He Should Know Better, Shouldn't He?

[+Bob Blaylock]

  In my area, there is a very experienced cacher (over 1,600 finds) who frequently leaves unsealed jars of scented lip balm in caches that he finds.

 

  There are two obvious (to me) reasons why this is inappropriate:

• The item is scented, and is likely to attract animals that may damage the cache.  In this regard, I believe that this item, even though it isn't strictly food, is effectively the same as food, with regard to the guidelines.

  Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because of food items in a cache. Please do not put food in a cache.

• The containers, as I said, are not sealed.  There is no way to verify that the contents are what the container says they are, or that they haven't been tampered with, either before being placed in the cache, or later, by someone else other than the person who originally left it there.  It would be very foolish for anyone to assume that this item is untainted and safe to use.
  

  What should I do?  Should I just ignore this, and hope other cachers have the sense to remove and discard this item, and not use it?  Should I email this person directly, and advise him of my opinion on this matter?  Should I refer this matter to some representative of Groundspeak and let that representative deal with this person?  Any other ideas?

[n0wae]

  In my area, there is a very experienced cacher (over 1,600 finds) who frequently leaves unsealed jars of scented lip balm in caches that he finds.

 

  There are two obvious (to me) reasons why this is inappropriate:

• The item is scented, and is likely to attract animals that may damage the cache.  In this regard, I believe that this item, even though it isn't strictly food, is effectively the same as food, with regard to the guidelines.

  Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because of food items in a cache. Please do not put food in a cache.

• The containers, as I said, are not sealed.  There is no way to verify that the contents are what the container says they are, or that they haven't been tampered with, either before being placed in the cache, or later, by someone else other than the person who originally left it there.  It would be very foolish for anyone to assume that this item is untainted and safe to use.
  

  What should I do?  Should I just ignore this, and hope other cachers have the sense to remove and discard this item, and not use it?  Should I email this person directly, and advise him of my opinion on this matter?  Should I refer this matter to some representative of Groundspeak and let that representative deal with this person?  Any other ideas?

 

Send him a real nice friendly e-mail and drop him a hint as to what can happen.

[+budd-rdc]

The best way to inform the cacher is in person at an event. If that's not possible, try a polite e-mail.

 

I've seen raccoons do some amazing things. Seen evidence of rodents trying to chew through containers, too. Haven't even talked about ants yet.

 

I agree that leaving scented lip balms, even sealed, is not a good idea.

[+Mile Runner]

  In my area, there is a very experienced cacher (over 1,600 finds) who frequently leaves unsealed jars of scented lip balm in caches that he finds.

 

  There are two obvious (to me) reasons why this is inappropriate:

• The item is scented, and is likely to attract animals that may damage the cache.  In this regard, I believe that this item, even though it isn't strictly food, is effectively the same as food, with regard to the guidelines.

  Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because of food items in a cache. Please do not put food in a cache.

• The containers, as I said, are not sealed.  There is no way to verify that the contents are what the container says they are, or that they haven't been tampered with, either before being placed in the cache, or later, by someone else other than the person who originally left it there.  It would be very foolish for anyone to assume that this item is untainted and safe to use.
  

  What should I do?  Should I just ignore this, and hope other cachers have the sense to remove and discard this item, and not use it?  Should I email this person directly, and advise him of my opinion on this matter?  Should I refer this matter to some representative of Groundspeak and let that representative deal with this person?  Any other ideas?

 

Send him a real nice friendly e-mail and drop him a hint as to what can happen.

i think that is exactly what you should do, but to not make it offensive or aggressive at all. you dont want him to get realy defensive.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

In my area, there is a very experienced cacher (over 1,600 finds) who frequently leaves unsealed jars of scented lip balm in caches that he finds.

 

There are two obvious (to me) reasons why this is inappropriate:

• The item is scented, and is likely to attract animals that may damage the cache. In this regard, I believe that this item, even though it isn't strictly food, is effectively the same as food, with regard to the guidelines.

  Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because of food items in a cache. Please do not put food in a cache.

• The containers, as I said, are not sealed. There is no way to verify that the contents are what the container says they are, or that they haven't been tampered with, either before being placed in the cache, or later, by someone else other than the person who originally left it there. It would be very foolish for anyone to assume that this item is untainted and safe to use.
  

What should I do? Should I just ignore this, and hope other cachers have the sense to remove and discard this item, and not use it? Should I email this person directly, and advise him of my opinion on this matter? Should I refer this matter to some representative of Groundspeak and let that representative deal with this person? Any other ideas?

Ewwww... the stuff could also leak all over the cache contents, and even the scent from the closed container could infest everything in the cache container. Yuck. Gross. Grody to the max.

[+TEAM 360]

I don't think anyone would be willing to use it, especially given the fact it's unsealed...

[AZcachemeister]

Is it meat-scented, or just something lame like Mint, or Cherry?

 

Seriously, the leakage issue is a big one! The remote likelihood that anyone is going to use the stuff kind of makes it a pointless/useless trade anyway.

I'm sure their heart is in the right place, but they need to know what others think about this. As budd-rdc says, a face-to-face would be best, but a polite EMail may have to suffice.

 

HMMMMM! Meat-flavored lip balm?

[+paintfiction]

Why don't you just remove it from the cache and say nothing about it? Around here "contraband" is routinely removed.... and eaten if it looks good!

