Cache Genuinly Not There

[Bungo]

Me and my friend, Lotho, went looking for our first cache after finding one by mistake. It was a muti-cache less than half a mile from Lotho's house. On the first attempt we found nothing, on the second attempt we found the second micro this lifted our spirits a bit. Still couldnt find micro 1 . Since we are still newbies we e-mailed the creator of the cache to see if he could check if the 1st mico was there, and it wasn't!! The ceator had to re-place it before we could continue caching.

Has this ever happened to anyone else??

 

Bungo

Edited April 28, 2006 by Bungo

[ImpalaBob]

Yep! Been there .... Done that!

 

Down By The River Side

 

Tried 3 times before the owner checked and disabled it. ImpalaBob

[+Katerbug]

Been there as well

Geosafari

It really sucks when that happens, but it's inevitable. Darn, the cache sounded so fun.

Edited April 28, 2006 by Katerbug

[+briansnat]

Often. Caches are stolen, dragged way by animals, blown away by the wind, washed away by floods, you name it.

[+Ed & Julie]

All the caches I haven't found (150+) I have sworn were missing (some acually were

[+mudsneaker]

I'm on a streak of discovering missing caches. Last couple of weeks I've discovered at least 4 for sure, plus a few questionable ones.

[+Ed Rad]

We had one a few months back where a n00b placed their first cache in a prk. They listed it and it was approved before they placed the container.

 

Last week or so had an instance where the owner fat fingered the coords and they were way off. After 5 or 6 DNF's on a 1.5 difficulty cache, the owner checked up on it and found out they made a mistake and apologized big time.

 

Hey it happens.

Edited May 1, 2006 by Special Ed

[+Tsmola]

yup, it happens, I've had a few like that.

 

A few months ago I had a few weeks where it seemed every other cache I found was in need of maintanance. They weren't missing, but boy, were they in poor shape.

[+koikeeper]

We started our day off yesterday with two caches that were definitely taken Countryside Travel Bug Hotel and Crystal Cache. It was pretty depressing and more so for the owner. Both of the caches belonged to the same person.

[+SNSPRT]

Last $th of July my son and I went look for a newly listed cache ((GCPJJ7) after watching the fireworks in town. But after looking high and low we couldn't find it any where. So we returned the next day to continue the search. Meet other cachers also looking for the cache. gave the area another good searching and decided to head home. On the way down the trail we run into the another caching party. They were on there way in to HIDE the cache. Looks like the reviewer was faster then they thought.

[wandat24]

I've gone after 2 that i woulda sworn were missing, but get home and see someone found it the dame day.... Now that I've been at it longer and have done more it's a bit easier to find some, but there's still one that after 3 tries I haven't found... Then again, I think it's actually gone, cause the last 4 are DNFs as well....

 

On the hider not getting it by the time the reviewer OKs it.... I've only hide one, workng on a few more, waiting for an ok from locals to do one... But I placed it and then waited for it to be OK'd figured if it wasn't ok'd I could go get it and rehide it someplace else... Should I not do this??

[+Harry Dolphin]

Last $th of July my son and I went look for a newly listed cache ((GCPJJ7) after watching the fireworks in town. But after looking high and low we couldn't find it any where. So we returned the next day to continue the search. Meet other cachers also looking for the cache. gave the area another good searching and decided to head home. On the way down the trail we run into the another caching party. They were on there way in to HIDE the cache. Looks like the reviewer was faster then they thought.

 

This just isn't right. I DNFed a cache that wasn't even placed until the next day.

Place cache. Submit. Is that that difficult a thought process? (Depending upon the dominatrix.)

[BC Tripper]

Many, many times unfortunatly. One of which I ended up dropping my key into the ocean looking for. NEver got the keys or the cache.

 

BC Tripper

[+The Leprechauns]

I've gone after 2 that i woulda sworn were missing, but get home and see someone found it the dame day.... Now that I've been at it longer and have done more it's a bit easier to find some, but there's still one that after 3 tries I haven't found... Then again, I think it's actually gone, cause the last 4 are DNFs as well....

