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Suspicious canister turned out to be part of a game
A robot retrieved the canister. (Voice)
A man hiding a canister that looked like a pipe bomb prompted a phone call to police Wednesday and some tense moments as Marine explosives experts carefully removed it from outside a Kill Devil Hills ice cream shop.
After the Marine Corps bomb disposal unit used a small charge to blow up the canister in a nearby vacant lot, it was found to be a container with papers for a treasure hunting game called letterboxing.
Police initially thought that the canister was a geocache, a kind of container used in a high tech scavenger hunt with the Global Positioning System.
With awareness high after Sunday’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the owner of Kill Devil’s Frozen Custard and Beach Fries called authorities when she saw someone hide the canister at the bottom of a light pole in the parking lot.
When Kill Devil Hills police and fire officials were unable to identify what the canister was, they consulted with Marine Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) and a team was sent from Cherry Point.
Police and Marines coordinated from a trailer two blocks away. (Voice)
A Marine in heavy protective gear worked mostly out of sight as police cordoned off the area several blocks from all sides. Nearby homes and businesses were evacuated. Traffic was diverted from both directions on U.S. 158.
From a distance, a bomb disposal robot could be seen in the parking lot, shielded by a Kill Devil Hills Emergency Response vehicle.
Two blocks down Clark Street, Marines and Kill Devil Hills police coordinated the disposal from a fully equipped trailer.
The canister turned out to be part of a geocaching hunt. (USMC Bomb Disposal Unit)
At about 4:25 p.m., a 30-second warning was given, followed by a dull thud in the distance. Police and Marines went into the vacant lot to look for pieces of the canister.
U.S. 158 was re-opened a short time later.
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Richard Marlin says:
Can we total up the cost of Law enforcement, fire, rescue, marine bomb squad and losses to the local businesses because someone hid a geo-cache and everyone else went crazy over it….. PLEEEEZE can we all go back to having normal lives !
Alice Ann Hengesbach says:
Thank you to the Marines’ KDH police and Kill Devil’s ownership for taking great care of us. Your efforts on our behalf are not taken lightly. Semper Fi!
Outer Banker says:
Better safe than sorry. I’m a geocacher and have seen several caches like this – ammo cans are also popular. This story will teach other geocachers to choose their containers better.
I’d much rather have our military concentrating on real terrorism than having to waste time chasing false objects.
Thanks to those in authority for making certain we’re safe.
Mike says:
“Britt said in a statement. “I hope anybody playing this game will use appropriate containers which are clearly marked as ‘geocache’ on the outside.”
Great idea, really? Next time I want to plant a pipe bomb, I will just write geocache on the outside and no one will bother to report it.
Thank you to our Marines who were equipped to handle this type of situation.
Patti Duckett says:
I believe that the rules to geo-caching is that you are to get permission from landowners when you hide a cache. If this was ‘public land’ the guy should have at least given the business owners nearby a heads-up…
Donny Ball says:
A suspicious package with a device that could be explosive, even labeled geocache, should still be treated with an abundance of caution. Suppose it’s a clever terrorist?
mrgoblin says:
Or maybe it will teach terrorists to “Clearly mark their bombs with ‘geocache’ on the outside.”
David Davidson says:
omg!!!!!!!!!!! turrerist! turresrist! this is why obama gotta bomb them turrerist!they taking our jobs away!!!!!!
ConcernedOBXLocal says:
I guess I was too busy still cleaning up my non-televised Irene yard destruction with FEMA today to not care AT ALL ABOUT GEO-CACHING… Not only was traffic stopped for hours, mail was undeliverable (confirmed) and incredible amounts of law enforcement involved… Geo-cacher— where can we send the bill? I’m sure there were several mosquitoes upset by the entire incident as well… I guess we’ll twitter your facebook and make sure everythings cool on your myspace before we upload your youtube video of NOT CARING ABOUT LOCAL ISSUES!!!
Donna says:
How about the cost to Kill Devil’s and the county and town? The very bright man should have to PAY FOR IT!
Donna says:
Store owners and homeowners on the Outer Banks should be allowed to us PAINTBALL guns to IDENTIFY those people (i.e. Mr. Geocacher and Mr. Meal Stealer from the Red Cross on Vacation) for the Marines.
