O.c. Bomb Squad Blows Up Geocache!

April 1, 2004

Yesterday the Orange County Bomb Squad blew up a geocache in Tustin!

Internet game sets off bomb scare in Tustin

38.2k · April 1, 2004

Another great example of stupid cache placement. An ammo box in a high traffic area. What a freakin' maroon! Maybe there should be an IQ test before people are allowed to place caches.

Edited April 1, 2004 by briansnat

3k · April 1, 2004

Can you copy and paste the text here? You have to be a member to read that link.

1.4k · April 1, 2004

Hehe, you said member. :bad:

Edited April 1, 2004 by Nurse Dave

April 1, 2004

Thursday, April 1, 2004

Internet game sets off bomb scare in Tustin

Police cordon off a street and blow up a dangerous-looking box that proves to be the object of a high-tech hide-and-seek.

By BARBARA KINGSLEY

The Orange County Register

TUSTIN – The houses were evacuated, the bomb squad called to disarm the suspicious device that was found in a quiet Tustin neighborhood. A member of the bomb squad placed an explosive device to detonate the offending object and BAM!

The lid blew off the rectangular ammunition box and revealed ... some notes and a few pieces of candy.

Bounty from what turned out to be nothing but a high-tech scavenger hunt.

Police on Tuesday evacuated 18 Tustin homes and prevented parents from picking up their kids from a nearby day-care center after a neighbor noticed some people place what police considered a suspicious metal box on a Tustin greenbelt. Three blocks along Browning Avenue were cordoned off for about three hours.

The box, it turned out, was part of a game called geocaching, in which players use the Internet and Global Positioning System devices to find hidden boxes left by fellow geocachers.

The early, and apparently unintentional, April Fools' joke started Saturday, when a woman walking her dog noticed a small metal box in the greenbelt alongside Browning between San Juan and El Camino Real. Over the next few days, she watched nicely dressed men visiting the area near the box, and she became suspicious.

Fearing the box might contain weapons or ammunition, the neighbor called the police Tuesday morning.

"We have to treat it seriously," said Tustin police Sgt. Mike Pettifer. "Where it was laid was very suspicious."

So suspicious that Pettifer called in the bomb squad. The squad's robot couldn't make heads or tails of the device, Pettifer said. So a bomb squad member donned his suit and Kevlar-lined helmet and placed a water-filled 12-gauge shotgun round. The blast blew the lid off the can. A bomb squad member identified the geocache device.

After about 30 minutes, residents were allowed back into their homes. Some residents became angry at the inconvenience, and some parents grew agitated when they couldn't retrieve their children from a day-care center.

Others took it in stride.

"It was a little scary," said Burnetta Jones, who left with her daughter-in-law and four grandchildren after a police officer rapped on her door on Browning. "It was an eerie experience. You hear about this stuff every day in the news. We just hoped it wouldn't blow up the whole neighborhood."

When told it was part of a game, she sighed and laughed.

Pettifer said he would have called the bomb squad even in a pre-9/11 world. "It wasn't dirty and hadn't been exposed to the elements. It looked placed, it wasn't just pitched there."

That's what geocachers do. They post coordinates on the Internet, and seekers plug the numbers into their GPS units and find the device. The game is played in 190 countries.

It's common for seekers to leave little items and a friendly note showing they were there and found the box.

According to the Web site www.geocaching.com, geocachers are supposed to let the box owner know if the box gets stolen ... or blown up.

5.3k · April 1, 2004

Thursday, April 1, 2004

Internet game sets off bomb scare in Tustin

Police cordon off a street and blow up a dangerous-looking box that proves to be the object of a high-tech hide-and-seek.

EDIT...deleted story since I'm a little slower than Lowelife's!

Edited April 1, 2004 by Stunod

4.8k · April 1, 2004

According to the Web site www.geocaching.com, geocachers are supposed to let the box owner know if the box gets stolen ... or blown up.

Here the police will likely let the owner know. :bad:

3.8k · April 1, 2004

Aye! Carramba! :bad:

6.4k · April 1, 2004

The cache

April 1, 2004

I just checked the "Geocaching in the News" page found by clicking on the "About Geocaching" link on the homepage. Nope; nothing about bomb squads or police interventions there.

5.9k · April 1, 2004

Every chain of events has a point where someone with perception could change the outcome with just a little common sense.

The early, and apparently unintentional, April Fools' joke started Saturday, when a woman walking her dog noticed a small metal box in the greenbelt alongside Browning between San Juan and El Camino Real. Over the next few days, she watched nicely dressed men visiting the area near the box, and she became suspicious.

