Geo-caught

Geocachers bring out heavy artillery

Photos courtesy of Amanda Campbell

ST. STEPHEN – There was no malicious intent behind or danger connected to the placement of a suspicious package at the Visitor Information Centre in downtown St. Stephen on Sunday that resulted in several downtown streets being cordoned off while the RCMP awaited the arrival of the force’s Explosive Disposal Unit based in Fredericton.
The package was placed at the tourist bureau in the town square as part of a Global Positioning System (GPS) exercise called “geocaching” where participating individuals match coordinates and locations and log results on the internet, said RCMP Sgt. Gary Cameron, J Division’s public relations officer.
“They (the local RCMP) have located the person who put it there and there was no malicious intent,” said Cameron.
He confirmed that pedestrian and vehicle traffic was rerouted for about an hour as a precaution until the package was examined and deemed not to be a threat.
Cpl. Bob MacKnight of the St. Stephen Municipal RCMP detachment said the police received word of a suspicious person and activity in the vicinity of the Visitor Information Centre. Police responded and located a small, unidentified container, about the size of a deck of cards placed on the back of a large sign.
Cpl. MacKnight said a similar incident occurred last week in Ontario where a bridge was blocked by police and an unidentified package blown up. That package also turned out to be related to a geocaching treasure hunt.
Geocaching, a high-tech treasure hunt, is popular worldwide and there are many caches to discover in Charlotte County.
The basic idea behind the treasurer hunts is to locate containers hidden outdoors called geocaches, using GPS coordinates, and then share the hunt experiences online.
A quick survey of the internet, obtained by entering a local postal code, showed results for hunts at the Rollingdam Covered Bridge, Digdeguash Covered Bridge, Cranberry Lake and Maxwell Crossing.
Cpl. MacKnight said he suggests people who want to engage in this activity should clearly mark the packages they place, identifying the contents, if any, to avoid any further similar incidents.