 

On the hider not getting it by the time the reviewer OKs it.... I've only hide one, workng on a few more, waiting for an ok from locals to do one... But I placed it and then waited for it to be OK'd figured if it wasn't ok'd I could go get it and rehide it someplace else... Should I not do this??

Yes you are doing it right. Thank you!

 

From the Listing Guidelines:

 

Your cache should be in place and ready to hunt at the time your cache page is submitted for review. If for any reason it is not ready, please either disable your cache page so that it won’t be seen by the reviewer until ready, or include a “note to reviewer” to explain your special circumstances (for example, waiting for a permit from a land manager).

[Hillbilly-Rockstar]

Yeah I hate to use bad language and such. But frankly, it "made me mad". I spent HOURS looking. It was my first cache. We finally found it after it was replaced.

[+Team Neos]

At least twice. This one was there when we found it, but later some friends of ours discovered that it was gone. In fact, what they found was that the entire statue that the cache was on was gone. It had been moved across town---twenty feet away from another cache!

 

Another time we were looking for a cache with another couple. We ALL kept zeroing out where there should have been a handrail next to a side walk, but the rail had been removed. We looked everywhere else around for at least 50 feet before giving up. We emailed the owner and described the situation. He let us know that the cache was supposed to be in the handrail. He later moved it to a nearby location and we went back and logged the find.

[+mudsneaker]

Got another one.

Midday the few days ago, a new Multi pops up. I get there maybe 15 minutes later going for FTF. Arrive at WP1, enter in the WP2 coords, and it tells me Im standing on WP2. I spend the next 2 hours doing CITO and exploring hoping someone would show up with some info I was missing somehow.

Finally leave and read that evening someone got FTF. I post a DNF and send owner a email asking how did that happen?

Turns out he had returned about an hour after I left and remarked the correct coords on all the WPs. He had everything off by putting WP1 coords on the WP1 container, WP2 on WP2, ect.

*Bonk*

[+Alibags]

I had a DNF on a cache that went like this...

 

All the past logs said things like 'I am suprised this has not been muggled, cache very exposed' and that sort of thing. I arrive on site and cannot find the cache. I read the clue, which is very specific. Look in the obvious clump of trees described in the clue and there I find an ammo can shaped depression surrounded by a pile of equal length bits of stick. I fear the worst. I search some more, but cannot find the cache. So I post a DNF.

 

The next person to try to find this also posts a DNF. The cache owner temp disables it until they can check it out.

 

Then, some more cachers, who have been to this cache before, return 'to drop some TBs off' and do so. The cache is not missing after all it seems. I return for another look and find the cache now occupying the exact same spot where it had not been a few days previously. It is very obvious and not terribly well cammoed.

 

My only thought is that perhaps some muggle took it away and then, on reading what it was, decided to replace it where they had found it.

[+Team LaLonde]

We went after a 4.5/4.5 which took several hours. We logged a DNF and sure enough the owner posted a note that said it was missing and he replaced it. It was still a fun adventure, and kudos to the owner for fixing it within a couple of days. We might go back for it this weekend.

[RAIDER 1]

Yes I went looking for a multi. After an hour of looking I found the log book next to a trash can...

[+Jojogirl]

Yep, that happened to me too. It was a multi meant to be done by bike with 10 points/questions posted on the cache page. These led to a minicache with handouts of the rest of the cache (another 10 points/questions). Didn't find the minicache and E-mailed the owners. They mailed the handout to me so I have finished the end cache some time later.

[+shammond]

Yes I went looking for a multi. After an hour of looking I found the log book next to a trash can...

 

Did you sign the log book and toss it back on the ground?

 

I did a multi once, where the final spot was occupied by a gallon frezer bag and a pencil, the Ammo Box was gone, but the muggler left a baggie and a pencil... I logged on a piece of paper and put it in the bag, went home and logeed a DNF - Needs Maintenance...

 

I think everyone gets to be the bearer of bad news every now and then...

 

It's even worse when it's your ammo box that gets muggled....

[+Miragee]

Yup . . .

[+the hermit crabs]

Of our 57 DNFs, the cache was actually missing only 9 times. (In 7 cases it was just lost/missing/stolen; in one case the owner had taken it away for maintenance; in one case it hadn't even been placed yet.)

