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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

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It happens.

 

Mad as they are at you, you did not cause a panic or an investigation or used man hours. They did - by simply doing their job. They responded to a report. In and of itself a geocache is a benign object. Same as is a cardboard box - it is the reaction to seeing something that causes an issue. You seem to have gotten permission to place it - good for you. Be honest and cooperate. You had no ill intentions.

 

I wish you the best and hope they drop the investigation.

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See, now if you'd placed a nano, none of this would have happened. :rolleyes:

 

We had the bomb squad called here on a cache. Didn't hear anything about any felony charges. In fact, the cache in question is still in place (new container), but the others in the series with exactly the same container are still up.

 

Seriously, though, for all the police knew it could have been someone's lunch. They can't blame you for that. I do wonder, though, if you are making your possible legal troubles worse, by talking about this on a public forum.

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

Curious, how were the police "stupid" in this situation?

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

Nice City! Been there for a professional Stock Car race at the nice speedway you have there, but the owner is kind of nutty, and it's been shut down. Also where most of the Movie The Shawshank Redemption was filmed. But I digress. There's no street view available for this cache, but a random guardrail in a residential neighborhood is a horrible location for a cache, in my opinion. And trust me, I'm being nice. Please don't call the Police "stupid". :huh: Looks like it was a pretty high traffic cache on the first day, I'm sure that was a factor.

 

You may be threatened, but I do not believe you will be charged or fined.

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Greetings Tygerkat. I'm a "stupid police" detective(no offense taken, I actually found it funny.) I'm not in Ohio, but I tried to read through your state's laws to get some perspective.

 

The law that I believe is being quoted by Detective Petrycki in your news article is http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2917.31 which states:

(A) No person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm, by doing any of the following:

(3) Committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm.

 

The key part that the state would have to prove is "reckless disregard". I found this defined here: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2901.22

 

© A person acts recklessly when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that his conduct is likely to cause a certain result or is likely to be of a certain nature. A person is reckless with respect to circumstances when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that such circumstances are likely to exist.

 

So the state (prosecutor) would have to prove that you had "heedless indifference to the consequences" and "disregarded a known risk that your conduct is likely to cause a certain result." If you in fact had permission of the park manager, and can prove that you did, you should be clear of any criminal culpability.

 

Please do not take any of this as any binding legal advice. But I hope things work out for you.

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Two brilliantly conceived words certainly will win lots of friends in the Mansfield Police Department, the Ashland County Bomb Squad, the Mansfield Fire Department and the Richland County Sheriff’s Office -- and quite possibly the Mansfield law director’s office.

 

Kind of makes one remember Mama's warnings about putting things in print, right?

 

Probably won't have a bearing on the outcome of this incident, but...<use your own imagination, here>.

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

Curious, how were the police "stupid" in this situation?

I would have to agree when public safty is concerned. I guess the Police are not so stupid if you ever need them. Sounds like a bad judgement call on your part and now you want to call those that protect and serve the public stupid. Wow. :mad:

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I don't see anything about the hide that could be considered "inducing public panic". It's not in a heavily traveled area, or near any shopping places, and the area backs up to a public park. To be charged, I would suspect they would need to prove it was intentional. Since there are a few hundred thousand or so hidden in a similar way, I would guess that this probably will not result in any charges. If it WAS the 2,000,000th cache however, I would find it a little humorous..:D

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I don't think the original poster was meaning to say the police are stupid. Just frustrated they didn't know. I would just be calm and cool about it and say I didn't know I was doing anything wrong. From the posting it seems to imply that. Just be honest and I think you have millions of geocachers who will back you up that you were just playing a game. If anything I think the guy who found it was just to nosy and shouldn't worry so much about what others are doing. They may want to talk to you a few times just so it shows they did there jobs and then in the end it will just be all dropped. I wouldn't be as worried about that, more so if someone got hurt going for my cache. Yours there looked like a cool one. I would probably archive it an move on with enjoying the game. That container looked to me like a geocache and not a bomb. I have no legal info here so don't take anything I say as law but I would just say I was trying to help out my community have fun and was in no way trying to disrupt it. If the cache was shaped like a pipe bomb or something it might be a different story but yours looks cool. I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

-WarNinjas

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Stupid is the wrong word here. Sorry! They were just doing their job. But, they were aware of geocaching in the area, and have stopped several cachers around the city in recent months. So you would have thought that they might have explored that option??? Stupid was used because we were upset about the possible ramifications from this incident. We will be archiving many of our placed geocaches because of this incident.

