The Bomb Squad and Geocaching???

Today (12/23/08) in Waynesboro, PA another geocache was interpreted by the local authorities to be a device of unknown origin and potentially dangerous.  You can read the article here… They ultimately ended up blowing it up and are now searching for the person that placed it.

In this day and age where you just can’t be too careful I can fully understand individuals (ie. muggles) being overly cautious when they see a stranger hide something or retrieve something from a hidden location.  Who knows it could be a terrorist working on some elaborate scheme.  It makes it even worse when the authorities arrive and the device gets categorized as “suspicious”.

The question I have for caching community is how to solve this problem?  I’ve thought about this a little bit…and I believe particularly in urban areas something should be done, I’m just not sure what…

Here are some of my thoughts on the topic… what about you?

1. Geocachers should make local authorities aware of geocaching and how they can determine where geocaches are located within their jurisdictions. (ie. geocaching.com)
2. Geocache containers should be clearly labeled on the exterior with a geocache ID so that the authorities can see it, and can look it up and perhaps even validate that the coordinates are close to accurate and who the owner is.
3. A method for government agencies to contact the owners of caches. (Access to information on geocaching.com?)
4. Cache containers should be transparent so that authorities can see what is inside them so they don’t have to blow them up.
5. Perhaps more stringent guidelines on placement in urban locations.

It is an absolute shame that this type of thing occurs because ultimately it hurts the game.   It is also a shame that we have to be “stealthy” because muggles destroy caches just for the “fun” of it.  People acting “stealthy” always draw suspicion.

I don’t know of any perfect solutions but with these types of occurrences becoming much more frequent you can bet the authorities are going to start clamping down on hiders and seekers.

What are your thoughts?