It Could Have Been Geocaching

My first thought when I read about the suspicious objects found in public areas around Boston was that they were geocaches.

Geocaching is the pastime of hiding small containers in public places and posting their latitude and longitude on web sites for other people to find. A GPS receiver will get them within a few feet but then they have to hunt around a bit. There are log books inside and prizes and various other traditions.

It’s a very geeky thing to do. (I only tried it once.)

It’s fun, it’s harmless, and it’s a pretty wholesome activity. Even the Boy Scouts do it. (That’s no surprise—why do you think they call them “scouts”?) I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until some legislator starts a crusade against it.

There’s already been an incident here in Chicago involving a cache that may have been too near a federal building.

Sooner or later, some idiot will put drugs in a geocache, or some pedophile will jump a kid looking for a geocache, or some terrorists will use geocaching methods. Then some legislator will see a chance at a headline. People rarely tolerate fun that they can’t understand.

Update: Then again, maybe there’s hope. A bomb squad in Bellevue, Washington was called to the site of a geocache back in 2004. They had to damage the cache to open it, but they left a nice note in the log book.

Now that I think about it, I’ll bet a lot of local cops are aware of geocaching activity in their area and don’t have a problem with it. Heck, I’ll bet a few of them are geocachers themselves: It’s 4am, they’re in their patrol car, and there’s nothing going on. What can they do to kill the time that won’t get them in trouble?