 

Thanks for the feedback!!

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Stupid is the wrong word here. Sorry! They were just doing their job. But, they were aware of geocaching in the area, and have stopped several cachers around the city in recent months. So you would have thought that they might have explored that option??? Stupid was used because we were upset about the possible ramifications from this incident. We will be archiving many of our placed geocaches because of this incident.

 

Thanks for the feedback!!

 

Oh boy, I'm the one who started the "don't call the cops stupid" thing. :ph34r: Trust me, there is no friggin' way in heck you are going to be charged (especially with a felony!!) or fined for this incident. And it's very rare for a cache placer to be interviewed for an article on a bomb scare (and believe me, there have been hundreds). You must have been alerted to this situation very quickly, and maybe even showed up at the scene yourself. It was a very fair and balanced article, by the way.

 

Archive many of your caches? I'm seeing a lot of rural rail trail caches, no problem there. I'm also sensing a definite B-52's theme. :laughing:

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

One must remember, Police Tactical units like a "Bomb Squad" must be "Used or Lost" IE "Justified" expense and in many smaller communities Police will make a "Big deal" out of nothing just to use the bomb squad. Same goes for SWAT teams (American) or ERT teams (Canadian)

 

Over reaction is justification!

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

Curious, how were the police "stupid" in this situation?

 

Over reaction for Justification!

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

Calling the police stupid for responding appropriately to a frantic phone call about a potential bomb in a public place, just goes to how who the real "stupid" person is. They did what they are paid to do which is to serve and protect.

 

If you are so worried, then get your own lawyer although if you are charged, I'd imagine that the courts will appoint a lawyer to you (at least they do in the tv shows lol.)

 

We have been questioned by our local bike cops because they saw us veer off the bike path into the bushes and wanted to know what we were up to. We've also had cachers searching for one of our caches in a popular downtown park questioned by police. They only want to know if illegal activity is going on. Once it is explained what is going on, the cops are satisfied and move on. Most police departments are teaching their members about geocaching, what a geocache is and what it can look like and how shady cachers tend to look when they are hunting for a geocache in the bushes lol.

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

Calling the police stupid for responding appropriately to a frantic phone call about a potential bomb in a public place, just goes to how who the real "stupid" person is. They did what they are paid to do which is to serve and protect.

 

If you are so worried, then get your own lawyer although if you are charged, I'd imagine that the courts will appoint a lawyer to you (at least they do in the tv shows lol.)

 

We have been questioned by our local bike cops because they saw us veer off the bike path into the bushes and wanted to know what we were up to. We've also had cachers searching for one of our caches in a popular downtown park questioned by police. They only want to know if illegal activity is going on. Once it is explained what is going on, the cops are satisfied and move on. Most police departments are teaching their members about geocaching, what a geocache is and what it can look like and how shady cachers tend to look when they are hunting for a geocache in the bushes lol.

 

Guess you did not read our last post!! There are many caches located on guardrails around the country. Matter of fact have been to quite a few. So I guess everyone that has placed one on a guardrail is stupid. oops!

Edited by tygerkat
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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

One must remember, Police Tactical units like a "Bomb Squad" must be "Used or Lost" IE "Justified" expense and in many smaller communities Police will make a "Big deal" out of nothing just to use the bomb squad. Same goes for SWAT teams (American) or ERT teams (Canadian)

 

Over reaction is justification!

:huh: :huh: :huh:

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Guess you did not read our last post!! There are many caches located on guardrails around the country. Matter of fact have been to quite a few. So I guess everyone that has placed one on a guardrail is stupid. oops!

 

We have a few guardrail caches of our own. That's still no justification to call the police stupid for responding to a potential bomb threat.

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Well let's see here. Even if it was an empty clear container and the bomb squad is called they MUST respond as if it were explosive-and even if the police knew about geocaching the fact that it's ducttaped to the rail is an indication that it might not be a geocache(I've never heard of a good geocache that was duct taped to something)

 

I highly doubt anyone will face felony charges-it was not intentional. MAYBE a ticket for mischief or something petty like that if anything. In my city we had THREE geocaches called in. The EDU(Bomb squad) had a small meeting with us. It was all lighthearted and it was pretty much-We know you geocache so just don't put one by the police station or a school or anything like that, and don't make them look like bombs, and we have no problem with the occasional report that will come in.

