Another detonated geocache

[+Pork King]

Cache mistaken for bomb in Grenada, MS.

 

The mailbox the cache was in was sitting on the ground next to a tree. Even after lots of geocachers commented on the paper's website that it was a geocache (a few posted pictures of the geocache contents from when they found it, but were asked to remove them from the comments), the paper ran a front page article that the possible bomb that was exploded was still a mystery and that no one knew what it was or how it got there.

[+pppingme]

Don't you get it? Sensationalism is more important than facts.

[+kissguy&frannyfru]

The newspaper and the authorities now know it was a geocache. It has been explained to them what they blew up. We will see what the paper has to say now, should be interesting. Thing that gets me is it was a old mailbox, in the woods with nothing else around. What would someone have been trying to blow up?

[+wmpastor]

The newspaper and the authorities now know it was a geocache. It has been explained to them what they blew up. We will see what the paper has to say now, should be interesting. Thing that gets me is it was a old mailbox, in the woods with nothing else around. What would someone have been trying to blow up?

Exactly. This ominous object in the woods, far from people or property.

 

Let's be candid. These squads have little opportunity for on-the-job real-life real-time practice (fortunately!). In comes a report of a suspicious object. What better response than to blow it up? They get their practice, and they say "we weren't taking any chances." The public feels protected. If they did nothing and it was the one-in-a-million danger in the woods, they'd be criticized. It's a no-brainer. I'm surprised more caches aren't blown up - like 50 times as many!

[+jellis]

Who's mailbox and why was someone looking in it?

I owned one that was in a mailbox but I had the Geocaching logo painted on the outside and a (puzzle)combination lock attached. The mailbox was screwed to the property owners fence post with permission.

[+AustinMN]

Don't you get it? Sensationalism is more important than facts.

 

I have never read a single news article where I knew the facts where the article had a paragraph without an error...yes, in hundreds of articles in dozens of publications, I have yet to read a single paragraph on a topic I understood where all the facts were straight.

 

I assume that all articles where I don't know the facts are just as bad.

 

Austin

[+MountainWoods]

As Hercule Poirot said when Hastings asked him "Where do they get this stuff?", Poirot replied:

 

They make it up!

[+Laughing at the Sky]

I tend to avoid the news these days, because I want to stay in my own world of delusion rather than someone else's.

[+Ben0w]

Geocacher: "Why do you blow up suspicious boxes in the wood?"

Bomb Squad Officer #1: "They could be terrorist's test devices!"

Bomb Squad Officer #2: "We LIKE to blow up things! It's a bomb squad job requirement."

[+Pork King]

UPDATE

 

They've admitted it was a geocache, but they are still calling it a "target" and a "device".

[+T.D.M.22]

The newspaper and the authorities now know it was a geocache. It has been explained to them what they blew up. We will see what the paper has to say now, should be interesting. Thing that gets me is it was a old mailbox, in the woods with nothing else around. What would someone have been trying to blow up?

 

Doesn't mean the bomb was there to cause damage. Maybe someone was experimenting with making a bomb. Maybe someone ditched it there. It doesn't matter why there's a bomb, it matters that there is a bomb. Heck, maybe the intention was to blow up police officers.

 

We know different. But that doesn't mean the police, or old granny that sees someone wandering around at night and call the police, know what geocaching is.

 

It also doesn't matter if they know there's a geocache. Just because there's a geocache, doesn't mean there's a not something else nearby. By that logic, I could out a bomb in your car and nothing will happen because it's a car. You, your neighbors, your dad could identify it as your car, but it could still have a bomb in it.

[+geodarts]

Definitely a target. Even though it was marked as a geocache, there was no way to tell what was inside. My understanding is that once the bomb squad is called out in these kinds of situations, the item will be dealt with accordingly. Not much of a surprise here.

[tttedzeins]

That Joshua Norton dude seems pretty annoyed that geocaching exists