Updated by Marshall Zelinger
m.zelinger@krdo.com
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COLORADO SPRINGS - A suspicious package at Pikes Peak Community College has been destroyed by Colorado Springs bomb technicians.  After a five hour investigation, the package turned out to be filled with toys, part of a Geocaching game.  Geocaching is essentially a treasure hunt using GPS coordinates.  The object is to send other gamers on a real-life treasure hunt, using coordinates and clues posted online.  Once found, gamers add a new trinket to the "Geocache", and hide it for the next group.

Emergency crews from Colorado Springs Police, El Paso County, and the Wescott Fire Protection district were called to the Rampart campus of Pikes Peak Community College on Highway 83 around 4:30 Tuesday afternoon.  An off-duty PPCC officer saw three people with a package walking in a field near the east parking entrance.

"(The officer) noticed that they had a package in their hand and they were carrying it rather gingerly, and it looked like an ammo can of sorts," said Pikes Peak Community College Police Chief Ken Hilte.

The school was never evacuated.  In fact, classes continued.  Students did receive a mass notification about the incident through text message, e-mail and voice mail.  The message told students that the east parking entrance was closed due to a suspicious package, and for them to use the west entrance by New Life Church.

"We're 1,000-1,500 yards away from there, so that's a safe distance and there was no reason to interrupt our classes," said Chief Hilte.

According to bomb experts at the scene, Geocaching packages have led to several false bomb scares this year.  In February, a suspicious package caused the evacuation of a medical clinic on Mt. Everett Drive in Colorado Springs.

During one week in 2006, Bomb Squad resources were sent to two seperate events just days apart, one of which closed down the intersection of Chapel Hills Drive and Briargate.