Stolen Geocoins

October 29, 2006

I love the idea of TBs and GCs. I first bought 5 TBs and of course they each had a duplicate that I can keep for myself. When I started to buy GCs I decided to buy two of each if I could. So one I send out into the wild and one I keep for my personal collection. If I run across a TB or GC in a cache I take a snap shot of it to memorialize / remember it. I am lucky I guess that so far nothing I've sent out to travel has been kept. On the other hand, let's say I want a coin to travel to the Empire State Building, once it reaches there I don't mind if it is taken out of circulation and kept by the final person that made it possible. :blink:

I forgot to note that I have one coin that has moved over 10,000 miles! http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=394075

Edited October 29, 2006 by duhkey

3.1k · November 7, 2006

Well, it's official. My Team Petey Twin Ports coin has gone missing. 3 caches, 1000 miles. It doesn't help that the coin was placed in a cache named, "Muggleville". The coin even had an old keychain attached to it saying, "Responsibility Matters" and holes drilled in it.

1.1k · November 7, 2006

carolinerdreamer - did you ever get my email with the gold compasrose in it for you?

November 21, 2006

I have read everyones post and have a genera question. I am new with all this and have found a few caches in my area and have just gotten my GPS in the mail and will find many more with in the next few weeks.

MY QUESTION: Do you (the coin owner) mind if the coin is taken from one cache to another or are you just wanting them to be put in your cache and left there?

I recently picked up a wooden nickel that started in OHIO, I found it in GEORGIA and Im about to go to FLORIDA on vacation and drop it off there.

I saw a few other coins on my recent finds and want to take one to another location but after reading this thread I'm scarred that you will not find this to kosher

1.5k · November 21, 2006

If I'm reading your post right, no, no, don't think that. Trackable coins were designed to be moved from cache to cache just like a travel bug. Grab it, log it under the trackables section, move it to another cache (hopefully within a couple of weeks) and then log again where you dropped it.

A lot of us, myself included, do not like when people grab our coins and then just hold on to them and "dip" them in and out of caches without ever really leaving them in one. And of course taking it and keeping it for your collection is not cool. Hope that answers your questions.

Edited November 21, 2006 by Hula Bum

38.2k · November 21, 2006

MY QUESTION: Do you (the coin owner) mind if the coin is taken from one cache to another or are you just wanting them to be put in your cache and left there?

No, take it along! That is the point of trackable coins, to move from cache to cache. The only exception would be if the owner doesn't want it moved, but there will probably be a note accompanying it if that is the case.

November 21, 2006

It's ok to come off as p*ssed, and p**ved. After you have about $100.00 or so of TB's and/or coins stolen from you will have a nasty attitude like I do. Happy Caching.

18.9k · November 21, 2006

Zero Missing.

Of course I have zero owned and I generally just don't quite "get" the whole geocoin thing.

9.5k · November 21, 2006

Of the coins I bought and distributed, not a single one is considered stolen if the person chooses to keep the one they find. Any other attitude merely injects angst into a sport that should be fun and worry free. The random act to keep or forward the coin once found should be part of that adventure uncontrolled by me once I release that coin into the game.

Have you ever played Pachinko? You can predict by stastical analysis where the marble will land if the force to motivate it is consistent, but you can't predict exactly where that marble will land every time. But it's still a fun game even with the random chance. That coin in geocaching is the same as that marble in pachinko. The attitude for fun on the random chance should be the same.

If you can't appreciate the fact your investment is going to be put into something that will be handled with random abandon, then don't invest and save yourself the angst. If you already have put in that investment and you find yourself grousing, chalk it up to lessons learned and don't do it again. Fall back to where the game was fun for you.

Edited November 21, 2006 by TotemLake

6.7k · November 21, 2006

I have had great success with travelers, both TBs and geocoins, until lately when I got over-confident!

I have a lot of travelers out and very few dissappear.

