GeoPoachers

[+SangreJoven]

I do not know if this is a real word or if I have coined a new term, but it refers to Geocachers that take swag (usually geocoins and / or travelbugs) and do not log them. Many times I have been to caches expecting to find coins or TBs and they are not there. Anyone else out there have this challenge?

[+DammitNanet]

I love the word. I put a really cool geocoin in a container recently and it went missing by the next person who went for this cache. It could have only been a GeoCoinPoacher?

[+rdaines]

Not sure that they are poachers but there sure seems to be a lot of taking and then not reporting. I have lost quite a few coins and TBs this year. One disappeared from the first cache I put it in. Given the cost of the TB or coin and them the hitch-hiker I'm losing things at about $10 a pop.

[+flask]

in common practice "poacher" is often used to denote a person who hunts and finds a cache before it is published.

[+Miragee]

Around here we just refer to the person/persons who have been doing that for more than a year as the "Coin thief!"

 

Three coins that were "entrusted" to me when I retrieved them from caches went missing as soon as I placed them in other caches. One was a "Golden Octopus" coin from Germany that had traveled more than 27,000 miles (IIRC). I put that coin in a Puzzle cache thinking it was safer there. It didn't last more than a few hours . .

 

Now, if I retrieve a Geocoin I put it in a high-Terrain cache, hoping the thief is too lazy to work that hard to steal a coin.

[+briansnat]

I do not know if this is a real word or if I have coined a new term, but it refers to Geocachers that take swag (usually geocoins and / or travelbugs) and do not log them. Many times I have been to caches expecting to find coins or TBs and they are not there. Anyone else out there have this challenge?

 

We call them slimeballs.

[+TexasGringo]

I've been to several GeoCaching Parties where people show off their GeoCoin collections and items for trade.

 

I've never really looked thru them because I'm always afraid I would see some of my GeoBuddies missing GeoCoins, complete with registration numbers, and then have to ask why they are in a collection...instead of being in the caches where they were last logged.

[+AKStafford]

I've had coins and bugs that I've placed in caches disappear... It sucks when it happens, but due to the "decentralized" nature of geocaching (meaning there's no way to make everyone follow the rules) it's going to happen. All you can do is mimize the chances by placing them in caches that are less likely to be muggled or easily accessed.

[+briansnat]

I've been to several GeoCaching Parties where people show off their GeoCoin collections and items for trade.

 

I've never really looked thru them because I'm always afraid I would see some of my GeoBuddies missing GeoCoins, complete with registration numbers, and then have to ask why they are in a collection...instead of being in the caches where they were last logged.

 

I think most people who steal coins are smart enough not to bring them to events.

[Luckless]

I increased the cache size at a popular vacation cache so that it would hold coins. I was real excited when people started leaving coins there. When they started disappearing I downsized the container so it doesn't hold coins anymore-shame.

[+nekom]

I never understood why you would want to collect something that is designed to travel and has no real value otherwise. But keep in mind that sometimes people just forget. I put 3 tb's in a cache once, checked back and one of them was noted as missing from the cache. I started second guessing whether or not I had dropped it on the way or something, but it just turned up in a cache 6 states away 4 or 5 months later. Somebody had simply taken it and forgot/neglected to log it.

[+StarBrand]

Some of my TBs have appeared to be missing for as much as 3 years before mysteriously re-surfacing in another cache. Don't be too quick to write them off. I think some of the cachers that don't log online are moving these things around.

[+J-Way]

Some of my TBs have appeared to be missing for as much as 3 years before mysteriously re-surfacing in another cache. Don't be too quick to write them off. I think some of the cachers that don't log online are moving these things around.

Or they fall between the couch cushions, or under the seat of the car, or behind the dresser, etc. I personally lost a really nice geocoin that way. I picked it up and logged the find on Saturday. I was going to take it to work with me on Monday to drop it in a nearby TB hotel but couldn't find it. Still no luck after two weeks, so I notified the owner about the loss but asked him to keep showing the coin in my possession so I would be reminded of it every time I logged in to GC.com. I still look for it on occasion, and I'm going to do a major reorganization of my home office in a month or so that might dislodge it.

[Clan Riffster]

Although I've never stolen a coin or bug, I am a terrible caretaker of them. I'll find a kewl one in a cache, drop it in my backpack, then promptly forget about it until I clean it out some time later. Doh!

