I think you are right, as were many commenters.

Face the problem. Here’s a hint: It isn’t geocaching.

I know you are right on this.

Face the problem. Here’s a hint: It isn’t geocaching.

Not “dumbass” gamers.

Geocaching has been around for a long, long time. Lots of people store lots of things in surplus ammo cans. Why would a terrorist use an ammo can when a run of the mill cardboard box is a) cheaper and b) more readily available.

And if you feel like infringing on this sport (Geocaching), just imagine what will be next (hint, it rhymes with “shooting”).

SB

I mean, jeez, you’re a bomb squad member, and you see something that might turn you into a long red stain, with a phone number on it. You call and :

a) Joe Blow tells you it’s a geocache, or his homework, or a dropped box, and he’ll be there in thirty minutes to pick it up. Comes by, carefully pops it open, and somehow magically manages to avoid being arrested when the police realize they’ve spent an hour staring at a box worth of a man’s spare socks.

b) Terrorist Schmoe tells you it’s a geocache, or his homework, or a dropped box, and he’ll be there in thirty minutes to pick it up. Comes by, carefully detonates six carefully planted car bombs at the typical circumference for a police cordon, turning said bomb squad into a long red stain.

Note that the only difference comes after the explosion.

But I also believe that if the police come across a cache I have set (and we haven’t geocached in 2 or 3 years), they need to call me before calling the bomb squad. And that’s why my phone number is clearly marketed on the outside of the container.

OK, then.

We’ll just make a law that every container larger than, say, a can of beans be either transparent or have a contact phone number printed on it. That way, the entire world economy can be brought to a screeching halt as everyone is employed either calling those numbers or answering the calls and verifying that every single non-transparent object over the size of a can of beans really is safe….

Or, no, I have it, we’ll just put an RFID tag on every object everywhere, and require the owners of objects to maintain a publicly accessible registry of every object they own with an identifying photo, intended location, and an affidavit that the object is harmless….

No. Sorry, but no. From gun registration and control to object registration and control.

NO.

Dittos to what he said.

That was my first thought also.

Dittos to what he said.

Same-same.

There is absolutely no way to predict what pants-pissing, GFWs will decide is a threat. Law-abiding citizens should get to go about their law-abiding business. Period.

All the above ideas about appropriate markings for GPS caches? Useless, because a bomber will adopt them as camouflage.

And again, a serious bomber will disguise his bomb as a car, a trash bin, a briefcase, a shopping bag, a mailbox, himself….

It’s like guns, people. You cannot go around fearing inanimate objects. The fix is stamp out the bombers, not try to outlaw the infinite and unlimited ways to disguise bombs.

Geocaching is a great game. Sorry guys, just because you haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exists. There are caches EVERYWHERE.

A better question than – where is an appropriate place to stick one would be where do they grown nanny staters who think everything not instantly identifiable is a “suspecious package” or bomb.

Other items used to cache with are pvc pipes, tupperware, etc. Depending on the location, I like the pvc pipes best cause you can easily hide them in hard to find places.

Geocaching.com is a great place to start.

Its a fun activity – we’ve found a lot and planted one ourselves – hidden in a tree trunk in woodlands. Many smaller ones are found in urban settings – one here in Michigan is even attached to the 9-11 memorial.

http://www.geocaching.com

If it’s publicly accessible, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a law against leaving a toy there. It probably won’t be there when you get back, particularly if you don’t ask permission first, of course.

If you have permission from the property owner, I can’t see it being wrong at all, as long as they understand the thing. That’s the requirement Geocache.com places, and often checks out.

It also sounds like this is much more popular than most people know. I had not heard of it before today.

The site this was found on was a Church. I can see how parks might be okay but how do you decide when it is appropriate to place the geocache on private property? Is it ever?

I agree it is likely this was placed before the attempts in Britain. That had not occurred to me. With Wednesday being the Fourth of July, I may have the radar turned up too much. Situation awareness is hard to turn off.

It wouldn’t actually do anything as to the ability to hide an explosive device in plain sight (clear plastic, thin layer of crappy toys, thermite), but it might scare the nervous nancies less.

From what I can tell, it looks like the geocache may have been there for up to three months, or was positioned very close to an existing geocache or two that had been there for three months.

I’m surprised that the ammo can lasted that long. Although they are only a few bucks around here ($4 for a .30 cal to $9 for a 20mm can), that wouldn’t be something I’d just leave in the woods. Most caches are in Tupperware, with a few 5 gallon buckets thrown in for good measure

I like finding the cache, but the trinket swapping thingy is for the kids. GeoCaching gets me outside and it gets me more exercise than surfing pr0n.

Oh, and you don’t leave your GPS anywhere, you use it to find a box of dollar store trinkets. Google a similar game called “letterboxing”

And I agree with Doug that an ammo can is far from the best choice of containers in an urban/pedestrian setting.

In Dallas, I was able to introduce some natives to parks they never realized were near their house.

In the 37919 area code there are over 1500 caches. Geocachers help clean up the environment. Geocaching introduces people to modern navigation and sometimes leads people to learn more about orienteering. Geocaching is fun and also educational.

All that said, ammo cans typically make great caches for woodsy areas. Putting an ammo can in a pedestrian area is dumb. When we set caches with ammo cans we always painted “Geocaching Game” and our phone number on the side of the can. But in more trafficed areas, a clear container should be used.

I’ve wondered when paranoia or someone actually placing a bomb would end the game. I hope neither the bomb nor the end of the game comes anytime soon.

You also usually don’t leave a “GPS sender” in a geocache, whatever a ‘gps sender’ is (I assume you’re not referring to the sats). Typically you leave little trinkets in a waterproof, sealed, weatherproof container, along with a logbook.

I don’t quite see how the ammo case should be particularly suspicious, here, given that it’s not a classical way to leave a bomb in public — one might in fact say the opposite — while other geocache materials (such as a 5 gallon bucket, a hiker’s backpack, or anything else) could be just as problematic.

It should have been labeled as a geocache, but I don’t think we want police to stop searching a suspicious box because someone tagged it.