I have 30-something TBs and only two have disappeared, though some move less than others. One was in a TB hotel that was muggled the day after I put it there, the other was given to his dog by a, um, cacher, for a chew toy.

Last year I had 500 coins made and gave them away to everyone I met and put some of them in geocaches. I still know where most of them are.

I take my coin collection to events, open it on a table and walk away, allowing cachers to swap unactivated coins and log the activated ones. No one has ever abused my trust!

Then six weeks ago I wanted to place some caches and couldn't afford good swag at the moment, so I stocked them with unactivated geocoins from my collection.

I put 15 coins in each of two of them and 25 in the third and told cachers to feel free to swap one-for-one.

One cache has two coins left in it, the other two are empty. :huh:

I guess being alone in the woods with no accountability folks just act different than they do in person!

Ed

2k · November 21, 2006

I've officially crossed the 50% lost marker. Mostlty I get 1-5 moves and then they are gone. This is why my new coin is non-trackable and only left as a gift or for Face-to-faces.

November 21, 2006

I dont own any TB or GC yet, so cant really answer the OPs question. I do have a few comments and a question though because I do want to put a few out there in the wild. I realize if I do, I have to accept the fact that they might go missing but I would like to give them every opportunity for as long of a life as possible. ....

Case #1: I can understand how a cacher could not know what to do with a TB or GC that they find (unless it was clearly marked) as a matter of fact the first geocoin I found wasnt labled clearly and I didnt know if I was supposed to keep it or not. However, once I logged it and read it mission I knew better. So, those cases I can live with although it would certainly be a bummer when they go missing, especially if they have been out a while and/or have a lot of miles.

Case #2: I cant understand a cacher finding a TB/GC and knowingly keeping it. However, you cant trust everyone to act ethically and loosing one that way would hurt more than #1 but less than #3. I would be PO'd for sure, but would/could live with it. My motto has always been "you reap what you sow" and if that is how that person wants to behave, then they are hurting themselves way more than they are me.

Case#3: This is the instance that really angers and frustrates me and seems to be on the increase. To use an example. A fellow cacher (who introduced me to the game as a matter o' fact) recently placed 2 new caches... in each, places a GC clearly marked as a traveler... the FTF cacher gets there and lo and behold the GCs are missing!! As I understand it, each FTF was a different person, so although it is in the realm of possiblitly that each one took the coin and then lied about it not being there I find that hard to believe.

What seems to me to be on the rise are instances of folks cruising the cache listings, seeing that there are TB/GCs in one, sneaking out and outright stealing them. In some cases only hours after they have been placed.

So... my question after all this rambling.... lol...

I would hate to see it go, but what if there were no longer an "inventory" listing on the cache pages? I like to know what it in a cache before I go, but as I said, I could live without it. Half the time what is listed isnt there anyway!! ie stolen/mistakenly kept/ what ever.... That way running across a traveler would be a very nice bonus surprise and while wouldnt eliminate items being "stolen" it would DEF cut down on Case #3...

What do you fellow cachers think? How would you feel if there werent an inventory listing? Like geocaching.com/Groundspeak would listen to me or change anything anyway lol....

6.7k · November 21, 2006

What do you fellow cachers think? How would you feel if there werent an inventory listing? Like geocaching.com/Groundspeak would listen to me or change anything anyway lol....

On all three of the caches I discussed above I asked cachers not to check coins in and out so the icon didn't appear on the listing, making it a target. Most kept to that, yet they were still stolen!

and

Groundspeak DOES listen to you! I have met most of the staff and they are great people, both personally and corporately interested in our success and enjoyment. They may not take our advice, but they ask for and appreciate it!

Ed

2k · November 21, 2006

I think that removing the icon from the "quick list" of closest caches is a great idea.

I still like the icons for the main page of the cache, stats, etc. -- they are kind of fun.

November 21, 2006

quote]

On all three of the caches I discussed above I asked cachers not to check coins in and out so the icon didn't appear on the listing, making it a target. Most kept to that, yet they were still stolen!