[+Thrak]

I have a bug called Night Cacher that was removed from a cache and never dropped. I tracked down the log where a person said they took the bug and sent email. It took a couple of tries but I finally got an email back saying he was "having trouble" dropping it. I offered to send a pre-paid package to get my bug back. No reply. I have since sent several more emails over the course of a few months requesting that the person either drop my bug into a cache or supply me with an address where I can send a postage-paid pacakge so he can mail the bug to me. He refuses to reply and has now deleted the bug from his inventory. I can't understand why he would be so intent on stealing my bug. It really makes me angry.

[+flask]

i'm sometimes accused of coin theft.

 

if i pick your coin up, i won't put it down in a cache that i deem unsuitable. i won't put it down in a dicey location, or in a container that needs maintenance, or in a cache that just seems unstable. sometimes it takes a while.

 

if you email me and tell me to put it out anyway, your coin goes into the first roadside gladware i can find.

[+Team LaLonde]

I lose my own around the house on a regular basis. We just released them 'into the wild' so they might get a chance to put a smile on someone's face rather than sit in a drawer. They will probably get stolen but hey, life is full of risks.

 

Personally I think bug and coin thieves should just be thumped!

[+Thrak]

I picked up a bunch of bugs and a couple of coins recently when I visited my daughter. I live in California and we traveled through Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon. I snagged some travelers along the way. I dropped all the regular bugs into a TB cache just outside of town as I returned home. I have two coins that I picked up that I failed to drop. I'll be taking them to an event on Saturday and I'll let someone there take them to move on. I can't imagine not moving someone's bug or coin. It's such a simple thing and it brings happiness to folks. Why mess with that?

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I have a bug called Night Cacher that was removed from a cache and never dropped. I tracked down the log where a person said they took the bug and sent email. It took a couple of tries but I finally got an email back saying he was "having trouble" dropping it. I offered to send a pre-paid package to get my bug back. No reply. I have since sent several more emails over the course of a few months requesting that the person either drop my bug into a cache or supply me with an address where I can send a postage-paid pacakge so he can mail the bug to me. He refuses to reply and has now deleted the bug from his inventory. I can't understand why he would be so intent on stealing my bug. It really makes me angry.

You may wish to consider that he may have lost the bug, and for some reason, he may have a hard time admitting that. While I am personally not into TBs and geocoins, the predominant viewpoint among local cachers in my area (Maryland) is that the vast majority of "missing" TBs and geocoins -- acts of vandalism aside -- can be accounted for by the fact that they were likely picked up by relative newcomers or "occasional geocachers" who simply do NOT understand that these are not trade items or gifts, but rather that they are items which are supposed to be moved along to another cache. I happen to agree with that assessment of the situation.

 

My own point of view on the matter is that releasing a TB or geocoin into the wild -- that is, placing it in a cache -- is an act of offering it as a gift to the geocaching community at large and at that point, the "owner" must be willing to let go of it and set it free. In other words, I see releasing a TB or coin as nothing less than an act of setting it free and surrendering it to God and the Universe (which includes quirky geocachers and clueless geocachers); it is about "letting go", it is about surrender of control.

 

Some people just do not seem to get the thing about "letting go" and the closely-related affair of having a sane perspective on the whole matter of setting TBs and coins free in the wild; here is one example: I once attended a local geo event where, as fate would have it, my geofriends and I happened to sit near a physician (I only mention that because he advised me and others of the fact about eight times) geocacher who was apparently quite "into" TBs and geocoins. Even though the event was held in a wonderful setting (a forested state park) and even though it was a beautiful day, and even though the event was packed with lots of lively and friendly geocachers, and even though there was lots of great food at the potluck table just a few yards from us, this man was quite obviously very angry and depressed (and he remained so for the few hours he was within earshot/sight of me) and he needed to compulsively tell everyone who came along that he was furious about the fact that he had set free a number of TBs and coins over the past twelve months and that many of them had since gone missing (his word for it was "stolen".) in fact, this was the only topic which he was able to talk about for more than four seconds. He kept ranting and raving about "injustice", "evil", "wrong" and "thieves", and he was totally unable to hear the several experienced cachers who tried to sit with him and explain to him that these items are only small items worth a few dollars apiece and not worth fretting about, and that, in any case, they had likely been picked up by new geocachers (or by children) who did not realize that they were expected to move them on. Instead, he remained steadfastly and resolutely angry and depressed for the entire three hours that he was within earshot of me. Amazing! Totally amazing! He was a textbook example for a book entitled "Idiot's Guide to How to Make Yourself Unhappy"!

