Geocaching Shuts Down British Town 282
DaveAtWorkAnnoyingly writes "Many geocachers will be thinking twice when planting their treasure in an urban space as one geocacher found out in England after the police cordoned off the center of a small West Yorkshire town and the Bomb Squad was called in. From the article: 'It was a normal busy Friday morning in the small West Yorkshire market town of Wetherby when someone working in a café spotted a man acting a bit suspiciously on the street. He appeared to have a small plastic box in his hand and after fiddling with the container he bent down and hid it under a flower box standing on the pavement. He then walked off, talking to somebody on his phone.'"
Not the first time (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure there are dozens of other instances of this happening around the world since the whole geocaching thing started.
Re:Stupidity = Enemy of the state. (Score:3, Informative)
Remember Warrington (Score:5, Informative)
This is not an over-reaction. Here in the UK, terrorism on such a scale used to happen pretty regularly- for example, see the children killed in the second attack here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_bomb_attacks [wikipedia.org]. Political agreement in Northern Ireland mostly halted the war, but one positive thing that came out of September 11th was the extinguishing of monies and good-will from the US for any sort of terrorism.
Re:German police quite relaxed - a true story (Score:5, Informative)
Why would you think that a small box you find is a bomb? No, seriously - why the fuck would you think that?
UK People of a certain age look upon any strange object as a possible threat because of years and years of the IRA (and more latterly the RIRA) leaving bombs in rubbish bins (AKA "trash cans) and the like. Hell, they even left pipe bombs near schools [guardian.co.uk] and a pipe bomb could easily be a geocache!! Let's not forget that the US, through NORAID [wikipedia.org], funded these people too. War On Terror ... yer, now people are blowing the US up!
It's been a while in mainland Britain, but the memories of pubs being blown up in London, shopping centres around the country ... any soft target where people would otherwise just be going about their daily lives, well, it leaves an indelible mark. Maybe the kids can grow up differently now as the current crop of terrorists seem only keen on the big grandstanding attacks, and of course the IRA (& RIRA) never had anyone even nearly stupid enough to consider being a suicide bomber, though many blew themselves up by mistake.
Anyway, just don't leave any unattended bags or stuff when travelling around the UK ... and now you know why!
Re:Muggles (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Stupidity = Enemy of the state. (Score:5, Informative)
Very recent domestic terrorists in the UK have performed this exact same activity to achieve disastrous results. It's not like the states where some assholes flew a plane into a building 10 years ago, innocent-looking packages are still a real and justified concern.
As the performing parties, it's geocachers who need to be aware of this fact, and take caution to avoid unnecessary suspicion of their activities.