Being still somewhat of a novice cacher.. how would I log a found TB/GC as found so it shows on my acct page, yet not in the cache listing?

6.7k · November 21, 2006

quote]

On all three of the caches I discussed above I asked cachers not to check coins in and out so the icon didn't appear on the listing, making it a target. Most kept to that, yet they were still stolen!

Being still somewhat of a novice cacher.. how would I log a found TB/GC as found so it shows on my acct page, yet not in the cache listing?

These were unactivated coins, can't be logged anyway, until they are activated. You just log the cache like any other, noting "Took Texas 2006, Left Compass Rose" and no icon ever shows up on the page.

Ed

November 22, 2006

I'm not a collector of coins, but of the pretty icons for my trackables list.

But I know and meet quite a few collectors, and here is one scenario I think of:

There is a cacher, let's call him Joe. He is well liked, and known, in the local caching community. He is also a coin stealer and hoarder. However, this is not known to anyone else. At least not yet ......

Sometime in the future Joe dies. His family finds this hoard of coins. What do they do with them? Perhaps they recongize them as geo-coins, and contacts another local cacher to ask what is to be done.

Imagine the scene once this hoard of stolen coins becomes known to the local caching community. Imagine all the things the other cachers will say about Joe. Imagine the reputation he will take to his grave.

21.9k · November 22, 2006

Moving to the Geocoins Forum.

November 22, 2006

I have marked 15 coins out of my 187 coins missing.

1k · November 22, 2006

I have 7 coins travelind and one has been stolen :laughing: All but 2 of them have holes drilled in them and of corse the one missising is one of my first ones released and it did not have a hole drilled in it.The other 6 seem to be doing alright for now My traveling coins TB10VBJ TBXWR9 TBY60K TBNWFT TBY043 TBXWK3

and the missing one TBNECY

2k · November 24, 2006

I've lost many coins. When I know they are gone, I pre-pend STOLEN: to their name. So, if the coin is called "Lemon Fresh Dog's Travelling Coin" - it becomes "STOLEN: Lemon Fresh Dog's Travelling Coin".

If you want to see how many I have lost, do an advanced search for "STOLEN:" on the Travellers page.

Anyhow...sometimes I get all sad and vow never to release any more -- then I sort of get over it.

As for missions, clarity, etc.

Sorry. No dice. I don't buy it.

If something says "Trackable on www.geocaching.com" then the person finding it (being a cacher - new or old) knows where that is. They should visit the site and read the mission of the coin. If that mission is to travel - let it travel.

Now. I think that folks will look for any loophole to do what they know is wrong, but which gives them something they want. "I thougth coins weren't travellers" "I thougth they didn't have to move".

Maybe I'm just frustrated, but anyone that can download waypoints into a GPSr, use the GPSr to navigate to the location, find a cache, login to a website and record their find, and otherwise operate in the year 2006 - can read a simple paragraph and should know exactly what to do with 99% of the items they find - Travel Bugs, Coins, etc. There are few coins that are vague. I suspect if they went out and paid money for a coin they would figure it out pretty quick.

November 24, 2006

I've lost many coins. When I know they are gone, I pre-pend STOLEN: to their name. So, if the coin is called "Lemon Fresh Dog's Travelling Coin" - it becomes "STOLEN: Lemon Fresh Dog's Travelling Coin".

If you want to see how many I have lost, do an advanced search for "STOLEN:" on the Travellers page.

Anyhow...sometimes I get all sad and vow never to release any more -- then I sort of get over it.

As for missions, clarity, etc.

Sorry. No dice. I don't buy it.

If something says "Trackable on www.geocaching.com" then the person finding it (being a cacher - new or old) knows where that is. They should visit the site and read the mission of the coin. If that mission is to travel - let it travel.

Exactly! Like I said, when I found my first, I didnt know exactly what to do with it (IN THE FIELD) getting back and looking it up, it was pretty easy after that. The only prob I had was actually using the correct numbers for logging it. Took me a while to understand there was a public number and private number... duh! lol... Just TRYING to be the devils advocate, although, I cant really buy my own argument lol..

