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cache mistaken for a bomb in Fultondale


cpnkirk

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I was unable to find a listing that seemed to match this article - does anyone know which one it was?

 

http://www.njeffersonnews.com/news/a-pipe-bomb-at-fultondale-children-s-park-no-it/article_9691c446-9aa1-11e4-aa4c-470d548c2e4d.html

That's because it was archived.

GC58MAZ B.e.w.a.r.e (looked up via Project-GC)

You can see the container in one of the photos attached to a log, and it's a pipe wrapped in tape, which matches the description in the article:

...an 8-inch cylinder wrapped in tape...

How is it that there are so many cache hiders that are completely unaware of the concept of a pipe bomb? :rolleyes:

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How is it that there are so many cache hiders that are completely unaware of the concept of a pipe bomb? :rolleyes:

 

SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE GOING TO WASHINGTON DC

 

Ok you have been warned.

 

One of the museums owns a PVC cache that could be mistaken for a pipe bomb. Unlike most of these articles where the offending cache is nowhere near a populated area, this one is on Federal property. :unsure:

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Only one of my caches have been blown up by the police and that happened before I adopted it. I had no idea it had happened until a cacher who tried to find it said a park ranger confronted them and told them. The cacher then contacted me. I disabled the cache and put a new one out nearby without looking like a pipe bomp (camo pill bottle). Then I archived that cache. I also went and checked all the others I adopted and replaced them with harmless looking caches.

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Cacher with 57 finds, 7 hides with 6 of them archived.

 

Um, they archived them all yesterday. Took their pipe bombs toys and went home. :ph34r:

 

They did not archive the vacation cache 350 miles away in Florida that they somehow got away with. :o

 

For what it's worth, I have Google news alerts set up for "Geocaching", and heard about this several days ago. The local police were very good about this one, implying they knew about Geocaching, and no one was going to be charged. Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

Edited by October.Muffins
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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

 

I've noticed a few cache pages of hides that were blown up, along with comments by geocachers either thinking it was funny, or criticizing the authorities. Don't know how someone can leave a tube wrapped up in duct tape on business property without telling the property owner, and then acting like it's not their problem. I don't like to see anyone get into trouble, but entitled feelings of irresponsibility is not the best response.

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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

 

I've noticed a few cache pages of hides that were blown up, along with comments by geocachers either thinking it was funny, or criticizing the authorities. Don't know how someone can leave a tube wrapped up in duct tape on business property without telling the property owner, and then acting like it's not their problem. I don't like to see anyone get into trouble, but entitled feelings of irresponsibility is not the best response.

 

This is the forums, Dude. Every single cache that ever gets blown up in The United States has several notes from locals making jokes, or criticizing the authorities. I first noticed this, in I don't know, about 2006 or so. :ph34r:

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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

 

I've noticed a few cache pages of hides that were blown up, along with comments by geocachers either thinking it was funny, or criticizing the authorities. Don't know how someone can leave a tube wrapped up in duct tape on business property without telling the property owner, and then acting like it's not their problem. I don't like to see anyone get into trouble, but entitled feelings of irresponsibility is not the best response.

 

This is the forums, Dude. Every single cache that ever gets blown up in The United States has several notes from locals making jokes, or criticizing the authorities. I first noticed this, in I don't know, about 2006 or so. :ph34r:

 

Yeah, the $10/hr employees likely don't mind sitting around all day doing nothing, but one day when a struggling business owner finds the page and catches a whiff of that attitude, I don't think they are going to be too happy, and will want to take it out of someone's a**.

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

 

I've noticed a few cache pages of hides that were blown up, along with comments by geocachers either thinking it was funny, or criticizing the authorities. Don't know how someone can leave a tube wrapped up in duct tape on business property without telling the property owner, and then acting like it's not their problem. I don't like to see anyone get into trouble, but entitled feelings of irresponsibility is not the best response.

 

This is the forums, Dude. Every single cache that ever gets blown up in The United States has several notes from locals making jokes, or criticizing the authorities. I first noticed this, in I don't know, about 2006 or so. :ph34r:

 

Yeah, the $10/hr employees likely don't mind sitting around all day doing nothing, but one day when a struggling business owner finds the page and catches a whiff of that attitude, I don't think they are going to be too happy, and will want to take it out of someone's a**.

