Another bomb scare in WI

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glorkar
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Another bomb scare in WI

Post by glorkar » Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:39 am

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=13431976
Found that on my local forum. Thread can be found here:
http://www.wi-geocaching.com/modules.ph ... ic&t=11935

It's amazing that there can be such a drastic result from a little misunderstanding.
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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by RVRoadTrip » Wed Nov 03, 2010 2:08 pm

Yep, really dumb hide. And people who find it and don't report it are just as guilty.

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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by Shilo » Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:05 am

Looking at the cache page, this cache is in a park and not on school property. Looks like the government gang over reacted to me.

Maybe education to the various departments would help but I doubt it as these people thrive on the adrenaline 'high' of blowing crap up and using their toys.

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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by RVRoadTrip » Sat Nov 06, 2010 10:43 am

Well, once you are trained to blow stuff up, you seldom resist the opportunity to utilize that training. :)

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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by Mr.Yuck » Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:15 pm

Shilo wrote:Looking at the cache page, this cache is in a park and not on school property. Looks like the government gang over reacted to me.

Maybe education to the various departments would help but I doubt it as these people thrive on the adrenaline 'high' of blowing crap up and using their toys.
This is apparently the mainstream Geocacher's viewpoint. Well, not me, I'm an old-school Geocacher. I am not however, a clueless old-school Geocacher, and I know many of my views not only don't conform to the mainstream point of view, but these views are also in the distinct minority. This would be a perfect example. :o

Glorkar, I find a few of the posts at the WGA forum absolutely disgusting, including the ones calling law enforcement "fools in blue", Barney Fife's, etc.... (None of your posts, of course :mrgreen:) I also find the "forum" on the archived cache page disturbing. At least there were two people (livestrong and Vegas King or something like that) expressing similar opinions in the WGA forum.

Absolutely horrible cache plascement that "deserved" to be blown up, in my opinion. Very close to the school (which I guess is a Pre-K school with a little research). And the cache site is in full view of several houses in a quiet residential neighborhood. (I google street-viewed it) Just imagine you never heard of Geocaching, and you've been living in one of those nice houses across the street from the baseball field for 25 years. All of a sudden, one day, out of nowhere, an endless parade of weirdos start parking in front of your house, and go over and fondle the fence post.

There's a bookmark list on the archived cache page of dozens (maybe even hundreds) of caches that have been blown up by bomb squads. Many of these "made the news" in the Groundspeak forums, and I've yet to see a story of a blown up cache where I didn't side with the bomb squad. If this puts me outside the mainstream, I'm more than happy to be here on the outside looking in. :)
Last edited by Mr.Yuck on Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by glorkar » Mon Nov 08, 2010 3:00 pm

I guess my only "thing" with this particular cache is that it had been in place for over a year with over 90 finds. Why now? What changed? Was the local that reported it new to the area?

I suppose the smart thing to do in this circumstance where the placement may not be at a school, but close enough, I would inform the school. It always boils down to a lack of communication. Yes, this is supposed to be a "covert" game, but not to the point of suspicion. The main reason to be sneaky when hunting a cache is so that it doesn't get taken or destroyed by the ill informed. But in this particular circumstance, I would think that the more people that know about it, the better. The police acted exactly how they should have with the information they had. Perhaps it wouldn't have been as dramatic if it was common knowledge that there was a cache hidden there. Who knows. I can say that at least it has spurred work on our local forum to create and distribute information on geocaching to local police departments.
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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by Sabrefan7 » Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:55 pm

Mr.Yuck wrote: This is apparently the mainstream Geocacher's viewpoint. Well, not me, I'm an old-school Geocacher. I am not however, a clueless old-school Geocacher, and I know many of my views not only don't conform to the mainstream point of view, but these views are also in the distinct minority. This would be a perfect example. :o

Glorkar, I find most of the posts at the WGA forum absolutely disgusting, including the ones calling law enforcement "fools in blue", Barney Fife's, etc.... (None of your posts, of course :mrgreen:) I also find the "forum" on the archived cache page disturbing. At least there were two people (livestrong and Vegas King or something like that) expressing similar opinions in the WGA forum.


There's a bookmark list on the archived cache page of dozens (maybe even hundreds) of caches that have been blown up by bomb squads. Many of these "made the news" in the Groundspeak forums, and I've yet to see a story of a blown up cache where I didn't side with the bomb squad. If this puts me outside the mainstream, I'm more than happy to be here on the outside looking in. :)
I was surprised at some of the responses in the Wisconsin Forum my self. Thats a very interesting bookmark list.(found it after a quick google) There is currently 120 caches in it.87 in another I wonder how complete they are.
It should be required reading.
http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/vie ... bee15d1583

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Re: Another bomb scare in WI

Post by Mr.Yuck » Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:00 am

glorkar wrote:I guess my only "thing" with this particular cache is that it had been in place for over a year with over 90 finds. Why now? What changed? Was the local that reported it new to the area?

I suppose the smart thing to do in this circumstance where the placement may not be at a school, but close enough, I would inform the school. It always boils down to a lack of communication. Yes, this is supposed to be a "covert" game, but not to the point of suspicion. The main reason to be sneaky when hunting a cache is so that it doesn't get taken or destroyed by the ill informed. But in this particular circumstance, I would think that the more people that know about it, the better. The police acted exactly how they should have with the information they had. Perhaps it wouldn't have been as dramatic if it was common knowledge that there was a cache hidden there. Who knows. I can say that at least it has spurred work on our local forum to create and distribute information on geocaching to local police departments.
Thanks for the response! First of all, I was re-reading my post, and I said "most" of the posts at the WGA forum were disgusting. Oops, did I say that? Really only 4 or 5 of them were, and I edited that.

Well, if it got the ball rolling on the WGA "educating" the police on Geocaching, I'd never say that's a bad thing. I really don't think it will be as effective as you would think on the surface though, and they're still going to blow up first, and ask questions later. :roll:

If you can believe the news article, it sounds like a teacher at the school reported the suspicious finder. Maybe she just never noticed anyone going after the cache before. Almost all my caches have been "in the woods", but I did once knock on the door of a homeowner who could see a cache site, and tell him about the cache as soon as I placed it. I doubt this has happened very often anywhere though.

Oh, Sabrefan7, every time a cache gets blown up anywhere, the cache page turns into a forum, and it's almost always locals 100% in agreement that the authorities over-reacted. Which is why I assume I'm not in the mainstream. :mrgreen:
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