BTW... I like your idea of removing the icons from the "search" pages. Seems like that would be easier to do than remove them from the actuall cache page as is my idea. I think that would at least help cut down on those "trolling" caches looking for travelers to steal.

November 25, 2006

Each of my coins has a laminated note with it saying "This coin is meant to move from cache to cache for others to enjoy. Please do not remove it from circulation. It is not meant to be kept as a collectible". The coin's pages also say that, so there can be no mistake about it.

I think that's a great idea. Geocoins are one of the things I really enjoy in this game, and if said coins are not in circulation, I don't get to admire them. I move every coin I find. Probably 80% of the coins I find have nothing additional with them to indicate they are not just a high dollar piece of swag. I can certainly see how someone new to the game might get that idea.

Edit to add: I just released my first coin into the wild. I wish I had thought of Brian's idea.

ME, TOO!

November 25, 2006

I started geocaching at the end of July and I haven't had much time to go out and find caches, (besides, I am crumby at finding them, but I am getting a little better) but just to let you know how STUPID and NAIVE I am, it NEVER entered my mind that geocachers would steal anything from a cache! I had no idea what the forums were, either, until Glenn721 told me about them! The first TB I found was the Traveling Moose and I read that it wanted to travel, so I SENT it to relatives in Italy and then to Iran. 2 weeks later, I got a message from GC.com to put it back into a cache, but I couldn't, so I notified the owner, as requested. They didn't mind at all. I sent some pictures and I am getting ready to put it back into a cache. What I didn't realize was when it wanted to travel, it met from cache to cache! I now realize what I am supposed to do! So the point to this story is, it is hard to make a mistake, if you are honest. When you log these finds, you will be reminded. :laughing: So now, I know better and I do better.

Edited November 25, 2006 by Degai

November 26, 2006

I have lost a few. And had cachers with over 800 finds hold coins for months and when you try to send them a nice email they ignore it . when you bug them again they log it into a cache and then it disapears.

New cachers are the worst offenders. They cache for a few weeks then quit with your coin or bug.

I also think that cachers with small kids allow them to grab anything from a cache and let them keep it.

I will still be putting more out but I will be marking them better with tags.

Plumb69

Edited November 26, 2006 by plumb69

1.2k · November 26, 2006

Out of the 34 coins I have released 14 are awol. All have been drilled and tagged so that really doesnt help much. I have another 30-40 coins drilled and tagged that I was going to release but dont know if I will release anymore with that record.

2.3k · November 27, 2006

Out of the 34 coins I have released 14 are awol. All have been drilled and tagged so that really doesnt help much. I have another 30-40 coins drilled and tagged that I was going to release but dont know if I will release anymore with that record.

That is a large percentage missing, and I am seeing others report similar numbers. Very discouraging. I am sure you are tagging with specific instructions like I am doing. The drilling and activating the coin reduces the resale value to nothing, and its hard to understand someone enjoying the coin knowing it is wrong to keep it.

November 27, 2006

We have 1 Blind Acorn coin that is travelling err I mean stolen - I dropped it inot one cache CLEARLY marked to keep it moving that it was a traveller - we also did not officially drop it into a cache - then asked the first finder not to officially drop it on the page, but to let us know where it went - he didn't and it has gone missing - so pretty much one move on it...

Then recently we released a bunch of our personal coins on TB's - drilled and connected by wire and crimps - so far we were told that one cache we left it in (the first stop it made) no longer has any coins in it - ours plus a few others we brought on holidays with us...

so: coins 1 out 1 missing

TB's: 5 out: 2 missing, 1 being held and dipped by one cacher family since March,

so pretty much on travellers - we seem to have about 1/2 missing... not such a good number..

2.6k · November 27, 2006

I had two disappear at one cache. I have a feeling a new cacher picked them up and didn't understand what the requirements were.