 

I was mostly trying to be funny, and I'm usually not successful. But absolutely over the years, in the case of most but not all blown up caches posted here, there are a few "Kaboom" jokes posted to the cache page, as well as a few criticizing the authorities with accusations of "over reacting", by the locals. Talk about predictable. Additionally, where the linked news articles can be commented on, there are always the inevitable "I'm a Geocacher, and the authorities over reacted" comments. Can't remember seeing a comment like "I'm a Geocacher, and it DOES look like a pipe Bomb, and the Target parking lot is private property". Unless of course *I* have posted such a comment in the past, and forgot about it. :P

 

Ironically, no notes on the Fultondale cache page, and the only comment posted to the news article seems to have been posted to the wrong article, or is even spam. :o

Edited by Mr.Yuck
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Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

 

I've noticed a few cache pages of hides that were blown up, along with comments by geocachers either thinking it was funny, or criticizing the authorities. Don't know how someone can leave a tube wrapped up in duct tape on business property without telling the property owner, and then acting like it's not their problem. I don't like to see anyone get into trouble, but entitled feelings of irresponsibility is not the best response.

 

This is the forums, Dude. Every single cache that ever gets blown up in The United States has several notes from locals making jokes, or criticizing the authorities. I first noticed this, in I don't know, about 2006 or so. :ph34r:

 

It would not be so funny if it caused geocaches to be banned. :anibad:

Link to comment

Not that anyone should ever be "charged" over Geocaching.

 

A business owner who loses money due to an object placed on their property without any type of permission, has every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it. At least that's how I would react. Having an area open to public visits does not give anyone the legal right to leave objects behind as part of any online game. Someone should think before wrapping a cylinder up in duct tape and placing it in a public place.

 

 

Well the cache owner in that case should have gotten permission from this business owner. If they did not then the cache owner would have been violating one of the guidelines of geocaching. So I agree with you. This business owner would have every right to demand that someone be held responsible for it in this hypothetical scenario

 

I've noticed a few cache pages of hides that were blown up, along with comments by geocachers either thinking it was funny, or criticizing the authorities. Don't know how someone can leave a tube wrapped up in duct tape on business property without telling the property owner, and then acting like it's not their problem. I don't like to see anyone get into trouble, but entitled feelings of irresponsibility is not the best response.

 

This is the forums, Dude. Every single cache that ever gets blown up in The United States has several notes from locals making jokes, or criticizing the authorities. I first noticed this, in I don't know, about 2006 or so. :ph34r:

 

It would not be so funny if it caused geocaches to be banned. :anibad:

 

I chalk the fact that there are no notes posted to the Fultondale cache page up to the owner being a VERY casual Geocacher with 57 finds, who only ever attended one event. It's when the cache owner is well-known and well connected in the Geocaching community with lots of Geo-pals, where you see the wisecracks and allegations of police state paranoia posted to the cache page. :)

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Here's a quote from the article: “I commend the guy who called us. He thought it was a bomb, our department thought it was, and the county thought it was,” Mangina said. “If you ever see something that looks like or even resembles a bomb, you need to take it seriously.”

 

And what exactly does a bomb look like? Because, obviously, all bombs look exactly the same......and everyone must know what they look like since everyone involved thought that this looked like one. Right??

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And what exactly does a bomb look like?

Good point. I think many people are familiar with the term "pipe bomb" and have a preconceived notion of what they look like, so any sealed section of pipe in an unusual location (sometimes with wire(s) sticking out the end) will often be considered bomb-like.

 

I really wonder, though, if anyone would call the cops if they came across something that actually looked like this, the stereotypical bomb:

bomb.jpg

 

:laughing:

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...are there any police staff that are cachers?

Yes, there are, even here in the forums. I read a story about a military minesweeper who is proud of his geocaching skills helping him detecting improvised explosive devices. Non-geocaching bomb experts know about geocaching, too. They're able to get a (free) account on geocaching.com and several other geocaching sites.

 

But not every geocache is at the listed coordinates, i.e. mysteries, multis etc. Police surely won't solve puzzles in the whole area just to check a suspicious box. Just imagine: a "Special Wizardry And Tactical Mystery Solver Team"... :rolleyes:

 

Plus they HAVE to take each case seriously, if they want to survive their job. So they will put a lot of effort into savely identifying a strange object on scene, even if it's listed at some geocaching site with the exact coordinates. Or even if it is in a remote location: it may be a test device by some criminal.

