GEOCACHING ITEM MISTAKEN FOR EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
From: cbs5.com, Oakland
A modern day treasure-hunting fad caused a tense situation for the Monterey County Sheriff's bomb squad who were called to the scene of a possible bomb Monday in Monterey County.
A work crew cleaning the shoulder of Jolon Road in southern Monterey County discovered a suspicious bomb-like item, Monterey county sheriff's reported.
Upon arriving around 2 p.m., sheriff's personnel discovered a 3-inch piece of PVC pipe wrapped in camouflage duct tape with caps and a thick wire protruding from one end, the Monterey County sheriff's office reported.
The bomb squad deployed its bomb robot "Boomer'' and safely detonated the device, sheriff's office reported.
Upon inspection of the device it was determined the item was in fact a "hidden treasure'' placed by a geocaching club that uses GPS devices to locate such items after being given coordinates and clues regarding the item's location online, the sheriff's office reported.
Geocaching started in 2000 when the Global Positioning System was made available to the public. A geocache is generally a small waterproof container that is hidden and can contain anything that the hider puts in it. The finder generally will take an item from the geocache and replace it with another item and will fill in a log to record their discovery for the next finder, and thus the game can continue for others.
Lists of geocache coordinates and clues can be found on numerous Web sites like geocaching.com and others.
The sheriff's office would like to warn such geocaching clubs to be wary of the manner in which these items are packaged and hidden.
The "hidden treasure'' in this case was not dangerous.
A modern day treasure-hunting fad caused a tense situation for the Monterey County Sheriff's bomb squad who were called to the scene of a possible bomb Monday in Monterey County.
A work crew cleaning the shoulder of Jolon Road in southern Monterey County discovered a suspicious bomb-like item, Monterey county sheriff's reported.
Upon arriving around 2 p.m., sheriff's personnel discovered a 3-inch piece of PVC pipe wrapped in camouflage duct tape with caps and a thick wire protruding from one end, the Monterey County sheriff's office reported.
The bomb squad deployed its bomb robot "Boomer'' and safely detonated the device, sheriff's office reported.
Upon inspection of the device it was determined the item was in fact a "hidden treasure'' placed by a geocaching club that uses GPS devices to locate such items after being given coordinates and clues regarding the item's location online, the sheriff's office reported.
Geocaching started in 2000 when the Global Positioning System was made available to the public. A geocache is generally a small waterproof container that is hidden and can contain anything that the hider puts in it. The finder generally will take an item from the geocache and replace it with another item and will fill in a log to record their discovery for the next finder, and thus the game can continue for others.
Lists of geocache coordinates and clues can be found on numerous Web sites like geocaching.com and others.
The sheriff's office would like to warn such geocaching clubs to be wary of the manner in which these items are packaged and hidden.
The "hidden treasure'' in this case was not dangerous.
posted by gab admin at 8:38 AM 
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