, they called the bomb squad. They closed the road, removed people from surrounding homes etc. For 5 hours. Not good for us in the Geocaching community, however certainly understandable considering the fact that the cache was inside a pipe. The RCMP said that no one was in trouble, but from now on the caches should either be in a clear container and/or be marked on the outside that it's a Geocache. Please keep this in mind when hiding new caches!!

[Rhialto]

wow.. wonder how much it cost for such an operation.

[+Renegade Knight]

I found GC1CQD7 yesterday afternoon and I guess a neighbor spotted me and called the cops after I left. The RCMP came out and since the cache looked like a pipe bomb and there was nothing written on the outside, they called the bomb squad. They closed the road, removed people from surrounding homes etc. For 5 hours. Not good for us in the Geocaching community, however certainly understandable considering the fact that the cache was inside a pipe. The RCMP said that no one was in trouble, but from now on the caches should either be in a clear container and/or be marked on the outside that it's a Geocache. Please keep this in mind when hiding new caches!!

 

If they can't figure out that the object of suspicion isn't a bomb they will deal with it accordintly. That's regardless of being able to see through the wall of the container or not. As for marking it with "geocaching" that's a good idea but won't carry any weight with the bomb squad.

 

The best rule of defence is to place caches where muggles won't find them. It helps if you don't look like a suspicious bomb placing person when you seek the cache. Better still, don't get caught looking, then there would never have been a call to report something suspicouse where everthing was fine.

[+Renegade Knight]

wow.. wonder how much it cost for such an operation.

 

First, if they have a crew on staff to do the job, the extra cost is only materials they used up in doing the job. The salary is covered. Equipment like squad cars and equipment is already paid for and not specific to the responce.

 

If they work over time, the OT can be attributed to the job.

 

Some of the costs can be attributed to the kind of response. A bomb squad would tend to be a larger crew with more tools than a narcotics officer. Either can respond to a complaint.

 

The only time they could ever tally up the full cost of time and materials is if they have to hire a contractor. Then you have to remember they could have responded any of several ways and they made the choice to respond to something that was always harmless. That’s a risk of having a response team that depends on average Joe to phone things in. Thus even if they hire contractors to do the work they already had a budget for it and it would take exeeding the budget for false alarms in general to have any real impact.

[+Red90]

As for marking it with "geocaching" that's a good idea but won't carry any weight with the bomb squad.

 

IMO, they "could" take 2 minutes and go to the internet and see if there is an actual cache at that location matching that description seeing as it does have a sticker on it.... That 2 minutes of work would go a long way to avoid wasting resources...... Normally one hopes that people working for a bomb squad are fairly intelligent.

[Shabadu]

Seriously, how ridiculous is this. The cache was located under a rock on the far side of a beach by a lake. Not in a highly populated area, not under city hall or the police station. And it was in a large plastic tube. Why the heck would anyone even consider planting a bomb by a lake where there's hardly any people.

 

Common sense definately not applied in this case. Some local residents with too much time and conspiracy theories in their heads probably thought they were helping to defend the neighbourhood from the scourge of terrorism. This really ticks me off, after having served in Bosnia and Afghanistan and seen bombs and IEDs planted all over the place the idea of a bomb being planted in Hanwell is insulting. Not to mention all the commotion and inconvienience caused by both by the residents who called it in, and the RCMP in dealing with it.

[+Renegade Knight]

As for marking it with "geocaching" that's a good idea but won't carry any weight with the bomb squad.

 

IMO, they "could" take 2 minutes and go to the internet and see if there is an actual cache at that location matching that description seeing as it does have a sticker on it.... That 2 minutes of work would go a long way to avoid wasting resources...... Normally one hopes that people working for a bomb squad are fairly intelligent.

 

IMO even then they would have no gurantee that what they found is actually the cache described on the internet, or that even if it is, that it's not a bomb now, or that they actually do have 2 min to spare. That leaves them with normal protocal. They have to determine that it's harmless or they need to neutralize it.

 

I've seen (it's posted in these forums) where a cacher walked up to the squad who had found the cache shortly before and said "Hey, that's a cache, I'll show you" and he was rebuked.

[+Renegade Knight]

The cache was located under a rock on the far side of a beach by a lake. Not in a highly populated area, not under city hall or the police station. And it was in a large plastic tube. Why the heck would anyone even consider planting a bomb by a lake where there's hardly any people. ...

 

That's a better question. Europe tends to have a lot less issues with the random odd cache that's found. I've been told that German caches are more likely to be turned into the lost and found than anything else when they are found.

[+Red90]

IMO even then they would have no guarantee that what they found is actually the cache described on the internet, or that even if it is, that it's not a bomb now, or that they actually do have 2 min to spare. That leaves them with normal protocol. They have to determine that it's harmless or they need to neutralize it.

 

With all due respect, these guys are not morons.... They use intelligent judgment. If they went around thinking every container found anywhere at any time could be a bomb, they would spend eternity blowing up garbage.

 

They obviously evaluate with common sense first.

[+Renegade Knight]

IMO even then they would have no guarantee that what they found is actually the cache described on the internet, or that even if it is, that it's not a bomb now, or that they actually do have 2 min to spare. That leaves them with normal protocol. They have to determine that it's harmless or they need to neutralize it.

 

With all due respect, these guys are not morons.... They use intelligent judgment. ...They obviously evaluate with common sense first.

 

That's what I said. I'm not sure where we parted company on that thought.

[+Red90]

All that I'm trying to say is that having a sticker on it would lead to further investigation along that line and less likelihood of them thinking that it was a bomb. It would also lead to less chance of a muggle thinking it was a bomb. You were alluding to a sticker being of no use and I was trying to show how I don't feel that is the case.

 

I always try to make sure my contact email and the name of the cache is visible with the sticker. This also helps. As someone on our boards suggested a phone number basically fixes the problem as well, but not everyone wants that in public.

 

Really the main problem is placing caches in places that they would think it is a bomb (as has been discussed in his thread).

[Shabadu]

With all due respect, these guys are not morons.... They use intelligent judgment. If they went around thinking every container found anywhere at any time could be a bomb, they would spend eternity blowing up garbage.

 

They obviously evaluate with common sense first.

 

Ok - If someone was going to plant a bomb on a beach, would they put it as far away from people as possible under two giant boulders? Wouldn't be very effective. They would probably leave it in a picnic basket or something. You don't see the bomb squad being called out for every forgotten picnic basket.

 

Sure they're going with the most cautious approach here, and maybe they have some operating rules that require them to treat all callouts with the same approach. But, using common sense again, is there a threat level at Lake Herkert that requires that sort of elevated sense of caution. I'd say not.

 

PS - It goes without saying that Shabadu does not condone any sort of terrorist activity, or forgetting your picnic basket on a beach.

[+Misha]

IMO even then they would have no guarantee that what they found is actually the cache described on the internet, or that even if it is, that it's not a bomb now, or that they actually do have 2 min to spare. That leaves them with normal protocol. They have to determine that it's harmless or they need to neutralize it.

 

With all due respect, these guys are not morons.... They use intelligent judgment. If they went around thinking every container found anywhere at any time could be a bomb, they would spend eternity blowing up garbage.

 

They obviously evaluate with common sense first.

ROFLMAO

 

Misha