 

, they should be checking to see if a geocache is a possibility.
Again it doesn't matter if they 100% know what it is and can see inside they still have to respond. What if the badguy made it look like a geocache. Or what if it IS a bomb that just happens to be within 10 feet of a geocache?

 

 

Over reaction for Justification!

 

You would know all about overreaction. :rolleyes:

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Guess you did not read our last post!! There are many caches located on guardrails around the country. Matter of fact have been to quite a few. So I guess everyone that has placed one on a guardrail is stupid. oops!

 

We have a few guardrail caches of our own. That's still no justification to call the police stupid for responding to a potential bomb threat.

 

Although its not very nice, the truth is that police tend to do stupid things every day. Some will readily admit it. Since he apologized, it's a bit over the top to keep jumping on him for saying it. This cache was not in a location that should be considered a target for any bomb.

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Greetings Tygerkat. I'm a "stupid police" detective(no offense taken, I actually found it funny.) I'm not in Ohio, but I tried to read through your state's laws to get some perspective.

 

The law that I believe is being quoted by Detective Petrycki in your news article is http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2917.31 which states:

(A) No person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm, by doing any of the following:

(3) Committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm.

 

The key part that the state would have to prove is "reckless disregard". I found this defined here: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2901.22

 

© A person acts recklessly when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that his conduct is likely to cause a certain result or is likely to be of a certain nature. A person is reckless with respect to circumstances when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that such circumstances are likely to exist.

 

So the state (prosecutor) would have to prove that you had "heedless indifference to the consequences" and "disregarded a known risk that your conduct is likely to cause a certain result." If you in fact had permission of the park manager, and can prove that you did, you should be clear of any criminal culpability.

 

Please do not take any of this as any binding legal advice. But I hope things work out for you.

 

First of all, I believe based upon the wording, it would need to be determined that the act of placing the cache in the first place was in itself an offense. Otherwise #3 does not apply. It does not state "Committing any act. It states "Committing any offense".

 

If, however, it is determined to be an offense (CO received permission from the wrong entity...i.e. guardrail is not owned by the park system), the fact that there are 2 million caches out there w/ many hidden in this same fashion would provide evidence that the CO was not reckless whick is very difficult to prove.

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As an attorney, one of my favorite activities is thinking in hypothetical situations. It's kind of like sudoku or logic puzzles, it keeps me sharp.

 

Hypothetically, if I were a defense attorney, I would recommend someone in your situation refrain from further comments on a public forum. The phrase "anything you say can be used against you" is not just a line on TV cop shows.

 

Hypothetically, if I were a prosecutor facing a case like this, I think I would have a difficult time proving reckless disregard beyond a reasonable doubt, especially if a cache was hidden with park permission.

 

Curious, how were the police "stupid" in this situation?

The police are STUPID in most situations.

 

I have had several clients who thought so. They ended up going to jail. I chalk their attitude up to undiagnosed narcissistic personality disorder -- they weren't wrong, everyone else was.

 

As for LewisClan, I'm sure they're just being sarcastic.

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This cop decided to look up a pretty girl's info from her license tag, and try to contact her through facebook, and he did this without ever speaking to her. After being suspended, charged and convicted, I'm certain that his fiancée wasn't too pleased, as well as all of the officers who were invited to the wedding.

 

These officers escorted a bunch of exotic sports cars on a state highway at speeds of over 100 mph. They expected nobody to say anything, despite with many of the registration tags covered over.

 

This officer decided to arrest and detain someone without any warrant, because the car repair shop screwed up his car, and he wanted to dispute the $100 bill. $150,000 dollars later, it appears that they did something very stupid.

 

Not to mention the 70 or so Philadelphia police officers arrested within the last 3 years. Yeah, they do stupid things sometimes. About 80% of the time they get it right. :D

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Or you could just come to Canada there eh haha I just walked around with a cache that looked like a pipe bomb for over. An hour before placing it and no one even looked at me. Yes the police are generally not smart

 

Just when you thought the hole Off Grid was digging couldn't possibly get any deeper... :rolleyes:

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Or you could just come to Canada there eh haha I just walked around with a cache that looked like a pipe bomb for over. An hour before placing it and no one even looked at me. Yes the police are generally not smart

 

You intentionally deployed a cache that looks like a pipe bomb and you call the police stupid? :blink:

Someone should contact DHS and and make sure that user Off Grid on the no fly list and keep them out of the USA for our and their safty. :mad:

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At least the reporter didn't make it worse, the article was well written in that it covered both sides of the story. I'd contact the detective in the story and cooperate as much as possible, more than likely they will let it blow over.

