[HPsquared]

It was probably a mistake to report it to the public while it was still missing. That probably attracted a bunch of amateurs who could have ended up finding it. Far safer to look for it quietly first.

[laci37]

I guess that was because they were afraid of it getting stuck in a tire. If I found a strange metal cylinder in my tires, I would probably pick it up a try to find out what it is.

[HPsquared]

Did they close the road and/or put a checkpoint in place? That'd eliminate that risk.

[prollings]

The road you're talking about was 1400km long

[bell-cot]

1400km / (70km/h) = 20 hours of driving. This was no "a thousand volunteers on foot spent days searching for even a scrap of evidence" effort.

[rmccue]

Pretty sure it's also the only road connecting a lot of these places; this is far remote WA.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

I was considering going on a vacation/scavenger hunt when I saw the first article about it