I had to share this with you guys.
Geocacher's plan blows up
Breakdown in communication led to detonation of treasure-hunt box
Geocacher Ted Tupitza looks at the logbook that was in his geocache box outside the police station in North East. (ROB ENGELHARDT/Erie Times-News)ZoomBuy this Photo
By Dana Massing
dana.massing@timesnews.comNORTH EAST — Ted Tupitza thought it was safe to stash his cache under the police-station windows.
Inside the 2-foot-long ammunition box were DVDs, CDs, teddy bears, McDonald's toys and a logbook for other geocachers to write in.
But the bomb squad was called, and Tupitza's container was blown up Nov. 5 in what he calls "a comedy of errors."
Tupitza said he has no hard feelings against the people who destroyed one of his 122 caches. Nor does he expect to get in trouble for putting that one outside the police station at 58 E. Main St.
"I had permission," he said.
Tupitza placed the waterproof container on the parking lot side of the building in late September or early October.
"I put it there for safekeeping," he said.
That was after he called Borough Manager Ben Breniman, who told Tupitza to clear it with Police Chief Terry Still.
"I didn't feel it was a threat situation," said Breniman, who was out of town when the container was exploded.
Still couldn't be reached for comment.
Breniman said North East Mayor Noreen Tuttle was investigating the incident, but that as far as he knew, no one had been disciplined.
Tuttle wasn't available to comment.
Tupitza said he heard that someone contacted a police officer after seeing another geocacher open the container and put something in it.
The officer apparently didn't know about the cache, said Tupitza, who was in Oklahoma at the time the cache was blown up.
"It's not the first time one's been blown up," he said.
But it was a first for Tupitza and the Erie area.
Tom Sanner, a geocacher from Harborcreek Township, knew of a cache being blown up in Cleveland more than a year ago.
Rich Schmidt, a geocacher from Girard, said, "I never thought that would happen around here."
He goes looking for the containers with his children and was the first to find Tupitza's cache at the police station.
Schmidt said he and another geocacher went into the station and asked the officer on duty for permission to search around for the container. He said the officer gave the OK.
Geocachers like Schmidt and Sanner seek the treasure to get outdoors or for the excitement of the find. They are among nearly 130 local people in a Yahoo group on the Internet called NWPAGeoCachers.
"The thrill of the hunt is fun," said Carrie Rodler, a geocacher from Erie.
Tupitza likes the adventure. He found his first cache on Sept. 11, 2003. By Sept. 11, 2004, he had found 1,000 and hid 100. His goal for Sept. 11, 2005, is 2,000 and 200.
Worldwide, more than 120,000 caches are located in more than 200 countries, Tupitza said.
"It's becoming more and more popular," he said.
But Rodler worries about the hobby's image after the incident in North East.
"I think it might put geocaching in a bad light," she said.
Facially I mean , he looks like him 
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