Police urging common sense to avoid alarm of terrorist threat

By MICHAEL GOOT, Portsmouth Bureau Chief

PORTSMOUTH — Police are urging people playing the popular high-tech hide-and-seek game known as "geocaching" not to hide prizes where they can be perceived as a terrorist threat.

On Sunday, Portsmouth police responded to the Shaw's Supermarket on Lafayette Road at about 1 p.m. to investigate a report of a suspicious metallic case fastened to an electrical panel with duct tape.

Police eventually determined the case as non-threatening and part of a new game in which people use global position system (GPS) devices to give coordinates to a prize's location — a cache. Those who locate it must sign a logbook and can leave behind their own prize in the cache.

Items included in a cache are toy trinkets, the logbook and other odds and ends that might meet a particular theme.

Capt. Janet Champlin said people should use common sense when playing these games and realize they should not duct tape a box to an electrical panel located on private property.

"That is going to cause a reasonable person to be alarmed," she said.

Police must react to these boxes similar to an unattended bag in an airport terminal. Champlin said police must follow up on all suspicious activity in a post-9/11 world. "We have to take the steps we would take in any suspicious package case — make sure it's not a bomb or not something else," she said.

As it did for four hours Sunday, Champlin said incidents such as these tie up department resources. "That's time the officers are not devoting to real crimes," she said.

"It may seem like a practical joke to some people but we don't take it as a practical joke," she added.

While it is unrelated, Champlin said an incident in Boston last week, where police investigated Cartoon Network signs placed on highway bridges, is also another good example of tying up police resources.

"It's like someone yelling fire in a movie theater and there's no fire. There are penalties for that and for good reason," she said.

She recommended placing these caches on private property with the permission of the owner.

Police have a lead in the investigation into Sunday's incident but are not commenting at this time. Potential charges in this case are disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.

Sunday's incident is the second in the last four months. On Nov. 11, police responded to the base of the Interstate 95 Piscataqua River Bridge for a report of a suspicious package, which turned out to be another cache.

Geocachers are not allowed to place caches on private property without the owner's permission, according to guidelines on www.geocaching.com. All caches have to be submitted to the website. If a person has permission to place a cache on private property, it should be listed in the notes.

Caches should not be on land maintained by the U.S. National Park Service or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. They should not be buried, deface public or private property, be placed on archaeological or historical sites, hidden near active railroad tracks and near or on military installations. It also said they should not be near or under public structures that might be possible targets for terrorist attacks. These could include highway bridges, dams, government buildings, elementary and secondary schools, and airports, according to the website.

Richard Bailey of Rochester, who has been geocaching for more than two years, said he was the first person to find the cache at Shaw's on Friday and agreed the person who placed it there selected a poor location.

"When I found this, in the log I said it made you feel like a thief being here and I expected it would be moved. It probably would have been moved on its own even if the police weren't involved because the people who were finding it said it shouldn't be there," he said.

He said geocachers self-police and most of the caches are listed on the website and have been through a review process. People are supposed to obtain permission to put the cache on private property.

"Unfortunately, sometimes, a cache might not give the reviewer all the information," he said.

Places like public parks are fair game for caches as long as people are not disturbing the park or putting it in a place that causes damage. Off limits are active bridges, railroads, courthouses and an Air Force base.

Bailey estimated 300,000 people worldwide participate in the high-tech hobby. He speculated it is popular because people just need a GPS and it helps get them outdoors. Some cache variations involve solving some form of puzzle.

There are about 400 caches within 20 miles of Rochester. "Some of these caches take you to interesting places, whether it might be views or some piece of history you might not be familiar with," he said.

Bailey added he believes the person who placed the cache at Shaw's is relatively new at the hobby, but he only knows the person's screen time.

"I don't think it was done intentionally to cause a problem. Maybe a little more thought should have been put into it. It was in a spot that would cause people to suspect that something was going on," he said.

There have been reports of other incidents across the country where caches have been mistaken for a terrorist threat. The Associated Press reported last January on an Idaho man who faced criminal charges for placing a cache on a highway bridge in September 2005. The incident prompted a seven-hour shutdown of the road.

Other incidents occurred in November 2005 outside a police station in Provo, Utah, where a bomb robot destroyed a cache containing a toy gun, holster and a nightstick. In June 2005, a bomb squad was called to investigate an ammunition box found in a park in De Pere, Wis. Also, the FBI questioned a man who was seen prowling along a fence at Los Angeles International Airport in November 2004. He was looking to place a toy snake into a cache.