Evil Hobbies and Jumpy People Don’t Mix
I’m getting the feeling that geocaching is the new D&D. Perhaps geocachers are on the cusp of being called a terrorist organization and plopped right smack-dab into the axis of evil.
Bomb scare turns out to be part of Internet game
This is a story about how a guy in Indiana was retrieving a geocache, someone saw him replace it, and the police were called because, naturally when you see someone place a container somewhere in Indiana, you assume it is a bomb.
We’ve been told over and over again to “report any suspicious behavior” and I think it is making people a little paranoid. To be fair toward law enforcement, they were doing their job. Once they’re called into this situation, they don’t know what’s going on. If they’re not familiar with the sport, all they know they’re dealing with is some odd behavior.
Legal, Harmless, Misunderstood
According to discussions I’ve read on geocacher forums, the guy who retrieved the cache returned to the scene (that’s how they caught him) and when he didn’t approach any closer to the gathering crowd and law enforcement, somehow they took this as a sign he was nefarious.
The guy had 4 kids under 9 years old in his car and after talking to police he offered to retrieve the cache and show them it was harmless. After talking to him they decided, instead to shoot the container to see if it would blow up.
The fellow who hid the cache had gotten permission from the land owner, but apparently the owner was not available at the time the “suspicious container” was reported. In many ways, this is just a case of people overreacting, and perhaps says something about choosing a location for a cache. There are lessons to be learned about busy areas, urban areas, informing local law enforcement about your hobby, and paranoia.
Sensational
But there is another aspect of this story that bugs me at the moment. It’s the aspect where I have a hobby that is completely harmless, is in fact beneficial in a number of ways (CITOing, exercise, using and therefore valuing our natural resources, teaching about the outdoors, navigation and such). Regardless of the innocence and benefit of the activity, ignorant folks are suddenly fearful of it. And the press, eager for a sensational story, pounce.
Check out that Star Press article. I’ll highlight some quotes and give my responses.
A call came in at 2:12 p.m. saying that someone had seen an unknown person place a suspicious box
The only thing “suspicious box” serves to do is make the situation seem less silly. The box itself is not suspicious, and if it were then a description of the box would be in order. What, exactly, does a suspicious box look like? We should know so we can look out for them. No, the box wasn’t really suspicious. It was a box in an unexpected location. There is a difference.
After three nervous hours, and after a bomb squad member fired a .50-caliber round into the suspicious black box, police declared the area to be safe again.
Actually, they fired a special bomb-disrupting round designed to knock the sense out of the thing. The intent is to knock wires loose, if there are wires. And, I believe, the round also floods the thing with water.
Players can then log on, find the coordinates and go looking for the black box.
What the heck is a “black box?” Sounds more mysterious than the truth. I guess it would have made the incident sound even more silly if the game had been described thusly: _”Players can then log on, find the coordinates and go looking for the tupperware container, old plastic pickle jug or small Igloo cooler.”_ Ooo! Creepy!
He also said players never know the real names of people stashing the boxes or even who else is playing.
I know several players who were already friends of mine, and since starting geocaching I’ve met *new* folks, and I know their names. I know people who use their real name as their geocaching.com handle. We _never_ know the names? We _never_ know who is playing? Sensationalism.
The description of Cook (the geocacher) comes off as very favorable. But at this point in the piece they seem to be going for “poor, misguided guy caught up in a bad activity.”
The piece ends with a great quote:
“People have to understand that I’ve been to three FBI and CIA briefings in the last two weeks, getting briefed on terrorists and terrorism,” Mahan said. “They need to find another game.”
We have to understand that, why? So we can understand the overreaction? And the final suggestion floored me. Because of unfounded paranoia and ignorance, geocachers need to find another game.
I guess we’re lucky the guy hadn’t been to two weeks of gang violence briefings. Then he would be chasing down wandering groups of suspicious-looking youths with round, high-pressure inflated projectiles.
The truth is, any activity can be subverted by terrorism. A terrorist could suicide-bomb and sporting event where people congregate in numbers. Someone could case a neighborhood by pretending to be a runner or cyclist. Heck, a guy could get dressed up in a uniform and walk right up to your house and leave a dangerous package there. Does that mean we need to get rid of the US Postal Service, UPS and FedEx?
I’ll be chalk the sheriff’s comment to having had a bad day and made to look silly, but it is unfortunate it made it into print.
Inaccurate Perception
So, the next year will probably give us an indication of whether geocachers are thought of as a shadowy group of individuals or people who like to enjoy the outdoors and solve puzzles.
D&D got a bad name that remains in the minds of some unimaginative people to this day. Or, perhaps they were overly-imaginative.
In any case, it’s clear that a combination of education about geocaching and a little less paranoia on everyone’s part is called for.
Additional Links:
- GCJZD7 “The Tin Lizzy” The cache in question. (oops - now removed from the website)
- Discussion at the Groundspeak Forums on this incident
- Chronicle-Tribune article (wait… now it’s a “suspicious bag?” - includes a picture of the cache.
- “Intro to Geocaching” Flash Presentation - For educating folks.
- Printable Brochure for explaining Geocaching
- Newslink Indiana - Story on the incident and geocaching in general, giving folks a chancew to shake their heads and say “tsk, tsk!” Check out the discouraging video of the reporter stealing geocaches to show law enforcement.
(This article which was previously published on Aces Full of Links, appears here with permission)