Donna says:
To arrest them, of course, no real violence intend, just tagging!
charlie says:
Way to go Concerned OBX local….I bet the flaming idiot is already gloating over the “cool” move they did. A part of everyone’s anatomy is the proper description of this clown.
LLLL says:
Geo-casher Einstein, way to go in the history books! Three days after one of the worst days in American History and three weeks after one of the worst storms to hit the Outer Banks in recent history…where might the lucky brave marine who had to risk his life go to collect the grand prize????
chaser says:
Put this idiot in jail, make him/her pay for all the cost, go back to your moms basement and play video games instead.
islandsafety says:
indeed… gameboys— next time you want to play at hiding unidentified canisters about town especially during heightened alert—be responsible and give a heads up on your activity and it’s range to local law enforcement.
OBX-Visitor says:
I like geocaching, but calling out a bomb squad and costing tax payers money is an issue for sure. I am not sure if it is protocol to check the geocaching website which should have quickly identified this container as a geocache.. Probably not what everyone would see as a reasonable solution – but discussing it could get a solution in place sooner. Another solution is if the owner of the geocache pays for the incident.. if they did not have written permission of the owner of the property, then they should not have placed it there.
KHer says:
My response to the Chiefs’ remarks echo others. So if I was to come up with a pipe bomb and didn’t want it to attract attention all I need do is write “Geocache” on the outside? Really, Chief?
Carol says:
Does everyone realy think that the “terrorists” even know where the Outer Banks are?
Alex says:
I wonder if & what WERE any public/goverment costs associated with the incident beyond what was already in-place and expended. Manpower, equipment and time were already being assigend . . . just to, perhaps, inactivity rather than thihs incident activity – was any official called in that was not on duty, was a vehicle secured that was not already owned. Maybe fuel was used that would have been conserved if parked rahtet than assigned to the activity.
As a cacher, I agree it may have been thoughtless to place the hide on the anniversary of 9-11 and during heightened sensitivity.
As a citizen, I feel it is the responsibility of authorities to check gc.com for such a hide – this is NOT a new idea or concept and authorities are not only aware of the gamme but active & happy players, themselves.
ComfortablyBum says:
I have been geocaching for years, and have always hated when people make the containers in pipebomb fashion. This was bound to happen one day. I am sorry it had to happen here. But seriously, Isn’t this a little bit of an over reaction? It wasn’t big enough to blow up the whole bi-pass.
This is the sort of press Geocaching doesn’t need. I am tempted to go pull up every cache I have hidden around the county just so I don’t have a bunch of over reactors screaming for me to pay for them being stuck in traffic.
Trevor says:
Other geocaches that have caused problems are listed at:
http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=909c9502-796e-442f-aa8f-b71be68a772b
geocachingdonewrong says:
So several things went wrong here. First of all the pipe bomb look. 2nd did not get premission. 3rd didn’t let local businesses know. I have hidden many and one of my good friends has hidden over 500 geocaches. First rule get permission and let those in area be aware of it. Second don’t make it look like a bomb!!
I have hidden a couple that hang in bushes etc that when I first went to hide it and showed the business owner discovered it looked like a grenade. So What did I do I changed it to not look like one and also took it to the local police station and asked if there was anything else that would make it so there wasn’t a question about it. They appreciated and also put it on a list of geocaches that looked like they could be explosive.
The police here always check geocaching website to verify it isn’t a geocache and also have a few cachers phone numbers on file to verify one way or another in case it hasn’t been put on site yet.
Work with locals before hiding. If you do it right there won’t be a problem geocaching is supposed to be fun and about taking people to great spots not causing problems people.
Kristin says:
Yeah… it wasn’t a geocache. It was a letterbox, which is a different game. But thanks for giving geocaching a bad name….
tomtom says:
GAME OVER…………..Bomb squad-1
Geo-cachers-0
Looks like its time for new coordinates and perhaps a new canister
better to be safe than sorry though
BRNBMR says:
I have been following this story since yesterday. It is disheartening to see people criticize this call. In this day and age it is better to be safe than sorry. IED’s can be made to look like anything and be placed anywhere. Because it was in a local business of no interest to most people means nothing. It might or could have been placed there to cause attention of the KDH PD and occupy them. A “smoke and mirror” trick for something bigger. Having spent over an hour in the suit yesterday for what ended up being a GEOCACHE site was well worth it. I commend the PD for doing the right thing on a hoax call than the wrong thing on a live call…
Steve says:
Kristen’s right. It was a letterbox. I’m familiar with the planter and the finder identified. Geocachers have taken a bad rap here. We boxers don’t generally mix with geocachers because the allure is very different. Like Tour de France vs Monaco Grand Prix. Yes, both are racing activities in Europe, but that’s about it. In their case, bike vs car, country road vs city track, etc.