What really upsets me is when the geocoins are placed in large events. The recent Katrina event in MS has several coins missing. Several people discovered the geocoins but no one is saying they have the actual coins. There are at least three to four coins that are missing from that event.

November 28, 2006

I released 3 geocoins and all are missing. Two dissapeared when the caches were stolen. The other dissapeared out of the cache with no mention in the log of it being removed.

I have released 6 TBs and all are still moving.

I plan on not releasing anymore geocoins. I will stick with TBs. Most of the TBs we release are released by my wife's 5th or 6th grade science/geography classes.

3k · November 28, 2006

Only 1 so far in a cache that was recently muggled. So we left a note of invitation to whoever found it, if they look it up online to give us a hollar and we'll tell them more about caching. :unsure: I'm sending out a new one today to Portugal to replace the missing one and pick up the original mission.

November 28, 2006

I recently released 2 geocoins... they were picked up by a great cacher at an event and he placed them in a couple of caches a few days later. The next finders on both caches stated that the coins were now missing.

While I fully expected the coins to disappear relatively quickly, I was hoping they'd get a chance to travel at least a little further 20 - 30 miles before doing so.

That being said... I was recently in the Bahamas and came across a coin that diasappeared from Michigan in August. There was no log of it having been retreived from the Michigan cache and no log of it having been placed in the Bahamas cache. So it is possible that "stolen" coins aren't really stolen and that they will reappear.

I don't hold out much hope for my coins... but I'll definately keep an eye out for them.

1.5k · November 28, 2006

One of ours "disappeared" from a cache. I went back through the logs, and someone actually made mention of having taken it. I emailed them very nicely and asked if they still had it. They did! They haven't been caching much lately and said they we get it out ASAP. I told them I was just glad it was safe. Sometimes it's just as simple as that.

Other times it's evil trolls.

Other times it's clueless wonders.

Coins go missing for a number of reasons, not all bad, not all good.

November 28, 2006

One of ours "disappeared" from a cache. I went back through the logs, and someone actually made mention of having taken it. I emailed them very nicely and asked if they still had it. They did! They haven't been caching much lately and said they we get it out ASAP. I told them I was just glad it was safe. Sometimes it's just as simple as that.

Other times it's evil trolls.

Other times it's clueless wonders.

Coins go missing for a number of reasons, not all bad, not all good.

Here's one for ya:

I like watching the coins I've helped move on. A very new cacher (well, newer than me), picked up a coin from a cache where I left it about seven weeks ago, but never logged it. So it shows up as still being in the cache. In their, log, they say they picked it up. I'm not the coin owner, so would it be proper etiquette for me to email the coin holder? Would this be a help or a hindrance?

1.5k · November 28, 2006

I think if you tell what you just said it would be very helpful. You like to watch them, you noticed this, thought you'd check and see if they need help logging it. Something like that.

December 21, 2006

I have sent out 18 coins and 2 TB 1 coin is missing 2 have bin in the hands of a cacher for over two months the one that is missing only made it to two caches. I have over 50 coins that will only be for discovering thy will stay with me. <_<

Edited December 21, 2006 by jevans7

December 21, 2006

I have lost 5 out of 25 coins released. That is about what I would have expected.

June 20, 2008

Cant believe it just had a coin stolen that was only released 6 weeks prior to my own cache.

Seems the culprit who I suspect logged on regietered with Geocaching and did 2caches then left or not signed on again .

A passing chancer I think with my coin AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Makes my blood boil.

Sorry Feel better i got it off my chest now.

Why d people spoil things for otheres what they doing with the coin now just sat on there desk or in a drawer.??l

5.8k · June 21, 2008

Yes collecting coins is a common practice. People buy the coins for themselves.

As for the geocachers that "collect" coins out of geocaches they are stealing. The coins are in fact a type of travel bug.

Whie I certainly understand what you are saying, I wonder if you are including anything with your coins that makes it very clear you wish them to be used as a TB rather than something the finder can keep?

