News story from the “Enid News and Eagle” in Enid, Oklahoma dated June 12, 2009. Original link. (Note that the Braum’s pictured above is not the one in Enid and was not in the article.)

UPDATE: Suspicious object turns out to be ‘geocache’

By Cass Rains
Staff Writer

A suspicious object reported to police Thursday night that caused the evacuation of a local restaurant was determined to be a “geocache,” or treasure to be located with GPS devices.

Enid Police Department Lt. Scott Miller said members of Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s bomb squad discovered what the object was after a detonation was placed beneath it.

“It came open and the papers came out,” Miller said. “It was a couple pieces of paper explaining what a geocache was and whoever had ever found it. It was a false alarm.

”Police were called 7:41 p.m. to Braum’s, 4202 W. Garriott, in reference to a man who had entered the restaurant and stayed for a few minutes, then was seen placing something in a tree on the southwest corner of the property before leaving in a vehicle.

Miller said the man likely entered the restaurant looking for the geocache before searching the tree.“He found it, signed off and left,” he said. “A few people had already been there and signed off on it. It’s been there for at least a couple weeks.”

Officers responding to the call evacuated the restaurant and cordoned off a 50-yard area near the device as they awaited arrival of the bomb squad.

According to the Web site www.geocaching.com searchers can register with the site and be given GPS coordinates to geocaches, which are signed and dated by whoever finds and returned to be found by the next searcher.“Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices,” the group’s Web site reads. “The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.”

Not very funny. Big scare, bomb squad called out, area cordoned off.

Two things went wrong here. First whoever placed the cache didn’t get permission from the store manager to hide the cache.

Second the finder apparently was acting furtively.I have found lots of caches out in public areas. I think the best thing to do is act like you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Most people don’t care but if you act sneaky then they get suspicious.

So, if you are hiding geocaches, get permission! If you are looking for caches, don’t be sneaky! Got it?