LBs and geocachers are both looking for containers, but one does so by written clues and the other by lat/long coordinates. One must solve puzzles as to where a cache may be, the other solves the challenge of how to get to a specific coordinate absent of other clues.
This one is on us LBs for failing to be discreet, but I have to agree with earlier posts:
1) What effin’ terrorist is going to blow up an ice cream joint? It’s an over-reaction due to the date. I personally would have thought a drug deal first and a spy deal second before I called the bomb squad.
2) There are a lot of idiot comments from people who don’t even grasp the simple nature of what happened here. Donna, charlie, LLL, chaser, and islandsafety, this box has been here for a long time and the person who found it was only doing what we do every day and weekends throughout the year. This box has been found and re-hidden dozens of times over the years with no big deal. So it’s not his fault that, because of the date, someone decides the next terrorist attack is at an ice cream stand in the remote Outer Banks and the local police decide to use caution. In their position, I surely would use a dust collecting robot to check this out. I’m glad they have one for situations like this, so I don’t castigate for using it.
Please stop being morons and commenting about what you do not know.
Charles Ulysses Farley says:
Letterboxers or Geocachers? You’re freaking dorks either way.
michele says:
Steve, Don’t comment about what you don’t know either. Tactics involving diversion may very well include an ice cream shop. OBX- third most sought after wedding destination. Just because a place is remote doesn’t mean it is immune from terror. Ever read a little book by Sun Tzu? Never underestimate. Since you can predict crime so well maybe you should get a job in law enforcement and put those skills to work.
Jeremy D. Adams says:
Much Ado About Nothing.
The whole “err on the side of caution” thing is just an excuse to keep fear tactics alive and well.
Give me a break. When a bomb actually goes off in the Outer Banks, then maybe we might have to have a little bit of caution in the future. But this unwarranted fear is just ridiculous.
If I lived my life constantly in fear of every little danger, then I would have no time for living.
I was in Baghdad for a year during OIF. During that entire time, most of the IEDS were stuffed in trash or dead animals, none of them ever looked like a pipe bomb. Are we at a level of irrationality that we have to genuinely start checking every possible dead animal and piece of trash on the road for the much more likely threat of IED from trash then any metal container looking like a bomb?
You know, if the OBX is so paranoid about IEDs, maybe people should start to get behind the plastic bag ban. After all, IEDs never look like pipe bombs, they always look like piles of trash. Hmmmmmm. Maybe we can use your fearmongering to actually clean up the OBX.
roanokeislander says:
like jeremy d a says. instead of ‘omg its a turrust dial 911′ how difficult would it have been for the shop owner to stick his head out the door and holler ‘ hey you, whatcha doing? ‘ ?
John says:
For those who have apparently recently moved here from some northern clime, let me fill you in on a bit of history: There have been bombs planted in our community and people injured because of them. In Kitty Hawk, a woman opened her mail box and had her hand blown off because of a jealous ex, for example. Needless to say, these items tend to be downplayed in the news. (Though to be fair that event happened long before the Voice got started.)
Bad things happen here.
Nobody seems to remember the guy that parked his van at the First Flight Airport, shot his children, then set the van on fire. He hid in the woods waiting for the police then chickened out and killed himself first.
So pardon me if I don’t mind erring on the side of caution when it comes things like bomb shaped canisters. Why WOULDN’T a crowded outdoor cafe make a lovely target for an attack? They do it all the time in other parts of the world. Bali night club ring a bell? Over 200 people wiped out by a bomb. You’d probably get twice that at Kelly’s on a good night.
I hate that we live in a climate of fear, but sometimes there’s a good reason to be concerned. I wonder what the comments would be if some firefighter had just gone up and picked up the “harmless” container that looked like a pipe bomb and it had blown up in his face?
