Spotted this article on CNN today: Geocaching puts authorities on edge. It’s about what happens when police find geocaches and think they might be bombs and such.
Rounding a corner on his motorcycle to finish rigging his cache, he was greeted by a barricade of police cars and a bomb squad. He struggled to explain the misunderstanding.
“I got off my bike and three officers approached me very cautiously, hands on their holsters,” he said. “I was trying to turn off my MP3 player and I think they were worried I was going for a detonator.”
(Find out more about geocaching at the official site.)
I’ve got a GPS, but haven’t actually gotten around to trying geocaching, even though I want to. Maybe this year. But the article also makes me think of what a friend asked me, once: What if someone actually does put a bomb or something in a geocache? And ruins it for everybody?
Something I don’t really have an answer to; I’m not that cynical, I suppose. The good thing is, it hasn’t happened yet that I know of, and hopefully it won’t ever happen.