I'm here to mourn the loss of Little Lost Chequered Tom. Tom originally wanted to travel from Gloucester, UK, to the Isle of Wight. He got as close as somewhere near Weymouth. Just as he stepped tiny paw on the ferry to cross the channel, a guy picked him up and took him to PORTUGAL.
Since then, the guy who "holds" the trackable has visited it in every cache they've found, but in a very obviously automated way. No pictures of the TB, no mention of the TB in their cache logs, and no notes on the TB page except for a default "Visited such-and-such". I wouldn't be surprised if the user doesn't even have the TB anymore. Or, if he does, he thinks it's his property now.
The user also seems to be an app user, as they are never seen on the site itself. I've messaged them many times on all mediums, both politely and probably not-so-politely, and have never had a reply. To add insult to injury, the user and I have a bit of a language barrier going on. But even my Google-translated messages have been ignored. It's useless.
They've had the TB since around March. They rarely cache, so there are months on end where the TB doesn't visit anything. I thought Tom was lost for good when nothing happened to him for 3 months back in November, so I marked him as missing. And then the guy came back and GRABBED it again, ignored my messages to place the TB, and continued to visit the TB in MORE Portugal caches.
I don't think there's hope of the TB being placed. I think it'll stay in this guy's inventory for the next thousand years, visiting caches I can't even pronounce, automated log after automated log. Who knows if the trackable itself even exists anymore? I know I shouldn't care so much. I know I shouldn't meddle with it. And I know I shouldn't have hope. So, I've decided to simply bury my Little Lost Chequered Tom and seek closure. When there is hope... it's hard to let go. It's for the best.
Goodbye, Tom. I hope you really are in Portugal, and not swimming in a landfill or hidden at the bottom of a drawer. I hope you're having good adventures, despite being lost. I hope you've had fun in a country I could never even dream of visiting. And I hope the clueless user is treating you well, despite not apparently knowing what you do when you find a TB. Wander on, poor Tom. Wander on.
*tears* Alas, poor Tom. I knew him (well-ish).