 

I'm not going to predict what the outcome will be but cooperating with the detective is good advice. It sounds like charges have not yet been filed, and if the police don't feel that you're being cooperative, the next thing that would happen is that you'd (or more likely a lawyer) would be dealing with a D/A and a judge. If there isn't a conviction, it's going to cost a lot of money.

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Or you could just come to Canada there eh haha I just walked around with a cache that looked like a pipe bomb for over. An hour before placing it and no one even looked at me. Yes the police are generally not smart

 

COOL!! I'm planning a trip up north. What is the GC code for this one? I want to find it. :ph34r:

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According to the article, you were quoted as having said that you had permission from the park service. I'd think the ball is in their court, but I'm not a lawyer. Do everything that hzoi said and have the number of your own lawyer close by just in case.

 

Kathryn said because the public guardrail sits against Sterkel Park, they’d gotten permission from the parks department to place the geocache where they did.
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The police did the right thing and in the end, did figure out it was a geocache. As someone mentioned, the fact it's marked geocache or has coordinates for a geocache doesn't mean a thing at first. Terrorist can easily place a bomb marked "geocache" or even replace your good geocache with their bomb. Cops know this possibility.

 

And the cops would have to sign up for memebership on geocaching to even view the coordinates of the geocache. Something you won't do out in the field on the spur (oh, let's sign up for a membership to gc so we can see if this is a bomb or not).

 

Hopefully the prosecutors won't and shouldn't charge the hiders with anything. Bad misunderstanding.

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The police did the right thing and in the end, did figure out it was a geocache. As someone mentioned, the fact it's marked geocache or has coordinates for a geocache doesn't mean a thing at first. Terrorist can easily place a bomb marked "geocache" or even replace your good geocache with their bomb. Cops know this possibility.

 

There are millions of things that a terrorist could replace with a bomb. I don't think it's about possibilities so much as it's about perception and justification of budgetized items.

 

Hundreds of thousands of cachers find hundreds of thousands of caches of the millions of caches that have been placed every day of the year and how many of those have ever been bombs?

Edited by Castle Mischief
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Or you could just come to Canada there eh haha I just walked around with a cache that looked like a pipe bomb for over. An hour before placing it and no one even looked at me. Yes the police are generally not smart

Yet on other threads you, yourself have said:

 

"Ten years as a State Constable"

"I am an LEO"

 

Pot...

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At least the reporter didn't make it worse, the article was well written in that it covered both sides of the story. I'd contact the detective in the story and cooperate as much as possible, more than likely they will let it blow over.

 

I'm not going to predict what the outcome will be but cooperating with the detective is good advice. It sounds like charges have not yet been filed, and if the police don't feel that you're being cooperative, the next thing that would happen is that you'd (or more likely a lawyer) would be dealing with a D/A and a judge. If there isn't a conviction, it's going to cost a lot of money.

 

I tend to think that the department was citing the most serious statute they could come up with off the top for the benefit of the media. Normally, I would not recommend talking to anyone if the police have stated that charges may be pending, but most of the people I have worked with have actually done something serious. So I agree that approaching the police probably would not hurt as long as you did not say anything to indicate reckless indifference or any other admission of wrongdoing.

 

If I talked to the police, I would emphasize the family nature of the game and how you sought permission from the parks department. I would not approach it from the standpoint that you might be guilty of something, but rather as an opportunity for communication so that the department could better understand the game. The department could be told that Groundspeak will give agencies a free account to monitor caching in an area. I would try to listen to their concerns and see if you could work with them to alleviate them in any way. The more that they are brought into the game, the better for everyone.

 

If I practiced (and cached) in that area of Ohio, I would represent the OP for free. But I hope that other local cachers would think "it could have been me" and work together to try to smoothen things out with the police or city officials. Perhaps some officers already are cachers. In any event, I would see if other local cachers would be willing to help set up or attend an informal informational meeting.. The OP should not have to stand alone.

