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Geocaching Shuts Down British Town
DaveAtWorkAnnoyingly writes "Many geocachers will be thinking twice when planting their treasure in an urban space as one geocacher found out in England after the police cordoned off the center of a small West Yorkshire town and the Bomb Squad was called in. From the article: 'It was a normal busy Friday morning in the small West Yorkshire market town of Wetherby when someone working in a café spotted a man acting a bit suspiciously on the street. He appeared to have a small plastic box in his hand and after fiddling with the container he bent down and hid it under a flower box standing on the pavement. He then walked off, talking to somebody on his phone.'"
People need to lighten up. This is getting out of hand.
Often times caches specifically state "DO NOT SEARCH IN VIEW OF MUGGLES". "Muggles" being those unfamiliar with geocaching. This is a perfect reason why to heed those words.
no, honestly, this is dumb. the terrorists have won.
Isn't this the very goal of terrorism? To disrupt our daily activities with irrational fear?
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Bomb scare!
I'm sure there are dozens of other instances of this happening around the world since the whole geocaching thing started.
What study was that? Because it goes against the actual research I've seen on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
Really? A bomb... that's a danger to people on the street... yet small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand? Is shrapnel really considered a terrorist threat nowadays?
They're called "Hand Grenades" for a reason, you know. It's because they can fit in the palm of one's hand. And they have a long history of being a danger to people.
Or did he think its antimatter explosion would eradicate the entire city block?
No, but he probably thought that a modern anti-personnel grenade was capable of throwing fragments over two hundred meters away. That makes for an area about _five_ city blocks long that could get quite uncomfortable for passers-by, with a "what's left of you will wish you were dead" zone about a third of a city block across at the centre. The real thing is nothing at all like Counter-Strike.
But, you know what? You're right. I'm just being silly. After all, nobody ever sets off bombs in England, so I'm sure there's no reason for anyone to worry about anything. Ever.
This used to happen a bunch, until the public became familiar with geocaching, and years ago geocaching guidelines changed to encourage clear plastic containers rather than the more robust menacing ammo cans that were favored initially (far more weather tight).
Ironically, letterboxing is an activity that has been popular across the pond for decades, and involves the exact same process of hiding a container somewhere publicly accessible.
But, you still will get over zealous officials who want to play with their toys and blow tupperware up, rather than look at the note on the container, or, you know, investigate.
Link to the archived geocache listing (for which you need an account to view)
Particularly troubling is this quote from the cache owner referring to the finder, "When I asked as to his fate, the policeman said it would be wrong to tell me what had happened to him but that he had been dealt with without going to court, but it would likely affect his future career. Read into that what you will."
I could see considering arresting the woman who called emergency services over nothing, then releasing her give her honest mistake. But doing more than questioning the finder and placer? Preposterous.
On my daily walks with the dog i one day spotted something in a silver box near the path and found it was a small aluminium box. I personally did not think that it could be related to geocaching at all and called the local polica station and asked them what to do, as in this case it was me who was afraid to touch or open it because i thought this is a bomb ... Well, one of the first things this police officer said was
"i bet this is one of those geocaching boxes, that is not uncommon these days" :-)
So i asked him: "shall i really open it"
officer: "yes, open it"
"and what if it is a bomb and i blow up?"
officer: "then i will keep my ears shut!"
of course there was nothing interesting in this box and no bomb at all. but i really had to laugh about this quite cool and funny officer
Lord "not Gargamel's Cat!" Azrael
He appeared to have a small plastic box in his hand and after fiddling with the container he bent down and hid it under a flower box standing on the pavement. He then walked off, talking to somebody on his phone.'"
Why attack a flower box? I had heard the terrorists wanted to take us back to the Dark Ages, but, in this case, the assumption appears to be that they are trying to take us all the way back to the Triassic, before the dawn of angiosperms.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
This is not an over-reaction. Here in the UK, terrorism on such a scale used to happen pretty regularly- for example, see the children killed in the second attack here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_bomb_attacks. Political agreement in Northern Ireland mostly halted the war, but one positive thing that came out of September 11th was the extinguishing of monies and good-will from the US for any sort of terrorism.
When you found the container, you take out a memento the last person placed there and put another one there yourself. Some (all?) caches also seem to contain a sheet of paper with a list of the geocachers who have been to this cache, where you would add your name and the date.
Disclaimer: I'm not a geocacher, but I know a few.
Yeah, but that's a shape charge. You don't use those to try and kill people, and the explosive really needs to be in contact (or so bloody close it doesn't matter) to get those kinds of effects. Only a moron tries to kill people with a shaped charge.
Now there are cases where people tried to do assassinations with shape charges, but they were used to propel a metal plate at a car, so it's like a big shotgun effect with spalling. Although that sucker was crammed in a mailbox, and the car was probably no more than 10 feet away if I remember right.
Why was he given a police caution ? He did nothing illegal, nothing that police had previously been asked to be told about, so why a caution ? Yes what he did accidentally caused some disruption; but this was not intended.
That's ridiculous, this isn't the 60s anymore. The police should just zoom in the CCTV footage and x-ray the box through Photoshop, then use face recognition to contact the would be geocacher's mobile phone directly and leave a message confirming that the paperwork is being filed electronically already.
Very recent domestic terrorists in the UK have performed this exact same activity to achieve disastrous results. It's not like the states where some assholes flew a plane into a building 10 years ago, innocent-looking packages are still a real and justified concern.
As the performing parties, it's geocachers who need to be aware of this fact, and take caution to avoid unnecessary suspicion of their activities.
I've cached for a number of years, and learned the benefits of having a quick chat with local businesses before planting full-on urban caches. Not only could it put them at ease, but it's also another group of people that would be "in the know" should someone unfamiliar with the sport panic about it.
The main thing that I found was that, in nearly all cases, local businesses were thrilled with the idea of a dedicated group of people actively travelling to an area near to their business! Many went so far as to pass a few coupons along to hide in the cache, or offer a 'cacher discount' if people mentioned the cache when paying up at the counter.
A few people do this at work. I've never tried but from what I gather it's a bit more high tech than that these days - instead of adding your name to a list, you can upload a message and a photograph of yourself at the cache site to the web. It seems like it's actually quite a social pursuit for a lot of people, there are geocaching conventions and planned events (a bit like a treasure hunt I guess). A bit like Facebook + the great outdoors - which I know is a combination scary enough to put a lot of /.ers off for life :)
I never saw it stated somewhere officially but my own experience points to the conclusion that indeed Berlin police checks on Caches listed on geocaching.com. There is one in Berlin (http://coord.info/GC2XDG3) by the name "BrandVerein" which would translate to FireAssociation. The name actually is a hint to the cache's location, if you go there, it's obvious.
Still, that name hit a spot with the police since for some years there is this series of expensive cars burning at night and lots of pressure on the cops for not being able to stop the serial igniter(s).
So, the first day the cache was published 2 searchers there found themselves under surveillance when they followed the gps compass. An officer stepped out of the car, to the exact koords of the cache and told them to go on searching. When they found the box, the officer took a look, approved it for being harmless, wished them good luck and left the scene.
Cool and efficient
605413? Yes, it's a prime.