Actual package left at the Jiffy Burger.. Photo by Barry West. Click on picture to enlarge.
A suspicious package was found at a Manchester business on Monday afternoon. Adayna Pennington an employee at the Jiffy Burger on the Hillsboro Blvd witnessed a man acting strangely walking around in the parking lot carrying a clipboard. Pennington said the man walked to his SUV and came back toward the business carrying what appeared to be an ammo box and placed outside near the backside of the building.
Manchester Police was called to the scene and began investigating. Authorities evacuated the Jiffy Burger, Hardee’s and the library.
Suspect is backing out of the Jiffy Burger parking lot in the small white SUV. Picture is from surveillance video at Hardee’s.
Manchester Police, Coffee County Emergency Management, Coffee County deputies, Manchester Fire and Rescue and Coffee County EMS were all on the scene on stand-by.
Manchester Police blocked off a portion of Hwy 41 (Hillsboro Blvd) so no traffic could drive near the threatened area.
The bomb squad from Christiana, TN was called in to take care of the package. They used a water cannon device to destroy the metal box.
Manchester Assistant Police Chief Adam Floied told WMSR News that authorities discovered that similar devices are used in a game called Geocaching. This is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.
Bomb squad member working on destroying the package… Photo by Barry West
A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook (with a pen or pencil). The geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little financial value, although sometimes they are sentimental.
