Advice Needed: Possible Coin Theft

[+sillygirl & jrr]

Here on our rock in the middle of the Pacific, travelers usually fair about as well as anyplace else. Some travel for years, others are placed in their first cache never to be heard from again. Since many visitors pass through it is common for a bug or coin not be logged for days or weeks while a cacher is traveling.

 

On the other hand Geocaching activities are limited here. There are only so many caches & we can't drive 100 or 200 miles to find a cache or retrieve a special coin....

 

With that in mind, we've noticed something odd. Over the last couple months at least 8 coins have gone missing around the time a single cacher has logged a find on a cache. Either this cacher specifically mentions not seeing the coin or s/he will make no mention of the coin in the on-line log, but the NEXT finder will note it is not in the cache.

 

In addition 2 coins the cacher logged out of caches were NEVER found in the caches where this person dropped them off. In those cases the caches were found again in a day or less.

 

Anyone else have a similar situation in your area? If so how did you handle it?

Any and all advice on what, if anything to is welcome.

Mahalo,

JRR

[+sillygirl & jrr]

We've learned that this pattern did not begin in Hawaii.

 

Elsewhere, others have been less circumspect with their suspicions of coin theft.

 

We are of the opinion that more than half of the coin disappearances are due to newbie error, lack of info with the coin stating it is meant to travel, and sloppy paper work habits. So it is sad when someone who obviously knows how to log a coin behave this way.

[+Shebear & Storminn]

This sounds exactly like the sequence of events we noticed here on the mainland when Traveling Gnome traveled from Colorado, through Idaho and Oregon, and onto Washington before arriving in Hawaii. Caches in these four states all suffered the same fate upon his visits and we noticed that the first cache he visited in Hawaii followed the same pattern. He's got a pretty fair coin collection by now! I suspect that he either doesn't care or is naive enough to think that he has someone fooled. I wish you luck in dealing with him and his ilk. There is really nothing you can do with a thief.

 

Shebear

Edited December 27, 2006 by Shebear & Storminn

[+flyin hi]

Thank you sillygirl & jrr for bringing your findings to my attention. I had "launched"

2 coins and both went missing. My two sons and I are new to geocaching and were

so saddened at the loss before traveling anywhere. I was more upset that I had to

explain to a 6 & 9 year old that they had been stolen. One surfaced in what appears

to me a strange situation, but now it is sitting in a cache in Virginia. It's very sad that

a few "bad apples" can ruin such a fun game and get so many people angry at the same

time. I am going to send him a note myself and ask if he has it and to place it back in a

cache where it belongs.. I think that is all we can do and hope this geocacher is inundated

with enough notes from unhappy owners to change his ways. flyin hi

[+ReadyOrNot]

We've learned that this pattern did not begin in Hawaii.

 

Elsewhere, others have been less circumspect with their suspicions of coin theft.

 

We are of the opinion that more than half of the coin disappearances are due to newbie error, lack of info with the coin stating it is meant to travel, and sloppy paper work habits. So it is sad when someone who obviously knows how to log a coin behave this way.

 

In a lot of cases, the coin gets removed and there are no logs on the cache, which tells me it's a bit purposeful. On the other hand, I found a TB and didn't know what it was and it turned into a toy for my kid. Completely accidental. I'd put it back in circulation, but I don't know what happened to it Just finished watching a show on TV where they had a hidden camera and a clerk gave a person an extra $20 change. What was amazing to me is how many people ran off with the money. When they increased the amount to $100, many more people brought the money back. I think some people think that it's a low value item and that it's somehow okay to steal it. People come in all shapes and sizes.

[+ScoutingWV]

I've seen a mix of the activities described ...

 

There are a few caches in my area that appear to be on someone's watchlist. As soon as a coin or Jeep is placed it disappears. There are others that just won't be logged but they pop up again. They will usually be mentioned in the log somehow. It could be because the person forgets or they're just new to the game.

 

I avoid placing travelers in the ones that show a history of having TBs and coins go missing.

[+sillygirl & jrr]

 

In a lot of cases, the coin gets removed and there are no logs on the cache, which tells me it's a bit purposeful. On the other hand, I found a TB and didn't know what it was and it turned into a toy for my kid. Completely accidental. I'd put it back in circulation, but I don't know what happened to it

 

Yes we agree. One of our favorite geo-firends only found the gc.com website after looking at the "dogtags" his son had taken from a cache they found by accident. Unfortunately that is definitely NOT the case here. This is a quote from an e-mail sent in response to question about a coin that went missing immediately after their find:

 

"If you have read my log entry you may have noticed I'm pretty diligent about logging every item I discover or move. That said, I didn't see or realize there was a geocoin in the cache until after you mentioned it."

 

Okay, we don't always know what travelers are in a cache either. But, since moving to Hawaii this cacher has logged 16 finds. 2 of them are micros to small for any coins. 13 of the 14 other caches found had coins in them. Now how many of you can say there were coins in >90% of your recent finds. That is in part what makes this so sad. This is a person who knows how coins work, in fact they own several (and put out only copies to travel so that the coins are not stolen). How ironic. The odds of this being a coincidence get smaller with each find and every subsequent missing coin.

 

This is someone who has been the beneficiary of the generosity of this coin forum. They have traded coins, recently even won some holiday coins. I just keep thinking of the quote from the Pogo comicstrip, "I've seen the enemy and he is us." (Yeah I'm old enough to remember Pogo.)

JRR

 

edited to say if anyone else wants to contact us directly about this, please send an e-mail through our profile; due the ampersand we can't get forum PMs.

Edited December 28, 2006 by sillygirl & jrr

[+Eartha]

Closing this thread. We cannot accuse and name people, especially when you have no proof. There are so many reasons that trackables go missing. You cannot simply blame the last to log the cache. I'm sorry coins go missing, it happens. But you can't name names like this, so this thread must be closed. Innocent until proven guilty.