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We had a bomb squad incident about a 100 miles down the road from you here in Warren County last month, again turning out to be a geocache. In my opinion, this is just another case of a vigilante who thinks it's their duty to watch over the town and all if safe. Just replied to a forum yesterday where an unknown man posted a log on a roadside cache in California. He said he was not the land owner of where the cache had been placed, but he also did not care what was inside the ammo box, he just burned it and said anyone who comes to this location will be prosecuted and or shot. Very extreme...

 

Point is though, it was just someone trying to protect his town, even if that meant calling 911 over something that could potentially be suspicious. You had permission, the guy who called 911 seemed a little bit arrogant. I can nearly guarantee you that there will be no further need for investigation. As for the nasty emails you've gotten, just ignore them. As all of the other cachers on this forum have pretty much mentioned, we know you've done nothing wrong.

 

The bomb squad investigated for two hours here because the container looked like a "pipe bomb" in a cemetary, away from maybe one residential building. Yeah, it makes sense that someone would want to blow up people who are already dead and maybe cause damage to a couple of trees. The guy who placed the cache is about to archive it and never was interviewed or prosecuted. I'd just try to do something to get this off your mind and in about a week I bet hardly anyone remembers. :anibad:

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Has anyone ever actually been prosecuted over one of these bomb scares? I know it is almost universal that someone threatens to press charges. But has it ever actually happened? I know that people have been charged with trespassing but that is a different matter.

 

I have just heard rumors. An incident near LAX, memorialized in this cache and various logs always comes to mind. She was not the one who placed the caches where the incident took place. I could find no media reference to the area being shut down by the police and the cacher reported being "fined" before any kind of court hearing could have taken place. So there are a lot of questions and I would like to know what happened in the end -- call it professional curiosity.

 

Of course the Boston Bomb Scare ended up with a hefty corporate settlement for any civil or criminal matters. The people who were responsible were charged with placing a hoax device to incite panic. The judge was dubious. The charges were dropped in exchange for community service and a public apology. That incident goes beyond the type of event in this thread.

Edited by geodarts
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Has anyone ever actually been prosecuted over one of these bomb scares? I know it is almost universal that someone threatens to press charges. But has it ever actually happened? I know that people have been charged with trespassing but that is a different matter.

 

I have just heard rumors. An incident near LAX, memorialized in this cache and various logs always comes to mind. She was not the one who placed the caches where the incident took place. I could find no media reference to the area being shut down by the police and the cacher reported being "fined" before any kind of court hearing could have taken place. So there are a lot of questions and I would like to know what happened in the end -- call it professional curiosity.

 

Of course the Boston Bomb Scare ended up with a hefty corporate settlement for any civil or criminal matters. The people who were responsible were charged with placing a hoax device to incite panic. The judge was dubious. The charges were dropped in exchange for community service and a public apology. That incident goes beyond the type of event in this thread.

 

The first part is an interesting story. I'd like to hear more. But I agree, 10k without any mention of court seems odd. That is, I think, the only time I've heard of someone being prosecuted over a geocaching related bomb scare.

 

The second really is a different situation than what we are talking about. I think I'll just avoid that conversation here. No need to go off topic.

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com cco

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

This is the Kat in Tygerkat, just so you know I would never make any derogatory comments about anyone on the Internet.

 

Kathryn

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Alright. We are going to open this up to the total community. We placed a cache recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And today the bomb squad was called. See www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com cco

We could be facing felony charges???? Also, we are now getting nasty e-mails from people. Stupid police!!!

 

This is the Kat in Tygerkat, just so you know I would never make any derogatory comments about anyone on the Internet.

 

Kathryn

 

I think most of us are smart enough to figure out that "Stupid police!!!" was nothing more than vented frustration and maybe a bit of fear. Personally I don't think you guys have much to worry about. We're pulling for you. Keep us posted.

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The police did the right thing and in the end, did figure out it was a geocache. As someone mentioned, the fact it's marked geocache or has coordinates for a geocache doesn't mean a thing at first. Terrorist can easily place a bomb marked "geocache" or even replace your good geocache with their bomb. Cops know this possibility.

 

And the cops would have to sign up for memebership on geocaching to even view the coordinates of the geocache. Something you won't do out in the field on the spur (oh, let's sign up for a membership to gc so we can see if this is a bomb or not).

