What was apparently a game for someone turned into a bomb scare at a Marshall Walmart.
Authorities were called to the store after employees saw on security cameras two men hide an object on a guard rail. It was cylindrical, wrapped in duct tape and looked to police like an improvised explosive device.
The store was evacuated and police requested the assistance of a bomb disposal team from Whiteman Air Force Base.
An x-ray of the object showed it to be harmless. It was cut open and a paper inside revealed it to be part of a geocache game, in which people hide objects and post clues to their location on the internet for others to find.
Authorities are still looking for the people who hid the object. Marshall Police Chief Mike Donnell says they could be in serious trouble. “It’s a federal offense to create any device that appears to be a bomb.”
Donnell says Walmart lost money in sales and the various agencies that were called out will also have to cover the cost of that response.
Ken Lewellen at KMMO contributed to this story.