[+Glenn]

I've realized that find count in most cases isn't a good indicator of common sense or outdoors experience. It is simply a very rough indicator of cache locating ability.

 

What I would have done was remove the item from the cache and, if I had some swag of equal or greater value, put some replacement swag in the cache. If I felt that this would become a signature iten for this individual then I would send a frienly email. I may also include a link to a thread about what animals had to geocaches with scented item in them.

[Clan Riffster]

I don't usually do the "Cache Cop" thing. Typically if I've found something in a cache which I felt might be a problem, I trade for it.

Edited June 20, 2006 by Clan Riffster

[+vree]

Yuck. Gross. Grody to the max.

vinny, you crack me up

[uber_bike_geek]

I don't usually do the "Cache Cop" thing. Typically if I've found something in a cache which I felt might be a problem, I trade for it.

 

I do the same... in the past, I've taken out damp (though unopened) teabags, small pocketknives, etc... I'll post a note saying what I traded (something along the lines of took small knife, left deck of cards(although I generally try to trade better things than cards, that's just what's coming to mind first...)) and then follow up with a statement along the lines of "please do not leave -item- in any caches in the future." If I can figure out who left it in the first place, I'll send them a friendly email asking them to not leave food, knives, lighters, etc. in caches in the future

 

Happy Caching!

Jeff

[+Velvet]

  In my area, there is a very experienced cacher (over 1,600 finds) who frequently leaves unsealed jars of scented lip balm in caches that he finds.

 

  There are two obvious (to me) reasons why this is inappropriate:

• The item is scented, and is likely to attract animals that may damage the cache.  In this regard, I believe that this item, even though it isn't strictly food, is effectively the same as food, with regard to the guidelines.

  Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because of food items in a cache. Please do not put food in a cache.

• The containers, as I said, are not sealed.  There is no way to verify that the contents are what the container says they are, or that they haven't been tampered with, either before being placed in the cache, or later, by someone else other than the person who originally left it there.  It would be very foolish for anyone to assume that this item is untainted and safe to use.
  

  What should I do?  Should I just ignore this, and hope other cachers have the sense to remove and discard this item, and not use it?  Should I email this person directly, and advise him of my opinion on this matter?  Should I refer this matter to some representative of Groundspeak and let that representative deal with this person?  Any other ideas?

 

In person or direct email is best...is it homemade lip balm or store-bought? If it's homemade lip balm (or some other kind of specialty thing) that the cacher intends as a sig item or something like that, you might suggest that they leave cards in the cache that are "redeemable" for the lip balm...could end being a good way to meet people I sometimes do something similar when I have extra Mary Kay samples - I'll leave my card in the cache with a note written on it of what goodies are available free for geocachers. I wouldn't leave the items themselves in the caches for the reasons you mentioned and also because it could damage the product. The compromise might be better received than a straight up "knock it off"

[+Jhwk]

blech! I'd trade an item just to clear that stuff out of a cache.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Yuck. Gross. Grody to the max.

vinny, you crack me up

Yes, the degree of my mental and moral degeneration is rather sad, but it is God's will and I cannot fight it!

 

BTW, could not but help notice that you live in Kalamazoo. A very dear friend of mine named Arayana lives in Kalamazoo, and while she rarely -- if ever -- caches on her own, she went on several caching trips here with us when she was visiting us over the Christmas-New Year holidays, and she and I have cached together in Wisconsin and Indianapolis when I have been on lecture tours. I also have a friend/colleague in Kalamazoo named Pam who is a healer. Small world!

 

Oh, and I once met a really neat jenny donkey (she had the cutest eyes) from Kalamazoo in a seedy donkey pub in downtown... oh, never mind!

[+Zzyzx Road]

We had someone here leave pretty little carnation blossoms in the caches. After a week of being sealed in the container, with a little warm weather, ther ENTIRE contents of the cache was covered in a fine grey/black furry mold. I had gone back to these previously found caches to let my daughter resign the logs, since she NOW has her own account, and we found this moldy mess. I tried to clean everything off as well as possible, traded out some of the really nasty ones, but come on...Mold is a very serious health issue for some asthma sufferers...(like me!)...

[+Bob Blaylock]

  Either there's something important he's just not getting, or there's something important I'm just not getting.  I sent him an email, directing him to this thread.  Here's most of his reply to me:

 

As for the very few jars of Lip Balm that I still might drop into the very rare Ammo Can or similarly large container, they are screw top jars, and I tighten the tops before I leave them. The scent is a very faint peppermint smell, which is a natural scent and nothing like a food scent. I've never had a jar leak in my cache bag or the trunk of my car in spite of some severe temperature and altitude variations, and I've never come across a broken jar.

 

I do appreciate and understand your concerns, but I must tell you that over the five years and how ever many hundreds of jars of Lip Balm I have left, yours have been the only complaints I've received.

[+Zzyzx Road]

Geez! I have left a lip balm in my car in winter and had it melt...big ungl mess too! I guess he's never had to clean a really greasy mess before!

[Clan Riffster]

in the past, I've taken out damp (though unopened) teabags,

This reminds me of when I found the Dreaded Exploding Can Of Mystery Meat in Key To The Wetlands.

Even with the nasty trade up, it's still one of my favorite caching memories.

My log