Another Geocache "Bomb"

[+chasclifton]

I saw this on the news tonight, and as I soon as I saw the bottle wrapped with camouflage tape, I am shouting at the set, "It's a GEOCACHE!" And it was.
http://www.koaa.com/story/37639003/all-clear-after-suspicious-device-brought-to-florence-police-department

[+Max and 99]

Someone didn't read the guidelines for allowed contents!

 

[+Touchstone]

Brilliant.  Sounds like like the person(s) who found it, picked it up and took it back to their car, THEN called the Police.  Sounds like some folks with very low self preservation instincts.

[+Max and 99]

38 minutes ago, Touchstone said:

Brilliant.  Sounds like like the person(s) who found it, picked it up and took it back to their car, THEN called the Police.  Sounds like some folks with very low self preservation instincts.

That was my first thought: they brought it into the station?

[+kunarion]

56 minutes ago, Touchstone said:

the person(s) who found it, picked it up and took it back to their car, THEN called the Police.

 

The article says the finder "brought it in".  Did they hand-carry it into the police station?  But it was handled outside by the "bomb squad".  They opened the "device" and dumped it out on a table. Well, that's one way to handle a "bomb".

It's one of those kinds of news articles that are tough to pin down.

Edited March 4, 2018 by kunarion

[+Manville Possum]

Whatever happen to marking a container to make it clearly identifiable as a geocache with those official green stickers that include the CO's contact information?

[+kunarion]

There's a pretty good clue in the cache photo, that could narrow down which cache it is/was.  I see a "waterfan5" Going Caching card.  Based on some other clues, that card is from about 2013. I may have the exact year those cards were made, when I have a chance to look at my card sets.  I'm guessing the cache was found by waterfan5 in 2014 or so.  Of course, the card could have been moved around after placement.

I also wonder if it's been there a while (glass jar, has a pocket knife inside), maybe archived after 2014, fallen off its branch or whatever it was hooked to.

Edited March 4, 2018 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

Odd that someone thinks something's a "bomb", yet would pick it up to "bring in".   To have supposedly trained officers pretty-much do similar is just bizarre.

Kinda like a variation of Cheech & Chong's dog poop gag...

[+Touchstone]

2 hours ago, kunarion said:

I see a "waterfan5" Going Caching card.  Based on some other clues, that card is from about 2013.

Ahh, I couldn't make out the cards.  Given that information, I'm putting my first bet on this one, described as a peanut butter jar in the Description:

https://coord.info/GC196JA

The other caches in the same area, logged by the same User around that time might be possibilities:

https://coord.info/GC2X9M3

https://coord.info/GC4MPR2

 

[+kunarion]

The lid doesn't seem right for a "glass mason jar" as described in the news article.  It kinda looks like a blue plastic lid, and a plastic peanut butter jar.

Here's more card info.

This is from the news photo:

 

This is what that cache card looked like:

 

It's a card for this Event (cache cards were shipped a couple of months before). So there are some pretty good clues.  Yeah, maybe it's one of the caches that Touchstone listed.  Or it was archived. https://coord.info/GC196JA seems possible to me.  The container has changed a couple of times, maybe it's got that camo tape now.  Looks like one or two Forum regulars have found caches in that area.

I didn't have a Going Caching card made in 2013.  I have #127, but never managed to get a complete set of 2013 cards.  Plus there were the error cards.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by kunarion

[+Doc_musketeers]

13 hours ago, Manville Possum said:

Whatever happen to marking a container to make it clearly identifiable as a geocache with those official green stickers that include the CO's contact information?

Yeah, labeling! There are lots of situations where the sticker might make the cache too obvious ... but we always find some way to get the word “geocache” onto the outside of any of our hides larger than a preform. Even with the cache in this story, that word written on the least exposed surface (top, bottom, whatever) at least gives finders the option of common sense.

The crack up here is that based on the listed contents, this “devise” couldn’t have weighed much and must have rattled when moved. Not usual behavior for a pipe bomb. It’s also clear the lid was carefully taped in such a manner so as to allow the threads to function as opposed to sealed to increase the likelihood of catastrophic fragmentation. And of course, placement. Find something like this in the City Square or under a freeway bypass and I can see using an over abundance of caution. But unless there is a new terrorist group targeting squirrels... 

