Police in Collinsville got quite the laugh after an officer identified the true nature of what they first believed was a drug drop.
When a local tree service was removing trees at a Collinsville cemetery for a road widening project, crews say they found what looked like a drug drop.
They say they found a tube zip-tied to a broken branch hidden behind other branches. Inside the tube was a vial with a translucent rock substance.
People at the scene say they were concerned, because they found the items just across from the school and right next to someone’s grave site.
Collinsville police removed the items and took them back to the department, where Captain Matt Burke got a look at the items.
He says he started to realize the true nature of the items when he saw a list of names with the tube.
He says the items turned out to be part of a geocache, a treasure hunt that allows people to find locations via GPS coordinates shared on websites.
In geocaching, participants take trinkets at given sites and leave items for others to find. They usually write their names down on a list with the date they found it.
Burke says the Collinsville trinket appears to have been there for at least a year. He says the rock-like substance was a natural mineral, such as quartz.
City officials say they are relieved there wasn’t a drug drop in their cemetery.
Captain Burke says his kids love to geocache, and that’s why he realized what it was right away, but he told FOX23 that the find at the cemetery is the most suspicious geocache trinket he’s ever seen.
He says anyone else who found it would likely have thought the same thing as the workers, and he wants anyone to who sees something suspicious to always call police.
Unfortunately the “evidence” won’t be returned.
The tree was destroyed as planned.
Whoever put the trinket there can come to the police department to pick it up. Otherwise, it will be destroyed when a judge orders it to be destroyed.
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