Fearing the box might contain weapons or ammunition, the neighbor called the police Tuesday morning.

She saw them place it on Saturday, didn't talk to them or the police that day. Then the arrival of nicely dressed men over the course of three days causes her to become suspicious. What a maroon.

Sheesh.

The real lesson here is "Call your Mom more often!" If this woman had any sort of life at all she might have simply spoken to the people.

Unless this is another April fools day joke... :bad:

6.5k · April 1, 2004

"So suspicious that Pettifer called in the bomb squad. The squad's robot couldn't make heads or tails of the device, Pettifer said. So a bomb squad member donned his suit and Kevlar-lined helmet and placed a water-filled 12-gauge shotgun round. The blast blew the lid off the can. A bomb squad member identified the geocache device."

What does that mean? They couldn't find anything outside the box that looked like it needed shot off???

April 1, 2004

The lid blew off the rectangular ammunition box and revealed ... some notes and a few pieces of candy.

Okay, who put food in this cache? For shame!!!

9.4k · April 1, 2004

Darn...I didn't visit Tustin while I was in California last week.

1.5k · April 1, 2004

5k · April 1, 2004

That's what geocachers do. They post coordinates on the Internet, and seekers plug the numbers into their GPS units and find the device. The game is played in 190 countries.

It's common for seekers to leave little items and a friendly note showing they were there and found the box.

I like these paragraphs. It gives some legitimacy to the game, and doesn't make us sound like a bunch of troublemakers trying to get the bomb-squad people out there.

I mean if it's played in 190 countries, it must be all right, right?

Jamie

24.7k · April 1, 2004

It didn't sound like a bad placment from the descriptions. Though I'd not leave an ammo can in an urban envornment just because I would rather replace a film canister when it gets stolen. Urban caches flat out don't last as long.

3.9k · April 1, 2004

The squad's robot couldn't make heads or tails of the device, Pettifer said.

A bomb squad member identified the geocache device.

What did they expect the robot to do ? Announce "It's a Geocache, Dr Smith" ?

As for describing it as "the Geocache device"... well, maybe if you work for the bomb squad everything's a "device". Big Mac in its box = "Hamburger device". As the old saying has it, when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

6.5k · April 1, 2004

<SNIP>The early, and apparently unintentional, April Fools' joke started Saturday, when a woman walking her dog noticed a small metal box in the greenbelt alongside Browning between San Juan and El Camino Real. Over the next few days, she watched nicely dressed men visiting the area near the box, and she became suspicious<SNIP>

So the lesson to be learned is stop wearing your sunday best when cache hunting!

If we look a little more like the scary urban creatures they are used to seeing on greenways and in parks we won't get noticed as much. sheesh

Think about it-what color shirt was the panhandler wearing today? :bad:

38.2k · April 1, 2004

It didn't sound like a bad placment from the descriptions.

An ammo box placed where someone walking their dog can easily see it does not soun like a good placement to me.

24.7k · April 1, 2004

I've been thinking about this. Given the evidence they should of reported the cache as a drug stash.

Different people don't visit and re-vist bombs. But man have I ever had some neighbors that got a lot of visitors.

3.9k · April 2, 2004

As for describing it as "the Geocache device"... well, maybe if you work for the bomb squad everything's a "device". Big Mac in its box = "Hamburger device". As the old saying has it, when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

:bad: Hamburger Device! That made me laugh.

I have all but stopped using ammo cans and switched to Lock & Lock containers. The only time I'll use ammo cans now is if I'm placing one in a remote area that is more than an hour drive from my house.

It's pretty clear this was really bad placement but what do you expect he was a 5 year old. It's a shame his father didn't demonstrate better judgment than his kid.

April 2, 2004

I know the area extremely well. The story that Mrs. Kravitz (from Betwitched) was walking her dog along the greenbelt and saw the ammo can makes no sense. No sense at all if you've driven past that exact greenbelt the million or so times I have.

Walking your dog anywhere in the greenbelt would not have revealed the cache and the cache was not in the open. You only would have discovered the cache if you saw people in the brush on a relatively hidden and very small dirt path, went there yourself and squatted down to look for it.

What makes it even more suspicious is that she surveilled the area for 3 days before calling Tustin PD just doesn't add up either. If anyone has been to the cache or lives in the area the much more likely scenario is that one of the home owners looked out her second story window down at the cache and the cachers. The dog story, IMO, was simply a cover.

That said, placing an ammo box in an urban area, no matter how well disguised or intentioned is not very smart and it causes problems such as this. I'm sure that the the cache owner picked the ammo can because it is durable as all get out but that can't be the only consideration when choosing your container.