[+Mudfrog]

5 hours ago, Doc_musketeers said:

Yeah, labeling! There are lots of situations where the sticker might make the cache too obvious ... but we always find some way to get the word “geocache” onto the outside of any of our hides larger than a preform. Even with the cache in this story, that word written on the least exposed surface (top, bottom, whatever) at least gives finders the option of common sense.

The crack up here is that based on the listed contents, this “devise” couldn’t have weighed much and must have rattled when moved. Not usual behavior for a pipe bomb. It’s also clear the lid was carefully taped in such a manner so as to allow the threads to function as opposed to sealed to increase the likelihood of catastrophic fragmentation. And of course, placement. Find something like this in the City Square or under a freeway bypass and I can see using an over abundance of caution. But unless there is a new terrorist group targeting squirrels... 

A few of ours are labeled. The other 90%, not. It depends on where they are placed and on ours, most are in rural or woodsy areas. On the preforms, they're probably more likely to be perceived as some kind of pipe bomb than a lot of the other types of containers used.

Thinking the container might be a bomb and then picking it up to bring to the police was stupid! I don't usually use the "s" word but in this case, it fits.

[+Manville Possum]

19 minutes ago, Mudfrog said:

A few of ours are labeled. The other 90%, not. It depends on where they are placed and on ours, most are in rural or woodsy areas. On the preforms, they're probably more likely to be perceived as some kind of pipe bomb than a lot of the other types of containers used.

Thinking the container might be a bomb and then picking it up to bring to the police was stupid! I don't usually use the "s" word but in this case, it fits.

 

It's been a while, but I thought clearly marking the container to make it identifiable as a geocache was part of the guidelines?

I gotta agree with the part about picking it up and bringing it to the police, but what is worse it was deemed news worthy. 

[+barefootjeff]

2 hours ago, Manville Possum said:

 

It's been a while, but I thought clearly marking the container to make it identifiable as a geocache was part of the guidelines?

I gotta agree with the part about picking it up and bringing it to the police, but what is worse it was deemed news worthy. 

The guidelines actually say:

Quote

To avoid confusion or suspicion if your cache is found by a non-geocacher, follow these tips where possible:

• Label your container as a geocache.
• Choose a transparent container to show that the contents are harmless.
• Include "instructions for finders".
• Do not place containers that could be perceived as bombs or other dangerous items.
• If the container has military markings, permanently cover or remove them.

Labelling a nano as a geocache might be a tad difficult, but then I suppose a nano is unlikely to be considered a bomb.

[+Doc_musketeers]

2 hours ago, Manville Possum said:

 

It's been a while, but I thought clearly marking the container to make it identifiable as a geocache was part of the guidelines?

I didn’t go find the exact wording, but it’s in the same list of suggestions that lists “transparent containers” which of course would eliminate the quintessential cache container: the ammo can. So that “guideline” feels less rule-like.

And practically, with the advent of micro and nano containers, labeling is pretty hard. Even the Nano offered by GS just has the Geocaching symbol on it. Anyone who would recognize that would probably have already guessed that this small button was not a Russian brainwashing-wave transmitter or whatever a conspiracy-minded muggle might imagine.

In our pseudo-urban community, I’m more worried that pill bottle sized containers will be mistook for some needlessly complicated meth delivery system.

2 hours ago, Mudfrog said:

A few of ours are labeled. The other 90%, not. It depends on where they are placed and on ours, most are in rural or woodsy areas. On the preforms, they're probably more likely to be perceived as some kind of pipe bomb than a lot of the other types of containers used.

True. I guess I’m just thinking that once you are hiding something like a .30 cal ammo can, you’re probably using natural camouflage. Once someone flips over the log or lifts off the moss or whatever, it’s obviously a box. At that point it might as well have a label on it somewhere. However a fake bolt with a tag attached proclaiming its true identity sorta defeats the purpose, lol.

 

[+Doc_musketeers]

15 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

The guidelines actually say:

Labelling a nano as a geocache might be a tad difficult, but then I suppose a nano is unlikely to be considered a bomb.

