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They're Dumb Out There...


briansnat

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North East Suspicious Box

 

The Erie Bomb Squad responded to a suspicious box outside the Northeast Police Department Friday. It was a military ammo box. The Bomb Squad x-rayed it and saw wires and small circuit boards, so they closed off the area and blew it up. They found stuffed animals, a camera, and some electronic items inside the box. Turns out the box was part of an internet game called Geo-Cache. Someone puts stuff in a box, then posts the global coordinates on the web. Other Geo-Cachers try to find it and put another item in the box and then hide it somewhere else. Northeast Police are investigating the incident. They may not file charges, but they would like to talk to the guy who left the box in their bushes.

 

An ammo box cache in the bushes outside a police station. Come on people THINK before you place a cache :laughing: .

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North East Suspicious Box

 

The Erie Bomb Squad responded to a suspicious box outside the Northeast Police Department Friday. It was a military ammo box. The Bomb Squad x-rayed it and saw wires and small circuit boards, so they closed off the area and blew it up. They found stuffed animals, a camera, and some electronic items inside the box. Turns out the box was part of an internet game called Geo-Cache. Someone puts stuff in a box, then posts the global coordinates on the web. Other Geo-Cachers try to find it and put another item in the box and then hide it somewhere else. Northeast Police are investigating the incident. They may not file charges, but they would like to talk to the guy who left the box in their bushes.

 

An ammo box cache in the bushes outside a police station. Come on people THINK before you place a cache :laughing: .

There was a moving cache in an ammo box?

 

Second, wasn't there a log or info sheet in it? The reporter could have gotten better information. This wasn't very well investigated considering even if you put "geo-cache" in Google gc.com comes up first. Google even askes "Did you mean: geocache?"

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Looks like that one had permission too.

 

It's coming down to the fact that if we play the game like we are suposed to and they investigate things like they are being trained to things are gonig to happen.

 

Now in Germany I'm told caches are more likely to get turned into the lost and found. So It's not caching thats messed up. Maybe we are over paranoid, or maybe the balance hasn't been struck yet.

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After the recent incident in Indiana, we're starting to work on our communication with the police as well, not just the parks, so that they can be aware of geocaching and whom to contact should the situation present itself. Not that we'd advocate placing a cache at the police station, but still...

 

I hope you guys never read about something like this happening here in Maryland.

 

:laughing:

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North East Suspicious Box

 

The Erie Bomb Squad responded to a suspicious box outside the Northeast Police Department Friday. It was a military ammo box. The Bomb Squad x-rayed it and saw wires and small circuit boards, so they closed off the area and blew it up. They found stuffed animals, a camera, and some electronic items inside the box. Turns out the box was part of an internet game called Geo-Cache. Someone puts stuff in a box, then posts the global coordinates on the web. Other Geo-Cachers try to find it and put another item in the box and then hide it somewhere else. Northeast Police are investigating the incident. They may not file charges, but they would like to talk to the guy who left the box in their bushes.

where did you find this at? it sounds like the person who wrote it either (1) didnt do their homework (it's called geocaching, not geo-cache), (2) is already cynical of the sport or doesnt care all that much ("someone puts stuff in a box"), or (3) is in third grade. (no definite example here... it just sounds like that.)

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I found a cache, that was in an unmarked ammo container (not the first, either), near school property yesterday. I think it would be helpful to have a clearly identifable label/tag/sticker with contact info on the outside. At the very least, the waypoint and gc.com.

 

I couldn't help thinking from the point of view of the school staff. Who witness a lone male wandering around the perimeter of the school fence. But just in the wood line. He finds some kind of metal military style box. Opens it. Does something to the inside and rehides it.

 

I know from my point of view it is all "s**ts and giggles". But from the outside looking in it has to raise suspicion.

 

It, also, doesn't hurt to notify authorities and school admin.

 

Anyway, just some thoughts.

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OK, I take it back. Have to eat my words. Apparently the owner had permission from the police cheif. Sorry! But still, there are far too many cache placements out there that invite this sort of stuff.

 

Permission or not, it's just not smart. Like you said, there's too many other places to hide caches. Also, I can't imagine what would be appealing about visiting a police station anyway....especially for those of us that have seen the inside! :unsure:

 

Surely there's a trail or a creek in the area that would be far more interesting & safe.

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Since there's two threads about this incident, I'll repeat myself here:

 

I just suggested that the owner of the cache go down to the police station and file a complaint, not wait until they contact him. They were in the wrong and should apologize and reimburse him for the cost of the cache.

Putting the cache next to the police station may not have been the best idea, but he had permission from the chief of police. Somebody screwed up, but it wasn't the cache owner.

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it would be clever to put the cache in the chief's office so he knows normal people play the game and he can observe.

 

the cache could be called "Book 'em DANO"

Sounds like a good idea...or at least I thought so when I has the exact same idea last year (although mine was outside the station...

 

Book 'em Dano

Edited by The Badge & the Butterfly
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it would be clever to put the cache in the chief's office so he knows normal people play the game and he can observe.

 

the cache could be called "Book 'em DANO"

Sounds like a good idea...or at least I thought so when I has the exact same idea last year (although mine was outside the station...

 

Book 'em Dano

you must be extra clever to have thought of it first!

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Still being new at this.. with 21 finds.. about 18 or 19 traditional caches.. none had outside labels. Maybe only 3 had marker writing on the exterior.

 

I am sure someone who makes a few bucks on the "approved' exterior labels would love to see mandatory exterior labels.

 

Seems silly not to put some kind of labeling on the exterior.. these kind of incidents are surely going to continue though.

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"Exterior labelling" or not, the geocache will be blown up by the bomb squad if it x-rays funny (i.e. contains electronics of any kind, etc).

 

Exterior labelling isn't going to keep it from being reported as "suspicious". Labels aren't going to keep the bomb squad from x-raying it. Labels aren't going to keep them from blowing it up if it seems to have any resemblance to a detonating device.

 

If labelling something like this would help at any stage of the process, every true bomb would be labelled as a "Birthday Cake Surprise".

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Maybe it was one of these...

 

Ammo can with blinky light

 

Pretty cool idea but I hope whoever is buying these things is putting them out in the middle of nowhere. This one just screams "Blow me up!"

LMAO

 

I can just see one of those being burried under a set of railroad tracks in a national park across the street from a police station and having the owner complain when it gets detonated.

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I recently stumbled across this website which provides stencils (among other helpful resources) which would save you the trouble of having to buy the official geocache stickers and help you avoid giving your money to "The Man." :unsure:

 

It can't hurt to have a label on the outside. And like it says in the guidelines, the more info the better. And the less questionable the placement and the more informed the nearby property owners/occupants are, the better.

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"Exterior labelling" or not, the geocache will be blown up by the bomb squad if it x-rays funny (i.e. contains electronics of any kind, etc).

 

Exterior labelling isn't going to keep it from being reported as "suspicious". Labels aren't going to keep the bomb squad from x-raying it. Labels aren't going to keep them from blowing it up if it seems to have any resemblance to a detonating device.

 

If labelling something like this would help at any stage of the process, every true bomb would be labelled as a "Birthday Cake Surprise".

I'm in agreement that once the call is made Protocol takes over. Where a lable might help is when the call is based on a muggle discovering the container, then calling. Most calls we have read about recetnly though are people seeing suspicouse behavior and phoning that in. In which case, we are back at the labels won't help.

 

To lable a geocache as a geocache wont hurt though.

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