Jeremy D Adams says:
Thank John, the fear cheerleader. A “mail box bomb” that injured a women and a murder. None of those are terrorism that will kill 200 people. This was not a bomb at Kelly’s, it wasn’t even a bomb. It was a silly game, but the fearmongering is out of control.
If you want to start playing the “What if” game. What if every single dead animal on the side of the road contained an IED? I mean that is more realistic than any “bomb-shaped” bomb. That’s the MO for IEDs. Do we need to call a bomb squad out for every single dead animal? By your rationale we do, because what if a car hits the IED and blows up?
I mean if we are going to err on the side of caution, why don’t we have the National Guard out doing route clearings every morning to sweep off the trash and dead animals with a bomb squad?
Oh hey, why don’t we send our troops into over 130 countries establishing over 900 bases to make sure that “terror” doesn’t beat us. No one listens to the CIA that says this behavior causes blowback and why terrorism even exists. Just forget that part. Obviously having our troops pre-positioned to fight terror and carry out aggressive wars will be better. Maybe we should do that.
Wait…
George says:
At first I thought Kill Devil Hills Police Chief Britt’s idea of marking the outside of a bomb shapped canister with “geocache game” was kind of weird but not so much now.
It really does work!
The other night I was coming home from an office party and got stopped by the police. While I had not been drinking, I did have an open bottle of wine in the car with me. I quickly wrote “grape juice” on the outside of the bottle.
The officer asked if that was an open bottle of wine. I said “nope officer, you see right here where it is clearly marked grape juice on the outside of the bottle?
He said that he did see it now and I was good to go
Seriously people. I’m not saying the sky is falling but you can’t take everything at face value just because it says to.
John says:
@ Jeremy: You have me pegged wrong. I’m not one of those who things there’s a terrorist hiding under every turban. The invasion of Iraq was one of the worst presidential decisions of this country’s history. And since the 9/11 hijackers were all Saudis, maybe we should have–at a minimum–issued one of those resounding “condemnations” that makes nations quake in their boots while we were gearing up for Afghanistan. I shudder every time I read one of those articles about the TSA feeling up some six year old or 90 year old granny in a wheelchair.
So I guess it’s just a matter of tolerance. I think if the Marine Bomb Squad says something might be a bomb, it should be taken seriously. And I wasn’t playing the “what if” game; I was merely pointing out that bad things happen on the Outer Banks, and that we don’t live in this guileless paradise that some people think we inhabit.
Too bad there isn’t a sign up sheet for people who want to be human canaries and test these suspicious devices themselves. I’m sure they’d be heroes 99 time out of 100.
junkman says:
Pay the cost ? Its all a fixed cost. If the police weren’t looking at this thung they would have been doing something else – maybe sitting in a donut shop- but still on the clock. Last I knew the Marines don’t get overtime, so what would they have been doing ? The whole idea of “paying” for this stuff is a joke. There is little if any incremental cost – maybe a few gallons of gas from idleing vehicles. Get real.
Jeremy D Adams says:
Hey sign me up for your canary tester. I did it in Iraq, we just started kicking trash, rather than wait hours for an EOD team. If it was really likely to be a bomb, we’d shoot at it. 99.98% of the time, it was nothing. If it was something (in a place where there were IEDs all the time) then it was likely forgotten or abandoned.
IEDs are not mines, they have to be activated by someone.
Go ahead, call me, if you are willing to call the police department over it, I’ll come over and “save the public their tax dollars” and you, well I’ll save you your incessant fearmongering.
Cobra Mantis says:
Someone should tell Jeremy D that he actually has to leave the Green Zone if he wanted to find IEDs…
For everyone else: Get real. It was a game that caused a few hick-ups, atleast you had something to talk (whine for some) about for the rest of the week. Someone else was doing all the work and all we had to do was sit in traffic. cry me a river! they atleast got some good training out of it. And if traffic wasn’t stopped, someone would have sure caused an accident because they were rubber-necking.
Keep Geo-caching and Letter boxing; just be smarter about it next time!
Jeremy D. Adams says:
I lived on a Joint Security Station with Iraqi National Police in the Doura Province. In my year in Iraq, I did get to visit the Green Zone twice. Thanks.
Jeremy D Adams says:
Oh yeah, and seven members of my unit died. But I guess, you know, I know nothing about IEDs.