 

On the other hand there are far more bomb threats than appear in the news. A lot of times the bomb squad gets called out for obvious nothing (and they know it). Be sure, they will clear a lot of threats silently, without getting into the newspapers. At least they stay in training. And don't forget, they LIKE to blow things off - legally. :)

 

So, once authorities are involved in a possible "suspicious device", the bomb squad will roll in and do their stuff. Only preventive thing a geocacher can do is making his cache non-suspicious to the people: no "typical" appearance (pipe, wires, military writing, foreign language, ...), clearly marked as geocache, not on crowded places or critical infrastructures (roads, railway, waterway, bridges, airfields, military installations, school buildings, ...). This doesn't mean that such containers never are bombs, but they less likely get attention by someone who may call the police.

 

A banana in a pine tree simply is something that causes atention by an attentive passer-by.

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...are there any police staff that are cachers? if they simply looked at the map for a cache at the sight of a reported "boom" it would be possible to avoid the overreaction...

on the other hand, any psycho cachers out there who would use the game for other purposes? its ~possible~ but cachers are such nice people...

 

I could look up the story for you where an on-duty Green Bay Wisconsin firefighter who was an avid Geocacher could not convince his fellow City employees to not blow up a cache. Dude had to like stand there and watch. And Green Bay is not a super huge town, the cops and firemen would be expected to know each other, or at least be like "hey, I've seen this guy before". :P

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...are there any police staff that are cachers? if they simply looked at the map for a cache at the sight of a reported "boom" it would be possible to avoid the overreaction...

on the other hand, any psycho cachers out there who would use the game for other purposes? its ~possible~ but cachers are such nice people...

 

I could look up the story for you where an on-duty Green Bay Wisconsin firefighter who was an avid Geocacher could not convince his fellow City employees to not blow up a cache. Dude had to like stand there and watch. And Green Bay is not a super huge town, the cops and firemen would be expected to know each other, or at least be like "hey, I've seen this guy before". :P

...i would have to say thats an overreaction, like "dude its my property i know exactly what it is, in fact didnt you log it last week?"

...sorry i just caught a visual from that :)

 

If I remember correctly, without still looking it up, it was a micro at a baseball diamond in a City Park. I will still look it up, if pressed. :) This is the forums, where there is often a "yeah, it deserved to be blown up" attitude. However, the Geocaching mainstream often takes the standard "overreaction stance" like yourself. As evidenced by all the locals usually posting wisecracks or "overreaction" notes to cache pages of ill fated caches that go boom.

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...are there any police staff that are cachers? if they simply looked at the map for a cache at the sight of a reported "boom" it would be possible to avoid the overreaction...

on the other hand, any psycho cachers out there who would use the game for other purposes? its ~possible~ but cachers are such nice people...

 

I could look up the story for you where an on-duty Green Bay Wisconsin firefighter who was an avid Geocacher could not convince his fellow City employees to not blow up a cache. Dude had to like stand there and watch. And Green Bay is not a super huge town, the cops and firemen would be expected to know each other, or at least be like "hey, I've seen this guy before". :P

...i would have to say thats an overreaction, like "dude its my property i know exactly what it is, in fact didnt you log it last week?"

...sorry i just caught a visual from that :)

 

If I remember correctly, without still looking it up, it was a micro at a baseball diamond in a City Park. I will still look it up, if pressed. :) This is the forums, where there is often a "yeah, it deserved to be blown up" attitude. However, the Geocaching mainstream often takes the standard "overreaction stance" like yourself. As evidenced by all the locals usually posting wisecracks or "overreaction" notes to cache pages of ill fated caches that go boom.

i get the idea ...i could understand if it was an ammo can or a tupperware size container, but a micro? i can see how a film can could hold an m80 but all the other things that would complete the device no i cant see that... im thinking that there is only a limited number of emergency response members so a response to every geocache incident opens the door for someone to exploit the paranoia and do something truly horrible while the team is distracted...

...terrorism is not designed to foster abuse of our constitutional rights, but rather to foster fear of our constitutional rights...

 

I'm an Army guy (22 years, all Reserve), and I did hold the Combat Engineer Military Occupational Specialty, although I just got qualified for the heck of it, and never used it, but here ya' go: C4 plastic explosive. And a

(hard to tell, but that looks like about a film canister sized ball).

 

There was a cache blown about about 15 miles from me in Niagara Falls Ontario once, but the closest US cache, about 90 miles away was indeed a film canister in a Sams Club parking lot. :o

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