Geocache suspected to be a Bomb

[+Scout Master]

And here is the article from the Standard Examiner.

 

Techno game brings out Hill bomb squad

 

Wed, Feb 26, 2003

 

By JOEY HAWS

Standard-Examiner staff

 

ROY -- One man"s techno game was another man"s suspicious package Tuesday when reports of an overcoat-clad man placing a red tackle box under a bridge brought traffic to a grinding halt and brought out the bomb squad.

 

Around 2:45 p.m. near the Hill Air Force Base gate in Roy, someone saw a man dressed in a long, black trench coat walk toward a bridge that spanned a nearby canal, pick up a red container and then place it back under the bridge, Sgt. Mike Elliott, Roy police, said.

 

"The close proximity to the base made it even more suspicious, so we really had to proceed with caution until we knew what it was," Elliott said.

 

The container turned out to be a red plastic fish tackle box containing a variety of "junk toys and trinkets" placed there apparently by a group of high-tech adventure seekers, known as "geocachers." The would-be super sleuths use a global positioning system and clues left on a Web site to track down the package, or cache, full of various items.

 

"The basic idea (of geocaching) is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet," according to the Web site, www.geocaching.com. "GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache."

 

That was what the man dressed in the trench coat was doing, Elliott said. In fact, the cache has been visited by approximately 80 people since it was hidden Oct. 12, 2002, by someone with the login name "Wildcat Treasuregirl," according to the Web site.

 

But with base traffic getting ready to reach its peak during a 3 p.m. shift change, and the possibility the container was something of a sinister nature, police had to take the situation seriously.

 

While traffic in the area was shut down for an hour or more, a bomb squad from the base was called to the scene to investigate the package.

 

Word of the cache discovery quickly reached the geocachers as a warning message was posted on the Web site telling people to stay away.

 

"We just received an e-mail from someone at HAFB that the police and bomb squad was here investigating a mysterious box," the posted message said. "We suggest you stay away from this cache for the time being. This might not be a good location for a cache with the current world situation."

 

Another geocacher wrote: "They didn"t take kindly to a geocache placed under a bridge outside the entrance to a military facility. Too bad, it was a great cache!"

 

Elliott said once the squad located the container, they determined it was full of harmless materials after X-raying it rather than blowing it up, which was once a standard procedure of suspicious packages.

 

"Because of the biological and chemical threats these days, the bomb squad"s protocol has changed quite a bit," Elliott said. "Unless they can confirm it is an explosive, they will do everything they can not to blow it up."

 

Elliott said he understands how playing the geocache game can be a fun adventure for people who chose to participate, but he questions the reasoning behind placing it so close to a military base.

 

"Probably not the best place in the world to be putting something like that," he said.

 

According to the Geocaching Web site, there are 43,633 active caches in 162 countries.

 

In the last seven days, there have been 28,581 new logs written by 5,808 account holders.

 

we'll See ya on the Trail

[+Criminal]

wow, that's like that deja vu thing again.

 

http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/

[+Renegade Knight]

And probably not the worst location either.

 

Wherever you go there you are.

[3fros]

quote:

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Originally posted by Scout Master:

And here is the article from the Standard Examiner.

 

Elliott said once the squad located the container, they determined it was full of harmless materials after X-raying it rather than blowing it up, which was once a standard procedure of suspicious packages.

---

 

Was the container marked with www.geocaching.com on the outside? If not, why not?

[gazetteer]

Thread

[lysa]

I may be naive here, but sounds like it could be great publicity... lol a ton of people will now read about geocaching and maybe some will be interested enough to get into it ! .... just a thought =) ...

[+Brian - Team A.I.]

That's happened a few times in recent months, but with ammo cans in public parks.

 

Brian

Team A.I.

[Cholo]

There's a bloke in the UK who paints "Harmless" on all his ammo can caches. This seems to be the perfect solution for this problem.

[+ron50eli]

quote:

---

Originally posted by 3fros:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scout Master:

And here is the article from the Standard Examiner.

 

Elliott said once the squad located the container, they determined it was full of harmless materials after X-raying it rather than blowing it up, which was once a standard procedure of suspicious packages.

---

 

[Was the container marked with http://www.geocaching.com on the outside? If not, why not?]

---

 

Was the cache approved? And why was it allowed to remain there for so long after the alert we are under.

 

One was removed by the placer in Tampa near a base not to long ago.

[+pdxmarathonman]

The NBC affiliate here in Portland covered this story as their *signing off" storyline that they advertise early in the broadcast. They mentioned geocaching but not geocaching.com. The whole story was about 10-15 seconds long - but they had footage of the bomb squad's rig and the bridge.

[evilfleet]

im from phoenix and read about the suspected bomb online this moring while at work. the story had a link to this website so i checked it out and im now hooked! im buying a receiver asap and getting started! does anyone know who ownes that cache that was found? id like to give him/her a big thanks!

[+Searching_ut]

I suppose this is a Markwell

 

http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=3000917383&m=5980925355

 

It has the cache name, and a couple other url links. I'd visited the cache earlier this year, and doubt the bomb squad considered it much of a threat after they saw it. It was a small red childs tackle box, marked as I recall (It was a couple months back.) There are a lot of better spots in the area if you were looking to do any real damage.