I type too slowly. From now on I’ll just wait for someone else to express my thoughts faster and more clearly, then quote their post ;-)

[+J Grouchy]

Really?  A glass jar?  That was the CO's true first mistake...

[+kunarion]

53 minutes ago, J Grouchy said:

Really?  A glass jar?

 

Not really.  The news article got something wrong.  Weird, huh?

I enlarged the photo a little.  It's hard to tell by the photo, but sure it looks to me like a plastic peanut butter jar with a blue plastic lid.  It looks nothing like a "Mason jar".  There's also a small wire "hook", and that would be no good for hanging the weight of a "Mason jar".  But it's a poorly engineered hook in general.  I'm guessing the jar was hooked on the branch of a bush or tree, and had fallen to the ground.  Maybe it was replaced with a different container, this one still existing but out of its spot.

As to placing a suburban Geocache in the form of a military camo cylinder with wires sticking out, that's a CO who must expect the above scenario.  

But I'm amazed that it contains a relatively large pocket knife.  Either the container has been well hidden unfound for a few years, or there are few muggles.  Well, aside from the occasional finder who will have a complete freak-out.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2018 by kunarion

[+Manville Possum]

Check out this glass jar cache with a blue lid that I found a few months ago from 2010. The contents were still dry. 

[+hzoi]

On 3/3/2018 at 9:29 PM, kunarion said:

But it was handled outside by the "bomb squad".  They opened the "device" and dumped it out on a table. Well, that's one way to handle a "bomb".

Bomb squads often have access to chemical sniffers that would alert to the presence of explosives.  Hopefully this one had one and used it prior to just diving right in to the jar.  Otherwise, that's a good way to at minimum lose a hand if your guess was wrong, and most bomb squad techs I've run across tend to value their hands.

Nice looking knife; looks like something I'd use in the field.  Surprising that it would be swag, both because of the rule against knives and because it probably cost more than a couple bucks new.

[+kunarion]

12 minutes ago, hzoi said:

Nice looking knife; looks like something I'd use in the field.  Surprising that it would be swag, both because of the rule against knives and because it probably cost more than a couple bucks new.

 

I surmised that it must be an old, infrequently found cache, to have a knife in it.  Everything also seemed in very nice shape, so again, I guess it's not found much .  I also guessed it's a recently uncovered "lost" container, but who knows.  There's a story left to be told about that cache.

Yeah.  I would leave all cache sniffing to the professionals. 

[+thebruce0]

And another geocache "bomb" :

 

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/blogs/crime_blog/updated-suspicious-device-found-at-mpc-and-turns-out-to/article_a1307ec6-8ad8-11e8-b80e-2b3c931c4cdf.html

 

It looks like it might have been GC2B0Z2 - a fill-the-pipe (with identifying sticker)  field puzzle right alongside a trail, easily visible.  Don't know until the CO does something for the listing.  I'm not convinced yet it's that one - it's been around since 2010. There's none listed on the property, and can't do a search for archived caches, and it may have been archived since the incident.

 

It may be getting to the point where even "GEOCACHE" clearly labeled and explained containers still scare people...

[+TerraViators]

Boy, that geocache screams typical - camo tape, beads, golf ball, etc.  Love it.

[+niraD]

31 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

It may be getting to the point where even "GEOCACHE" clearly labeled and explained containers still scare people...

See something, say something...

[+The A-Team]

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

It looks like it might have been GC2B0Z2 - a fill-the-pipe (with identifying sticker)  field puzzle right alongside a trail, easily visible.  Don't know until the CO does something for the listing.  I'm not convinced yet it's that one - it's been around since 2010. There's none listed on the property, and can't do a search for archived caches, and it may have been archived since the incident.

I can't see any other caches in the vicinity that could be the subject based on Project GC, so it probably is that cache.

 

It's strange, though. The article says the Child Development Center was evacuated, but that's on the opposite of the campus from this cache. Then it says this:

Quote

A group of children and child care workers were taken to the college's cafeteria

 

If that's the case, someone evacuated them to a spot that was half the distance from the suspected bomb than where they started!

[+thebruce0]

And the one sentence said it was at a grassy area, which maybe could be interpreted as that trail? I dunno, still skeptical. It could be listed on another site... or maybe a letterbox and they just used a 'geocache' cache all label? hm