My visit with the bomb squad

[+travisl]

I met with Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Soper today (he's with the Olympia Explosives Unit). He said he'd be happy to take any questions at msoper at wsp.wa.gov. He explained to me their process, and I told him that I'd share what he said with the WaGeocaching list, the Northwest forum, and this forum.

 

There are four State Patrol bomb squad units in the state, and they meet every three months with other local bomb squads. He has placed a discussion of geocaching on the agenda for their next meeting. He has also contacted his colleagues in Oregon, and let them know about geocaches. He was surprised there were so many of them.

 

Their process for a bomb call is, understandably, to treat every device as ift it were a bomb. They'll X-ray it, and if they can't get a good image of what's inside, they'll destroy it with blasts of water. Regardless, they'll remove whatever it is, because if it's not a bomb, they have to treat it as abandoned property. So this leads me to my first lesson learned.

 

Lesson 1: Hide it well.

 

He said that it would be most useful if we could place a known logo on the outside of our cache containers, along with a contact name and phone number. I immediately thought of the "Official Geocache" stickers that Groundspeak sells, but those don't have a space for a phone number. They'd still have to remove the cache if they found it though, and would probably treat it the same way, but they'd have someone to call to find out about it.

 

Lesson 2: Provide contact information and the geocaching logo on the outside of the cache.

 

The story behind this call was interesting. On Sunday, March 3, a geocacher in a vehicle with California plates stopped at the rest area. A citizen watched the geocacher get out, look at their GPS, and head over behind a tree. Suddenly, the geocacher ducked down behind the tree, did something for a few minutes, then ran back to their vehicle and drove away quickly.

 

The person watching this thought it was odd, but didn't do anything. They mentioned it to a co-worker on Monday, March 4, and on Tuesday, March 5, he and his co-worker returned to the site. They found the cache, saw "I Hate I-5 XXV" written on it, and called 9-1-1.

 

It never occurred to me that the name of the cache would cause alarm, particularly since 24 other caches with the same name had been hidden without incident. I never thought about it. To keep that from happening again, I've come up with another lesson.

 

Lesson 3: Don't write the name of the cache on the outside of the cache.

 

Trooper Soper also mentioned the tupperware geocache that had been blown up in Nevada. I don't know if he'd heard about it before or after they'd found this one, though.

 

The silver lining of this is that the bomb squads in this state now are aware of geocaching, and will be able to breathe a tiny bit easier once the next one is reported to them. They'll still remove it, though, and in the interest of public safety, will still need to treat it as if it were a bomb.

[+Bluespreacher]

quote:

---

Originally posted by travisl:

I met with Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Soper today (he's with the Olympia Explosives Unit).

...snip...

The silver lining of this is that the bomb squads in this state now are aware of geocaching, and will be able to breathe a tiny bit easier once the next one is reported to them. They'll still remove it, though, and in the interest of public safety, will still need to treat it as if it were a bomb.

---

 

Thanks for the info, it's a good reminder for all of us.

 

Bluespreacher

[+Prime Suspect]

quote:

---

Originally posted by travisl:

He said that it would be most useful if we could place a known logo on the outside of our cache containers, along with a contact name and phone number. I immediately thought of the "Official Geocache" stickers that Groundspeak sells, but those don't have a space for a phone number.

---

There's not a designated space for writing a phone number, but there's certainly enough blank spaces to write one. Despite the stickers being made with the "write in the rain" material, not all inks work well. The ink from my Pilot pen just rubbed off. A Sanford Sharpie Permanant Marker works great.

 

quote:

---

They found the cache, saw "I Hate I-5 XXV" written on it, and called 9-1-1.

 

It never occurred to me that the name of the cache would cause alarm, particularly since 24 other caches with the same name had been hidden without incident. I never thought about it. To keep that from happening again, I've come up with another lesson.

 

Lesson 3: Don't write the name of the cache on the outside of the cache.

---

 

I think that's the wrong lesson. Most cache names are pretty innocuous, and wouldn't cause a problem.

 

Better: Don't put anything on the outside of the container that might make it look like something left by a Unibomer disciple.