 

(Given those odds, when we DNF, we always assume it's right there in front of us and we just can't see it... we're always surprised if we find out it was actually missing. )

[+Big Max]

I am with Hermit Crab. Since I am still new to this I just assume I am blind to the obvious. Spent over an hour looking for a 1.5/1.5 but couldn't find it anywhere. When I went to post my DNF the cache owner had posted that it was missing. Maybe me excited that maybe I ain't the blind idiot I was beginning to think I was and I posted such.

[+NatureGuy360]

Why yes, yes I have.

[+Frozen Buns]

I spent over 1 ½ hours with a fellow cacher looking for Homie Leaves Proctor without finding anything just to return to the computer and find ("****" name removed) had again “Stolen” another cache.

 

As a cacher I carry supplies to mend, replace or temporarily fix a cache so the OWNER can have enough time to decide what he/she would like to do with the location.

I told him that if he is unhappy with caches put out by a certain cacher I would recommend he avoid those caches.

 

Very frustrating as this was the 2nd time this cacher has just REMOVED a cache that wasn't thiers, bad enough when a muggle or animal does it but another Cacher?.

[+mamid]

I figure the reason why I can't find a cache is because my gruesome twosome keep me busy keeping track of them that I can't do an adequate search. With other people with me, I can do a better search. But even then, it might take 3, 4 or more visits.

 

I'm currently working on a set of two caches that are a series of caches. All of them are magnetic tape and you have to find the next one to and the next etc in order to find the log. Found the first two of the first one so far and only the first of the other.

 

I also carry some supplies to fix broken caches, but I don't always have them with me or the time to do it.

 

As for my hides...

 

I don't hit "available" or whatever until after I have placed the cache. I have "holding pages" for each of my caches ready to go so that once its placed, as soon as I can get onto a computer, I can activate them.

 

It might take a few days, but eventually it does come up.

Edited June 5, 2007 by mamid

[+Somebodybesidesyou]

I went to go get a cache in my neighboor hood without gps. Being a noob in the fall months I couldn't find anything but next year, I decided to check again without checking the site. Found the cache quickly, signed log and then went on the site to log it only to find that it doesn't exist. Wish there was a way to log it as its totally gone.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

I'd estimate that somewhere around 25% of my DNFs are on caches that weren't there when I searched.

[+Snifferhound]

Had it happen several times. A couple of them were when I first started and I thought it was just me not knowing how to find them. After a couple of DNF on the same caches, the owners went out and checked, and sure enough, they were gone. The owners even emailed me to say that they were sorry for not checking on them when I posted my first DNF.

[+Lotho]

Hehe, funny how naive we were then =P

[+admo1972]

One cache I DNF from a few months ago the owner hasn't checked up on yet. It's disabled. I have a bunch of more recent DNF's, but am waiting to see if it is me or the cache.

 

One cache I was the Last to Find, before a string of DNF's on the cache. The owner even archived it after searching himself. I went back to the cache, and looked where I had last left it, and sure enough it wasn't there. So I dug. It had fallen and been buried after a heavy rain. So I hid in a very close but better spot, notified the CO that I found it, re-hit it and where, and sure enough, it was unarchived and now has a string of finds.

[+edscott]

I've hunted 41 caches that eventually were confirmed to be gone, 10 are being watched and are still unknown, and the other 95 DNF's were there somewhere... Many of them eventually became finds.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I had a bad day Sunday! Looked for three caches; found one. I'm surprisd that that one has not been muggled yet! But the two better hidden ones had been muggled. Oh, well.

Of my 150 DNFS (some multiple DNFs involved), 34 were missing, and are now archived. Another 15, or so, were missing when I looked. 4 had coordinate errors up to four miles. And three had not even been hidden yet! Some I could see, but could not get to. Once I even had the cache in my hand, but didnt realize it! Some, I ran out of time on (razza-frazza ten stage multi!!). And, goodness gracious, the other eighty or so, I just could not find! That's part of what makes the game challenging! Ain't no guarantees.

[+Cache_advance]

Happenned to me too... except it was my own cache. Went out for a maint run, and found that the cache was gone!