Police investigating after a suspicious package was reported on the city’s south side said the package did not contain explosives.
An officer on the scene told CTV News the item reported to police was actually a tool used in GPS Caching, or Geocaching – a treasure hunting game where people track down devices equipped with GPS tracking.
According to police, the package was a ‘treasure’, made of a PVC pipe with wires sticking out – but contained no explosives.
“The device is harmless, and was all along, it contained no explosives, no initiator, no source of power at all,” Insp. Brian Nowlan said on the scene.
Nowlan explained that officers had been called to a number of similar incidents, stemming from that game.
“We’ve had a few of these now where suspicious packages have been found in places just like this, where we come, they appear suspicious, we disrupt them, and find they’re only part of this game,” Nowlan said.
“We urge people if they participating in a game like this, please think of the consequences of the package you’re putting down, this ties up an awful lot of police resources, not only that it disrupts a community like this for sometimes hours at a time.”
Police were first called to the area of 119 Street and Fairway Drive at about 8:30 a.m., after the package was reported by city workers clearing up garbage on the meridian.
Traffic on Fairway Drive and 119 Street was closed for some time Friday morning while police determined what the package was.