I am not new to caching, have no interest in geocoins, but was sincerily under the impression that if I found one I could keep it. The reason I am under this impression is because one of the larger geocoin tracking sites specifies they do not have to be put into another cache.

Check out geocoin.net to see what I am talking about. On the main page click on the various coins that can be tracked at the site. A common blurb for the coins is "If you found one of my geocoins, log your find here. My geocoins are meant to be kept and enjoyed. You don't have to move them to a new cache but you can if you like. It will be interesting to see which geocoin can rack up the most miles before ending up in someone's collection."

So I totally understand why you wouldn't want your investment in coins to simply end up in someone's private collection, but I can also completely understand how people with no ill intent could collect them and be clueless they were doing anything wrong. If I found one I would at least log it and see what the owner's intent for it was, but that's only because I have been around long enough to know to check these things. I can see many cachers finding the coin and not even knowing what a geocoin is.

The coins that I have released say on them "Trackable at Geocaching.com" and have a tracking number stamped on them. This should be enough to know that they are not to be kept.

June 21, 2008

For those of you that are bitter about loosing coins T & TB's .I have lost a bunch of my coins & most of my travel bugs but I still find it fun & keep putting them out there ,just like people are supposed to trade even or up & that hardly happens ....but still caching is fun. Like everything thing else out there there are a few bad apples .....don't let them spoil the whole crate. :unsure:

1.1k · June 21, 2008

I have 138 trackables out there(121 geocoins and 17 Travel bugs)

Total missing 16 (13 geocoins and 3 travel bugs)

Three of them(all geocoins) never even made it from the first cache I placed them in.

2 of the above 3 were stolen by the same character....of which one was in my cache which also turned up missing....

Some people are just plain ridiculous.

Oh well have fun and enjoy....

June 22, 2008

I have 6 coins traveling and 3 have gone missing. Two were quite mysterious, a cacher picked one up and held it for 4 months or so. I sent her a nice email and she apologized and said she would put it out that day. Well she logged it into a popular cache in their area and the very next cacher THAT DAY said it wasn't there. Seems that possibly she had lost the coin and didn't want to admit it. Another coin was picked up but never logged out and held for over a month and ... again, I wrote a nice email and the coin was dropped in a cache in another state. The cacher then wrote to me asking for the tracking number since he had never logged it out and didn't have it in his inventory, I gave it to him and the next cacher on the next day said the coin wasn't there. My assumption is he lost it, which is why he never logged it out.

This just seems like dishonesty. I would much prefer someone saying "...oops, I lost it".

So a 50% loss for me. :angry:

June 22, 2008

oops duplicate post

Edited June 22, 2008 by rgbgal

January 4, 2009

I like take Geocoin out of cache, it reward for work hard. I buy geocoin but no like them, i like free geocoin that i must find. I thank you you for give me geocoins..i give them to little bro and sister in africa, they no see gps, let alone geocoin, they veri happy, they take coin buy sweet.

1.2k · January 4, 2009

I like take Geocoin out of cache, it reward for work hard. I buy geocoin but no like them, i like free geocoin that i must find. I thank you you for give me geocoins..i give them to little bro and sister in africa, they no see gps, let alone geocoin, they veri happy, they take coin buy sweet.

Well, most of the coins you find in a cache you are not supposed to keep or even give to a noncacher.

They are supposed to be placed in another cache. If you want to give some coins to kids in Africa you will have to buy them from a store or you will have to find an unactivated coin in a cache...

January 4, 2009

I like take Geocoin out of cache, it reward for work hard. I buy geocoin but no like them, i like free geocoin that i must find. I thank you you for give me geocoins..i give them to little bro and sister in africa, they no see gps, let alone geocoin, they veri happy, they take coin buy sweet.

It's not April 1 yet, is it?

Strange. :unsure:

1.2k · January 4, 2009

I like take Geocoin out of cache, it reward for work hard. I buy geocoin but no like them, i like free geocoin that i must find. I thank you you for give me geocoins..i give them to little bro and sister in africa, they no see gps, let alone geocoin, they veri happy, they take coin buy sweet.

