DaytonDailyNews.com

URBANA, Ohio — The Internet-based geocaching game led to a bomb scare in Urbana on Sunday night, Dec. 28.

Employees from Tim Hortons, 759 Scioto St., flagged down Urbana Police Department officers about 5:46 p.m. Sunday after seeing a man lifting up the metal base of a lamp pole, Urbana Police Lt. Matt Lingrell said.

The man drove off when officers arrived. Police found 35-mm film canisters with a metal plate and electrical tape in the post, Lingrell said, and considered it suspicious-looking.

"It didn't look like anything good," he said.

Tim Hortons and the nearby Save-A-Lot and Odd Lots stores were evacuated and cordoned off. The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base bomb squad was called to investigate the items.

Police also checked the man's license plate and an Urbana detective went to his Enon home with Enon police.

The man told the detective that he was playing geocaching, a game that calls for finding hidden objects sometimes using GPS devices to track coordinates listed on Web sites.

"It's like a treasure hunt," Lingrell said.

The bomb squad used its robot to check the items in the post and declared them safe. Upon opening the canisters, investigators found paper with numbers and the names of players who had found the object written on it.

Investigators also tracked down the man who placed the canisters in the lamp post in early November.

The stores reopened about 8:40 p.m. Sunday.

Urbana police will present the information to a prosecutor, possibly today, to determine if any charges should be filed.

The state patrol and Champaign County sheriff's deputies also responded.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0363 or ssommer@coxohio.com.