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The response from the Police seemed a tad overkill:

 

"I was the cache owner. As soon as I became aware of the suspect package alert, I phoned the police to identify myself as the owner and the cache as innocuous.

 

Today the police came to visit me. I have got off lightly but less so than the poor Geocacher who visited the cache yesterday and was arrested. When I asked as to his fate, the policeman said it would be wrong to tell me what had happened to him but that he had been dealt with without going to court, but it would likely affect his future career. Read into that what you will.

 

This was the first that this particular set of police had heard of geocaching.

 

The police also got me to show all other geocaches in the area. They then instructed me to pass on the following message to everybody in the area with caches on or near the A1:

 

"Sergeant Bilton - The device in Wetherby caused massive disruption for a period of about 4 hours. An estimated emergency services bill is around £35,000, not including loss of revenue for businesses who had to shut for most of the day. I can see from the website there are several next to or close to the A1. These need to be removed ASAP. If you wish to discuss it with me by all means please contact me at Wetherby police station on 0113 2855374."

 

I am terribly upset at the disruption and ramifications my cache has caused. I'm upset on many levels: the stress caused to locals, the use of resources, the effect on local businesses etc. and on the caching community.

 

I would ask those who know my identity please treat it as confidential to avoid potential repercussions should the local media identify me as being responsible for the whole thing."

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This idea has probably already been covered, possibly many times, but...

I don't understand why law enforcement officers are not aware of Geocaching? I realize that many are aware, but then it seems like some entire departments have no information at all.

As it stands in our town, most officers are aware, & some are cachers as well. The newer officers do not know, but are quickly informed when calling in a "questionable" cacher.

Can we not implement some kind of plan to educate individual departments of the hobby?

I know there are flyers we can hand out, can we not mail them in?

I understand that the way the cache was hidden, in this case, they couldn't see the geocache sticker..but the officers weren't even aware that geocaching existed.

Maybe a mass educational experience is called for. A massive event where cachers take part in making the hobby known to LEOs in their area. Better to be proactive than to wait for a situation to occur, & then inform them about it.

It just seems to me that if we can get a worldwide event rolling in which we just stand there not moving for five minutes, it should be a piece of cake to get others involved in an event such as this.

Edited by RhinoInAToga
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This idea has probably already been covered, possibly many times, but...

I don't understand why law enforcement officers are not aware of Geocaching? I realize that many are aware, but then it seems like some entire departments have no information at all.

As it stands in our town, most officers are aware, & some are cachers as well. The newer officers do not know, but are quickly informed when calling in a "questionable" cacher.

Can we not implement some kind of plan to educate individual departments of the hobby?

I know there are flyers we can hand out, can we not mail them in?

I understand that the way the cache was hidden, in this case, they couldn't see the geocache sticker..but the officers weren't even aware that geocaching existed.

Maybe a mass educational experience is called for. A massive event where cachers take part in making the hobby known to LEOs in their area. Better to be proactive than to wait for a situation to occur, & then inform them about it.

It just seems to me that if we can get a worldwide event rolling in which we just stand there not moving for five minutes, it should be a piece of cake to get others involved in an event such as this.

 

Looks like they are on it :) From one of the UK Reviewers, Deceangi (The "Geocaching Coach" in the BBC report):

 

"Over 20 minutes of filming (in the car park of the BBC's Manchester Studio :laughing:) spread over 5 questions. And the cut me down to the one point where I stuttered :anicute:

 

The UK/Ireland Reviewers working closely with the GAGB and Groundspeak, are working on creating a process to disseminate information about Geocaching through all levels of all Police forces in the UK. This will take time to put the package together, so that there is no extended cost to our monetary restricted Police Forces. Plus time to allow for initial contact and for that contact to be firmed up.

 

What has happened, is not being ignored, and we are trying to move things forward in a way which has minimal impact for both the Geocaching Community and also the Police Service who have a extremely impossible job to do, one being made harder daily by having funding reduced."

Edited by Hypnopaedia
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What part of 'Get adequate permission' do people not understand? :huh:

 

There are tons of caches that happily live on without adequate permission. This was just a bad placement. When you place a cache directly outside of a shopkeeper's front door, you can almost expect this to eventually happen. That cache was just screaming for attention from the wrong people.

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What part of 'Get adequate permission' do people not understand? :huh:

The middle word.

 

Oh no, I think it's the last part of that, the last word.

 

I contacted my local police department to ask if they wanted me to come down and talk to them about caching. The woman said she'd check and get back to me. She never got back to me so I assume that was a "no." I figured I'd wait a while and try again later.

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