[+StarBrand]

...

My own point of view on the matter is that releasing a TB or geocoin into the wild -- that is, placing it in a cache -- is an act of offering it as a gift to the geocaching community at large and at that point, the "owner" must be willing to let go of it and set it free. In other words, I see releasing a TB or coin as nothing less than an act of setting it free and surrendering it to God and the Universe (which includes quirky geocachers and clueless geocachers); it is about "letting go", it is about surrender of control......

 

Shhhhhhh - don't tell anybody - but I largely agree..........

 

It took me a long time to accept that I have no control over what happens. I can ask. I can include all the relevant info including maps with the tag. However, in the end, I am entrusting it to the wilds of the Geocaching world. Sometimes it works great. Sometimes it does not. I just sit back and enjoy watching. I move them along when I can. I sometimes hold them way too long but I do try. Always convenient to drop them in the ammocan cache in the backyard if nothing else. However, this spring, 4 went missing from that one too. it happens.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Around here we just refer to the person/persons who have been doing that for more than a year as the "Coin thief!"

 

Three coins that were "entrusted" to me when I retrieved them from caches went missing as soon as I placed them in other caches. One was a "Golden Octopus" coin from Germany that had traveled more than 27,000 miles (IIRC). I put that coin in a Puzzle cache thinking it was safer there. It didn't last more than a few hours . .

 

Now, if I retrieve a Geocoin I put it in a high-Terrain cache, hoping the thief is too lazy to work that hard to steal a coin.

 

It is true that there are cachers who neither log the caches that they find, nor the travel bugs that they move. We found a TB in a cache in New Jersey that had disappeared from a cache in Florida eleven months earlier. Who know how it travelled those thousand miles? Unfortunately, the coin that I placed in that cache has been missing for ten months!

One of my coins disappeared from Pennsylvania, and turned up in a cache in Spain a month later!

Four of my bugs are missing. One was muggled, one was probably lost, one was left at an event, and never heard from again, and the other has been missing a year.

But, there are TB thieves out there. Especially geocoin thieves. Some of these people are known, and do not seem to have any qualms about it.

"Difficult cache?" I said to myself, pondering where to put the Red Jeep that I received. It went into a reasonably difficult mystery cache. Next cache finder, a week later, reported that it wasn't there. The cache does not appear to have been muggled. (Cache owner promised to check to see if there is any indication of what happened.) Now, this is curious! Ten people seem to know how to find this cache. Nine finders, and the owner. Some I know personally, some by reputation. Two were I and my caching partner. Very interesting and curious situation. It is entirely possible that the Red Jeep was picked up by a vacationer, and might not be logged for a week or two. I did leave it in New YOrk city. It might end up anywhere in the world!

[+atmguy775]

I was in Nevada in the beginning of July helping my Father-in-Law roof his house and during a break went to look for a new cache that had a red jeep in it. We found 2-3 extra TBs that were not on the list which I grabbed one, when logging in the find I noticed that nobody took credit for dropping them off. In fact the bug I took had been MIA for a year from a cache less than 50 miles from where I found it. These things will some times show up after awhile then there are some who don't...

 

For those who need to find peace with their lost TB or coin here is one of many graveyards that are out there :GCHGX5 Isle of the Dead - Australian TB graveyard

 

BTW Thanks Thrak for hitting my last cache in Nevada located in a little town called Elko. Kind of suprised me to see a familiar name on the logs.

[+imajeep]

I do not know if this is a real word or if I have coined a new term, but it refers to Geocachers that take swag (usually geocoins and / or travelbugs) and do not log them. Many times I have been to caches expecting to find coins or TBs and they are not there. Anyone else out there have this challenge?

 

Aren't they called 'thieves'? Petty thieves, perhaps; but thieves nonetheless.

[+simpjkee]

I have a bug called Night Cacher that was removed from a cache and never dropped. I tracked down the log where a person said they took the bug and sent email. It took a couple of tries but I finally got an email back saying he was "having trouble" dropping it. I offered to send a pre-paid package to get my bug back. No reply. I have since sent several more emails over the course of a few months requesting that the person either drop my bug into a cache or supply me with an address where I can send a postage-paid pacakge so he can mail the bug to me. He refuses to reply and has now deleted the bug from his inventory. I can't understand why he would be so intent on stealing my bug. It really makes me angry.