 

Hopefully the prosecutors won't and shouldn't charge the hiders with anything. Bad misunderstanding.

 

Yup. Absolutely nothing stopping one of the dozens of anti-government Christian terrorist groups operating in the US from putting C4 and nails into a plastic container labeled "geocache" outside of a federal building.

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The police did the right thing and in the end, did figure out it was a geocache. As someone mentioned, the fact it's marked geocache or has coordinates for a geocache doesn't mean a thing at first. Terrorist can easily place a bomb marked "geocache" or even replace your good geocache with their bomb. Cops know this possibility.

 

And the cops would have to sign up for memebership on geocaching to even view the coordinates of the geocache. Something you won't do out in the field on the spur (oh, let's sign up for a membership to gc so we can see if this is a bomb or not).

 

Hopefully the prosecutors won't and shouldn't charge the hiders with anything. Bad misunderstanding.

 

Yup. Absolutely nothing stopping one of the dozens of anti-government Christian terrorist groups operating in the US from putting C4 and nails into a plastic container labeled "geocache" outside of a federal building.

 

Agenda much? Between that and your previous post (which I'm not quoting) about putting Bacon in it's place? Don't get me wrong, I'm currently LMAO'ing at that one, "putting Bacon in it's place". :huh:

 

Oh gosh, this cache was on a guardrail in a residential neighborhood. I'm not an advocate of us playing this game in full view of people's houses in residential neighborhoods. If I lived in Mansfield, Ohio, or if a very similar cache showed up in my area, it would have been plonked on my ignore list. I do understand, as a Geocacher, that it was on the edge of a park, and of course there are proximity issues with other caches. And permission was obtained, good job there. If I'd never heard of Geocaching, and I lived in that neighborhood, first thing I'm thinking is drug drop. There's Crystal Meth in that guardrail. :lol:

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Greetings Tygerkat. I'm a "stupid police" detective(no offense taken, I actually found it funny.) I'm not in Ohio, but I tried to read through your state's laws to get some perspective.

 

The law that I believe is being quoted by Detective Petrycki in your news article is http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2917.31 which states:

(A) No person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm, by doing any of the following:

(3) Committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm.

 

The key part that the state would have to prove is "reckless disregard". I found this defined here: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2901.22

 

© A person acts recklessly when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that his conduct is likely to cause a certain result or is likely to be of a certain nature. A person is reckless with respect to circumstances when, with heedless indifference to the consequences, he perversely disregards a known risk that such circumstances are likely to exist.

 

So the state (prosecutor) would have to prove that you had "heedless indifference to the consequences" and "disregarded a known risk that your conduct is likely to cause a certain result." If you in fact had permission of the park manager, and can prove that you did, you should be clear of any criminal culpability.

 

Please do not take any of this as any binding legal advice. But I hope things work out for you.

 

As a matter of fact, I have to agree with the OP. "Stupid Police" is correct in this manner. They did not call in All Resources. So stated by this statement of the news article.

because the public guardrail sits against Sterkel Park, they’d gotten permission from the parks department to place the geocache where they did.
Therefore
(A) No person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm, by doing any of the following:

(3) Committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm.

is void of any "trumped up charges" Since MPD failed to get in touch with the Park District whom allowed the placement.
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tygerkat I applaud your resourcefulness for obtaining permission, and I fully agree with the "stupid police" comment *even if it was slightly wrong in a small fit of rage* If MPD had been in contact with all resource's this incident would not have gone so far.

 

On the other note, I do think a smaller container should have been used and something of an alternative color used. even if duct-tape was used to match the color of the GR, it was an obvious choice for an Altoids tin which would be disguised even better than a small lock & lock.

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If MPD had been in contact with all resource's this incident would not have gone so far.

There has to be a limit to how far they need to go, though. Do they need to contact the local Boy Scout troop to make sure it isn't something they left there? To "contact all resources", they'd have to.

 

As others mentioned earlier, and have mentioned in other similar discussions, once something is called in as a bomb, it's extremely rare for the LEOs to not follow through as if it's really a bomb (read: bomb squad whacks it). Some say it's caution, some say it's just a chance to practice, some say it's to justify the bomb squad's existence. Whatever the reason, if it's called in as a bomb, even if the CO goes down there and tells them it's a cache, they'll most likely continue to treat it as a bomb.

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