Not a bomb

A geocaching scavenger hunt [in Monroe, Ohio] caused the evacuation of residents and businesses Wednesday night as a bomb squad investigated a “suspicious package.”

The intersection of Main and Elm streets in Monroe was a bustle of activity while Monroe police and fire crews and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Unit responded to the Monroe Historical Society, 10 Elm St., where a resident reported at 10:45 p.m. Wednesday that suspicious-looking subjects left a package outside the building.

“Police did find a package. It was in some bushes and covered with duct tape,” said Monroe dispatcher Mike McKinney.

The Butler County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Unit took a digital X-ray of the cylinder, which revealed a notebook and small trinkets typically left by people on geocaching scavenger hunts.

Monroe police Chief Greg Homer said what the resident saw was the “tail end” of activity of someone in the dark leaving something in the bushes. “They didn’t see the person write their name in the notebook and leave a souvenir,” Homer said.

After determining the package was a geocaching prize, the police also signed the notebook, left a toy badge as a souvenir and put it back in place, he said.

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Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System device to hide and seek containers called geocaches—waterproof containers with a logbook and a treasure of small toys or trinkets. Participants who find the containers sign the log book, remove a souvenir and replace it with a trinket they have brought. More about geocaching here if you are interested.