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Police: Geocaching Device Causes Bomb Scare In Cannon Falls

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(credit: CBS)

(credit: CBS)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A three-block section of a bike trail was closed Monday morning in Cannon Falls, Minn., after a geocaching object found near the trail was thought to be a pipe bomb, police said.

Police responded to the scene after receiving a call about a suspicious object. Police said the object was wrapped in duct tape and that a “wire or fuse” was sticking out of it. When the Bloomington Police Bomb Squad inspected the object, however, they found it was not a bomb but a geocaching device.

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure-hunting game played by people with GPS devices throughout the world, according to geocaching.com. The object of the game is to find the cache and then sign the logbook to show other geocachers that one has found the location. Some geocachers leave items near the cache for others to have. Police said an overturned bowl was found by the cache, but it is not known if it had anything to do with geocacher generosity.

Police said no criminal intent was apparent in the object, for all that was found inside was a log of people who had visited.

While geocaching may be a harmless activity, police said problems arise when others aren’t aware of what the devices are or what the activity is. Other law enforcement agencies throughout the country have responded to suspicious objects reports and found them to be connected with geocaching, police said.

The bike trail was closed for an hour and 45 minutes.

View Comments
  • pat

    Terrorism has created a whoe new world for us.

  • Sarah in Outstate MN

    My family and I geocache. It’s fun. It promotes teamwork and we get fresh air, exercise and family time together.

    Often times, the person who created the cache wraps the container in duct tape (like this one in Cannon Falls) or electrical tape for two reasons: 1. to help make it more water and weatherproof and 2. to help camouflage the container so it’s not easy to find. Geocaches must be placed on public land and not private land since we’d be tresspassing if we went on private land so you’ll find caches in parks, trails, state, county and city parks and county forest land.

  • Muggle

    I have been all over the United States Geo-caching! I LOVE IT!!!!

  • bob

    so are the metal detector guys bad now too? this is a sad article

  • Mark

    It has been a while since we’ve seen a story about a geocache being mistaken for some sort of bomb.

    I have camouflage i have used to wrap a couple of containers to really try to make it hard to spot from a distance.

  • mark

    that’s camo tape I have… I hate when I don’t proofread my comments.

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    [...] Police: Geocaching Device Causes Bomb Scare In Cannon Falls Posted at April 26, 2011 Police: Geocaching Device Causes Bomb Scare In Cannon Falls A three-block section of a bike trail was closed Monday morning in Canon Falls, Minn., after a geocaching object found near the trail was thought to be a pipe bomb, police said. Read more on CBS Minnesota [...]

  • KB

    Bart?

  • http://chicagogeocacher.com/?p=542 Chicago Geocacher » Episode 33: ILReviewer Shout-Outs

    [...] NEW: Police find suspicious packages to be geocaching prize Police: Geocaching Device Causes Bomb Scare In Cannon Falls [...]

  • http:///user/view/947722 Conrad

    Wow, that’s what I was searching for, what a data! existing here at this blog, thanks admin of this site.

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