Geocaching muggles - ugh

My friend Jenn emailed me a story from her neck of the woods about a geocaching incident. Apparently someone (a "muggle" not familiar with the game) found a geocache under a tree in a park in Bethlehem, PA, and thought it was a bomb.

He told police he ''got away as fast as possible'' because he thought it could be a bomb. Firefighters, police officers and bomb squad technicians secured the area while investigating the mysterious box with ''This is a game'' written on the front. They eventually determined that the box was part of a treasure hunt in which players use coordinates and a Global Positioning System receiver, or GPS unit, to determine where hidden objects are.

I understand the concern about terrorists and crazy people but geeze. The box was marked with the geocaching.com website on it and although the story didn't say this - clearly written by someone who was unfamiliar with the game - all geocaches are logged onto geocaching.com. Apparently the bomb squad did end up checking out the website before finally opening the box.

Two technicians from the Bethlehem Fire Department's bomb squad were called to investigate the box Tuesday, said Lt. Joe Chernaskey. As they inspected the box and tried to determine what was inside, a fire official went to the Web site listed on the box: geocaching.com. The lock was broken and inside were stuffed animals, toys, notebooks and maps, according to police.

As for the hoopla about the old ammo boxes, they make great caches. The goodies don't get wet and hold up well in all kinds of weather. We've certainly found our share of recycled ammo boxes and they were well-marked as the geocaching website suggests. It was also clear that the guy who hid the cache in PA, had received the proper permission to hide it from the Parks and Recreation department who manages the park where the cache was found.

Some of the old ammo box geocaches we have found were well-marked.

What is really sad, even though the geocache box was clearly marked that it was a game, is that police are being coy with the guy who hid it.

Police wouldn't say whether Guth might be charged or with what crime. But they and fire officials fear it could cost thousands of dollars for bomb squad technicians to examine mysterious packages hidden in the city.

I think the more hoopla they make about the cache and the game, the more likely someone WILL actually try to disguise their bomb as a cache. Nothing like the police to give a crazy person a new idea.

And I'm disappointed that some random, alarmist pedestrian could put such a damper on a great game by calling police with the fear of a bomb. This game has been around for nearly 6 years when the GPS signal degradation was removed by the Clinton Administration. That policy allowed GPS users the ability to "pinpoint locations up to ten times more accurately" by making more satellites available to the general public. This policy change allowed the possibility to play games like geocaching.

So geocachers out there beware of Muggles spotting you uncovering a cache. My family wants to keep playing the game...