It's not April 1 yet, is it?

Strange.

Unfortunately it is not, just read his logs to the caches he found...

He steals coins from caches and if there are no coins in there, then he destroys the caches... :sad:

January 4, 2009

I have had several geocoins stolen over the past year and a half that I have been geocaching, and my wife has lost around ten - she has a lot of geocoins. They were all clearly marked as well as a clear description of intent on their home page. Rarely is the act of keeping or misunderstanding intent of a geocoin's mission the reason that coins disappear. With one exception, every time one of our coins has disappeared, there was no log entry that someone found the cache, and certainly no log entry for the coin. Stealing geocoins is a deliberate act, as well as a pointless one.

I can't figure out what motivates geocoin thieves. Are they like the creature Gollum, stroking their "precious" in a dark cave? I mean, if you possess stolen geocoins, you can't show them to anyone else. No one else could discover them, or the fact of their theft and location would come to light. Yet, disappear they do.

In my neck of the woods, we have a family that has a reputation for being geocoin thieves. At events, they have two cases of coins, one they share and one they don't want people to look at. Why? What's the point? I cannot say with evidence that they are guilty of this, but if every one believes that they are, what's the difference? They have become outcasts; most people won't associate with them any more.

In a nearby cache belonging to my wife, we recently were informed that the four coins in the cache inventory were all missing. As this cache is at a busy location, and because some geocachers, especially newbie’s, tend to not employ as much stealth as they should, she posted on the cache description page a note advising people as to what has happened and suggesting that they not leave any trackables in that particular cache.

In my mind, all of these events are a crying shame. I guess that I too was naive enough when I first started caching to think that this was a community of like-minded individuals with the same goals of finding caches, trading swag, and moving along trackables, garnering icons along the way. It has really been a disappointment to find that some selfish individuals have their own agenda and are low-life enough to steal geocoins from the owners as well as deprive the community a whole.

Consequently, my wife and I now rarely place geocoins into circulation; mostly now we just discover at events. That too is a shame because I would love to see one of my trackables travel all around the world. I still have a few out there that are still in circulation, but I always worry about them falling into the wrong hands. I know that some have taken to making replicas of their geocoins and circulating those instead. From their point of view, I can totally understand, but as a potential finder, I don't like finding a replica, to me that is no find at all. I want to see the real thing. And so it is a shame that people have been driven to this point. As someone posted earlier in this thread, it will soon be where circulation geocoins will be a thing of the past. And that is very unfortunate.

1k · January 4, 2009

Total LOST or STOLEN now is over 200. With numbers like this in less than 3 years I quit dropping them....proxy only now..........

2.2k · January 4, 2009

I like take Geocoin out of cache, it reward for work hard. I buy geocoin but no like them, i like free geocoin that i must find. I thank you you for give me geocoins..i give them to little bro and sister in africa, they no see gps, let alone geocoin, they veri happy, they take coin buy sweet.

It's not April 1 yet, is it?

Strange.

Unfortunately it is not, just read his logs to the caches he found...

He steals coins from caches and if there are no coins in there, then he destroys the caches...

I'm with darnjoeSNARG; it's either a joke or someone deliberately out to yank our chains. Interesting that someone with such an apparent lack of facility with English would know enough about English to title itself "Geocoin Trolls". And a burst of apparently violent activity after a year and a half of inactivity (before which whoever it was who was using the "fifafu" account posted like a normal geocacher). I'll be interested to see future posts from the cache owners to see if anything actually happened to the caches -- I'm more liable to believe that "fifafu" logged the cache that way to frighten the owner.

I wonder if "fifafu's" parents know that their kid or kids are playing with their account?

(I highly doubt that an actual thief would be so monumentally stupid as to post something bragging about it here. Especially someone in Singapore. As I understand it, the penalty for thievery is somewhat strict there.)

Stolen Geocoins

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