24.7k · April 2, 2004

Ammo can or tupperware, it doesn't really matter. They still get called in and they still get blown up.

1.4k · April 2, 2004

I think what we're seeing is simply the sign of the times. After 911....no police chief anywhere in the country is going to poopoo an ammobox hidden under a bush in the park. :bad:

The bomb squad is standing by 24x7, fresh from homeland security school, with a pallet of "water filled 12 gauge" shells.

Besides, they've been blowing up suspicious bookbags for years.

1.3k · April 2, 2004

That said, placing an ammo box in an urban area, no matter how well disguised or intentioned is not very smart and it causes problems such as this.

I disagree. It's not the ammo can.

It seems to me that if the ammo can had contact information written on the outside, this wouldn't have been an issue.

So a bomb squad member donned his suit and Kevlar-lined helmet and placed a water-filled 12-gauge shotgun round.

Now if the darn thing had said "Bob Jones" and "geocache" in big letters with a sharpie marker on the outside, there's a real good chance that the guy in Kevlar would have said something like: "Have someone call all the Bob Jones in the area and find out who has a geocache out here".

1.6k · April 2, 2004

Uhhh... No Thanks, no way I want my name / phone number on / in the cache. Police not the problem. Too many whackos out there.

April 2, 2004

I wonder if the ammo can had the “WWW.Geocaching.com” info clearly marked on the outside? If it was, shame on the bomb squad for not being able to read. If it wasn’t marked, could that have made a difference? If the can was not marked, seems like a little common sense (unmarked ammo can vs. marked ammo can) could have prevented this one. :bad:

1.1k · April 2, 2004

I wonder if the ammo can had the “WWW.Geocaching.com” info clearly marked on the outside? If it was, shame on the bomb squad for not being able to read. If it wasn’t marked, could that have made a difference? If the can was not marked, seems like a little common sense (unmarked ammo can vs. marked ammo can) could have prevented this one.

How about we all write on our caches "This is not a bomb." That ought to fix the problem. :bad:

1.4k · April 2, 2004

How about we all write on our caches "This is not a bomb."

And a leaf covers everything but "Bomb"

1.3k · April 2, 2004

Uhhh... No Thanks, no way I want my name / phone number on / in the cache. Police not the problem. Too many whackos out there.

That's why you put your name on the cache. So that the police don't think you're a wacko.

When you're afraid of your fellow citizens, it's either time to move or turn off the news, because either your area is completely out of control or because you're beliving the sensationalism the news uses to get viewers (and therefore advertisers).

How bad are things that you're afraid to even talk to a stranger over the phone?

April 2, 2004

Another great example of stupid cache placement. An ammo box in a high traffic area. What a freakin' maroon! Maybe there should be an IQ test before people are allowed to place caches.

I think it is funny that you are calling this geocacher a "maroon."

Definitions of maroon: A dark reddish brown to dark purplish red; To put ashore on a deserted island or coast and intentionally abandon.

Did you intend to say "moron"? Seems a bit ironic, don't ya think?!!

Is there no grace? This could happen to any of us who place caches. Be careful not to put people down, lest you be next.

Keep it kind!

5.3k · April 2, 2004

I think it is funny that you are calling this geocacher a "maroon."

Definitions of maroon: A dark reddish brown to dark purplish red; To put ashore on a deserted island or coast and intentionally abandon.

Did you intend to say "moron"? Seems a bit ironic, don't ya think?!!

I guess some people have never seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon...

Edited April 2, 2004 by Stunod

1.3k · April 2, 2004

I think it is funny that you are calling this geocacher a "maroon."

Definitions of maroon: A dark reddish brown to dark purplish red; To put ashore on a deserted island or coast and intentionally abandon.

Did you intend to say "moron"? Seems a bit ironic, don't ya think?!!

What, you've never seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon?

9.2k · April 2, 2004

Have you never watched any of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons where he chews his carrot, shakes his head in disgust at Elmer Fudd, and says "What a maroon!"???

Indeed, I found the choice of the word "maroon" to be particularly apropos because of its obscure alternative meaning to students of military history, to wit:

maroon . (Pyrotechny & Mil.) A paper or pasteboard box or shell, wound about with strong twine, filled with an explosive, and ignited with a fuse, -- used to make a noise like a cannon.

5.3k · April 2, 2004

Here...listen to Bugs himself:

"What a maroon, what an ignoranimous"

24.7k · April 2, 2004

Here...listen to Bugs himself:

"What a maroon, what an ignoranimous"

Thanks I wasn't sure how to spell anything but the maroon.

