Hash House Harriers, Local Running Club, Creates Hazmat Scare in the Richmond District

By Erin Sherbert Wed., Jun. 6 2012 at 9:52 AM

Categories: WTF?

There's plenty of people out there who say runners are crazy people -- and yeah, they will run barefoot in the snow with no shirt on just to get that runner's high, but it's not like they are Osama bin Laden-crazy.

However, yesterday a Richmond neighbor became suspicious of a running man after seeing him run up Balboa Street from Ocean Beach, dropping small piles of white powder at telephone poles, traffic signs, and intersections. That was enough reason for this neighbor to call police.

According to richmondsfblog.com, firefighters came out to the scene after they, too, spotted similar piles of white dust along utility poles alone Geary Boulevard. A Hazmat team was called out to test the powder, which turned out to be nothing more than some flour.

So why did this running man leave traces of the cooking ingredient all over the neighborhood, you ask?

Turns out, the Hash House Harriers, a local running club, was using the flour to mark their course for a running event on June 4 in the Outer Richmond.

It doesn't get more innocent than flour.

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