tartankitty

Yep...happens all the time. I've had lots of coins & TBs go missing. Some do reappear after time, some don't. Here's 3 of mine that have interesting stories: This one was forgotten in the bottom of someone's bag for 9 months! Then it was lost again & rediscovered by someone jogging on the road, nowhere near the cache.: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=740057 This lil guy was actually lost at a rest stop. Then rediscovered, badly chewed up, almost 2-1/2 yrs later at that same rest stop! http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=490590 And then, sadly, this one was found destroyed, after traveling 21,627miles (all over the world!): http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=500094 I even had one POW/MIA geocoin that was stolen right out of the travelbug hotel I placed in my own front yard on its initial placement. Sad, but true. The best thing you can do, when you visit a cache that lists trackables, yet when you get there, there are none, make a note of it in your log entry. That way the owner of both the cache & the trackable can look over the info if they are watching those items. Happy Caching! Tartan Kitty

I picked up a geocion one time that had (what I thought) an ingenious idea. Instead of just releasing the GC out into the world, the owner had drilled a hole through the coin (without ruining its aesthetics) and attached a "info" tag to it (what to do, how to log it, etc). I thought that was a great idea. People still got to enjoy checking out the unique coin, yet the drilled hole rendered it "blemished" to GC/TB thieves. AND... this guy's method seems to have worked with pretty good success. I've come across several of his GCs and TBs...some I've "watched" and I've yet to see one go missing! I am going to do the same with my GCs. I tried this also with a couple TBs (under an old login name) with decent success. I sent out some beanies and ran the tag chains thru ears, paws, arms, etc. So far, only one teeny beanie has been stolen by a hoader (even tho I've contacted him several times pleading for him to release my hostage Toro beanie - FYI - zScouter PLEASE release Toro!!). Not sure if any others "mar" their TBs/GCs before releasing them...but it can be done without detracting too much from the object and will make it less appealing to the hoaders/stealers.