April 2, 2004

Uhhh... No Thanks, no way I want my name / phone number on / in the cache. Police not the problem. Too many whackos out there.

So, if we don't want to put our real names on the box, how about our GC.com names?

hmmm... Lowlifes, SparkyWatts, Bad Andy, Renegade Knight...

Uh, never mind! wouldn't help at all!

April 2, 2004

Here's the info I put on the outside of my cache containers.

One one side...

geocaching.com
   Official
  Game Piece

On the other side...

   Owner:
  Ferreter5
   E-Mail:
  contact@
thewildhunt.com

I thought about providing my real name, address, phone number, etc. But like others have said, too many wackos out there.

April 2, 2004

The bomb squad just doesn't "come out" when someone calls 911. Actual beat cops respond first. They're the ones who call for the bomb squad. From my experience as a firefighter/paramedic, I don't know any cop who would just walk up to a suspicious "item" no matter what it was - that's why they have bomb squads! The bomb squad's playing it safe, and "disarming" it by blasting a water shell through it!

"Bassmedic"

(edited omitted word)

Edited April 2, 2004 by Bassmedic

24.7k · April 2, 2004

...It seems to me that if the ammo can had contact information written on the outside, this wouldn't have been an issue...

Yes officer that's my ammo can I left in the woods.... No I couldn't say what all people left in it but it's probably McToys....No I can't gurantee that there isn't a bomb....No I can't gurantee there are no drugs in it, but you have to belive me when I say it's probalby McToys and expired cupons....Look I'll come down and open it myself....You mean I can't?...For safety?...Then why did you call?

1.8k · April 3, 2004

Kudos to the bomb squad for risking their lives (in their minds) to protect the neighborhood.

Kudos to the cache hider for hiding a "Nice large" "lunchtime cache" in a "cool" and "beautiful park" in a "nice hiding place" with nice smelling flowers, hidden well enough that a cacher with 170+ finds had trouble. (all quotes from finders' logs)

Everybody's doing their job fine -- this is merely the inevitable intersection of two activities. Tupperware still could have been squadded; a film canister wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable for the cachers.

(My caches generally -- but not always -- have my contact number and "satellite navigation scavenger hunt" written on the outside.)

April 3, 2004

Maybe this lady had been reading too many Tom Clancy novels and thought it was an Al-Qaeda dead drop for discussing plans for the next Big Bang.

April 3, 2004

That woman might eventually spot a real terrorist traipsing down her street (maybe she'll have better luck next time), but someone should point out that it is more likely to be a geocacher that spots the real terrorists in the middle of the woods. We are everywhere so pointing out the benefits of having us crawling through every inch of the countryside would probably be a good idea once in a while.

April 3, 2004

I put both www.geocaching.com and my yahoo email address.. A little more legit to authorities with two avenues of contact that corroborate each other without exposure to anyone with malicious intent.

I've noticed Sharpie doesn't hold up on plastic well from handling, and have taken to covering it with a layer of clear packing tape to add to it's resilience.

However, there will still be instances of them being blown up until enough notification gets around to every police department such they ask the prospective informant, "What are the coordinates of your presumed bomb? Let us check GC.com--nope, it's just part of a yada-yada..."

Enjoy,

Randy

April 3, 2004

April 3, 2004

Everybody's doing their job fine -- this is merely the inevitable intersection of two activities. Tupperware still could have been squadded; a film canister wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable for the cachers.

True, Tupperware or similar could still be exploded but since you can X-Ray through Tupperware and not through an ammo can the chances of that are less.

At least in my area, the bomb squad robot xrays the object early on in the investigation.

1.8k · April 4, 2004

...since you can X-Ray through Tupperware and not through an ammo can the chances of that are less.

Incorrect. The bomb squad X-rayed my I Hate I-5 (Feral Way) cache, and because their X-ray worked, they didn't blow it up.

April 4, 2004

It's not the first time, from what I can see. Just found a Nov. 7, 2001 story about a cache blown up in Dorris, CA by a sheriff's department because it looked suspicious.

writer

author of "Geocaching: Hike and Seek with your GPS"

hidden at a book store near you

April 5, 2004

The bomb squad X-rayed my I Hate I-5 (Feral Way) cache, and because their X-ray worked, they didn't blow it up.

That's so funny! When Hazard finally got the nerve up to go get the cache while being observed, is probably when someone phoned it in. Poor Hazard. (laughs)

O.c. Bomb Squad Blows Up Geocache!

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