N Fon Du Lac Yellowstone Trail cache suspected as bomb

[zuma]

I have just received word that a diligent citizen felt that an orange matchstick container hidden in the North Fon Du Lac Yellowstone Park might be a bomb. It has been removed by law enforcement. I have a call placed to the local police, but as of yet have not spoken to the right officer. Will let ya know what I find out, but here is the news bulletin on it:

News Story Link

(We live in a crazy world.)

zuma

[Grandma & Grandpa]

We just saw this report on the Green Bay news a little while ago. The clip they aired showed an ammo box being opened up with no geocaching markings, but with log book and trinkets. Apparently they must have had some footage archived which they pulled out, rather than go down to FdL and show the real thing… And of course, they had to talk about the cache the Green Bay bomb squad blew up in De Pere a couple of years ago, too.

I’m glad somebody figured out what this one was before they wasted a lot of time and manpower, and blew up another good Yellowston cache!

cYa, Grandma & Grandpa

[zuma]

Just an update….I did get through to the investigating officer. Sounds like they made a really big deal out of nothing. I did not get the whole story, because the officer got called away during our conversation, but what I got is that a gentleman saw a geocacher there at 7am this morning, went out and kicked over the fake plastic plumbing cover I had there (a 4″ round sewer lid) and saw the bright orange matchstick container. He felt it was a bomb. The Fon Du Lac cops didnt think it was, but wasnt sure, so being on the safe side, they called the Green Bay Bomb Squad. The local cops were in the process of telling people in the neighborhood that there may be a bomb in the park, and one of the neighbors apparently knew of the cache, and told them it was just a geocache. The local cops, opened it up, found it was not a bomb, and called off the bomb squad, who were still en route. The cache has been removed by police, and they are planning on giving it back to me.

Anyway, that is the story I got. If anyone has more or better info, I would be interested in hearing it. Thanks.

zuma

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

Well at least now the next geo-bomb they find, they’ll know what it is. It seems most of the police in our area have the geocaching thing figured out.

My Brother-in-law who is a Kenosha Police Officer says that the department had been notified by the FBI about geocaching and what to look out for.

Maybe the FBI should send that same memo out to the rest of the nations smaller communities? And, maybe we all should take some responsibility here and conatact our own comunity police and fire and let them know a little bit more about our fine sport.

[Ms. WISearcher]

The NFDL Police Cheif just contacted me. It seems that after investigating they found out that I was the City of Madison liaison. He had some questions regarding the policy…I smell a geocaching policy in the area in the near future due to this…just a heads up.
Ms. WISearcher

[Team Bear Bear]

Should Geocachers as a whole, carry a “sharpie” along with them, and as we find caches that are not labeled simply write “Geocache” on them? It would seem that something as simple as this might have prevented the NFDL incident.

Obviously some common sense will be required but many of the caches out there could be quickly and easily labeled and therefore more readily identified.

Team Bear Bear (Chris)

[knoozer]

Zuma,
Now that Homeland Security has you figured out (that you are out to destroy the US, one park or old schoolhouse at a time, starting with the Old Yellowstone Trail) I suppose we can thank you for all the huge tax increases we will all have to pay in order to keep us safe. I love hunting down your caches. The stories behind them are equally as interesting as the find itself. I’ll just have to make sure I stay one step ahead of the long arm of the law. Keep on hiding. 8)

[Team Deejay]

and in case you weren’t ALREADY scared enough, here a recent log from a cache just south of the Illinois border…LINK

[zuma]

Hi Team DeeJay,

thanks for posting that very scary link. Wow. It is really sad that we live in a world with so much fear.

zuma

[CinemaBoxers]

Yeah… We archived it immediately.

Sadly this cache was clearly on Forest Preserve TRAILS and property. Its not one that anyone spends hours finding, its basically walk up, identify it, and leave.

Its a shame that the adjacent property owner had his panties in a bunch – I certainly will be telling people my opinion of the new owners. (It was only recently purchased by a new owner – an oversensitive one apparently)

But, what a shame to jump to conclusions. Didnt they assume that IF these two men were stealing, they would have, um.. run off if they heard the management yell ‘Call 911’????? Naw! We all know criminals keep on going when they have been detected, and they stroll at a leisurely pace up marked trails when done committing crimes, right?

IMO the owner, and the police handled this STUPIDLY.

Its a shame, but not worth keeping the cache active. I dont want anyone else to encounter such crappy neighbors.

[zuma]

Hi CB,

I agree that the cops handled it stupidly. Too bad ya had to archive it, simpy cuz people are way too suspicious, and cops over reacted.

I havent decided yet on archiving the YST cache in Fon Du Lac park, but may. On the down side, the park is tiny and out in the open, so no matter where it would be hidden, finders would be exposed to being seen and looking a little weird. On the up side, I guess they already know there aint no bomb there. I liked the location, simply for the big wooden YST sign there showing the route of the YST in Wisconsin. Plus, it is the only park along the YST in Wisconisin named for the old trail.

zuma

[Toecutter]

Well, I’ve decided to inform the police in the areas where I have geocache containers placed where they are located. I’m hoping this will keep from having the bomb squad called in from Green Bay or Milwaukee if one of my containers is found by a concerned muggle….being a firefighter, I’d hate to be paged out for a bomb scare to find out it was one of my geocaches that had been discovered….that’d be a bit embarassing…the police in both areas that I contacted said that it was fine, and to let them know if I set any more out and what the locations were….

Later
Phil

[cacheseekers]

@Toecutter wrote:

Well, I’ve decided to inform the police in the areas where I have geocache containers placed where they are located. I’m hoping this will keep from having the bomb squad called in from Green Bay or Milwaukee if one of my containers is found by a concerned muggle….being a firefighter, I’d hate to be paged out for a bomb scare to find out it was one of my geocaches that had been discovered….that’d be a bit embarassing…the police in both areas that I contacted said that it was fine, and to let them know if I set any more out and what the locations were….

Later
Phil

“They’re all listed here at http://www.geocaching.com, easily searchable!”

Wish it were only that easy.

[Toecutter]

Would you want our local law officials sitting behind a computer looking up where our caches are when they could be sitting at a Dunkin’ Donuts???? 😀

I’d never hear the end of it if one of my caches were to be called in…. 😯 😀

I guess I’d make it on the news though!!! I guess what really needs to be done is more exposure to geocaching…that’d be one way to make the muggles aware that not everything is a bomb…

Later
Phil

[Thraxman]

@Team Bear Bear wrote:

Should Geocachers as a whole, carry a “sharpie” along with them, and as we find caches that are not labeled simply write “Geocache” on them? It would seem that something as simple as this might have prevented the NFDL incident.

Obviously some common sense will be required but many of the caches out there could be quickly and easily labeled and therefore more readily identified.

So, what happens when the guys planting actual pipe bombs start labeling them with the words “Official Geocache”?

-Thrax

[Author]

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