 

wow that would really piss me off. thats ridiculous

[+simpjkee]

I have a bug called Night Cacher that was removed from a cache and never dropped. I tracked down the log where a person said they took the bug and sent email. It took a couple of tries but I finally got an email back saying he was "having trouble" dropping it. I offered to send a pre-paid package to get my bug back. No reply. I have since sent several more emails over the course of a few months requesting that the person either drop my bug into a cache or supply me with an address where I can send a postage-paid pacakge so he can mail the bug to me. He refuses to reply and has now deleted the bug from his inventory. I can't understand why he would be so intent on stealing my bug. It really makes me angry.

You may wish to consider that he may have lost the bug, and for some reason, he may have a hard time admitting that. While I am personally not into TBs and geocoins, the predominant viewpoint among local cachers in my area (Maryland) is that the vast majority of "missing" TBs and geocoins -- acts of vandalism aside -- can be accounted for by the fact that they were likely picked up by relative newcomers or "occasional geocachers" who simply do NOT understand that these are not trade items or gifts, but rather that they are items which are supposed to be moved along to another cache. I happen to agree with that assessment of the situation.

 

My own point of view on the matter is that releasing a TB or geocoin into the wild -- that is, placing it in a cache -- is an act of offering it as a gift to the geocaching community at large and at that point, the "owner" must be willing to let go of it and set it free. In other words, I see releasing a TB or coin as nothing less than an act of setting it free and surrendering it to God and the Universe (which includes quirky geocachers and clueless geocachers); it is about "letting go", it is about surrender of control.

 

I agree about letting go and such, but this person who last took the bug acknowledges the owners attempt at retrieving it, but then just ignores it. Obviously the person is recieving the e-mails and still turning a blind eye to them without any explanation. Plus, if this TB was picked up by a newcomer, I think the e-mails are more than enough information for them to understand that the bug is to be moved. Yet overall, the person with the bug straight ignores the owner. Thats a little different than a bug going missing IMO. And being frustrated by that persons blatant disrespect is a normal reaction, not making yourself unhappy.

[+rdaines]

Repeating a behavior that does not result in a positive affect tends to be modified to a reduce frequency... meaning that if I keep releasing TBs (at a cost to me of $10 on average) and they keep getting stolen or poached then eventually I'll stop placing TBs. I used to believe that releasing as many as possible was he way to go, however, it seems that the more I place the faster they disappear. The final insults was a TB that traveled 0 miles and was stolen from one of my caches. A real slap in the face.

[+SidAndBob]

The final insults was a TB that traveled 0 miles and was stolen from one of my caches. A real slap in the face.

Incredible. I can see why some unscrupulous people would steal a geocoin (all mine are drilled, so I'll have to see how they go), but why would someone steel a TB? Was it something particularly attractive attached to it?

[andylphoto]

I never understood why you would want to collect something that is designed to travel and has no real value otherwise.

 

I can understand geocoins. Why do people collect anything...thimbles, spoons, beer cans, old bottles...

 

I have a couple geocoins in my "collection" simply because I thought they were cool coins. I picked up a Lewis & Clark anniversary benchmark geocoin because I like benchmarking, and a 50th Anniversary Mackinac Bridge geocoin because I am from Michigan. The ones I have I purchased, but I can see someone finding one and not thinking twice about stealing it.

 

A travel bug on the other hand, I can't understand keeping. Of course, there was also the guy I knew of who stole the men's restroom key from every Holiday gas station during a three-state move. I didn't understand that either...

[+jtbrady01]

I've picked up quite a few TB's and coins and logged a few as discovered only to find out that they were not logged into the cache where I have found them. I think a lot of it has to do with someone just getting in a hurry and not logging the fact that they dropped it in the cache when they logged the find. Do rush to judgement and write them off to quick. You can always email the last known holder of your TB or coin and see if they still have it. It might prompt them to log what they did with it.

[+Scout222]

i had that happen to me a few times iv gone out and didnt find any coins the one box had like 3 listed in it too

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

I've been to several GeoCaching Parties where people show off their GeoCoin collections and items for trade.

 

I've never really looked thru them because I'm always afraid I would see some of my GeoBuddies missing GeoCoins, complete with registration numbers, and then have to ask why they are in a collection...instead of being in the caches where they were last logged.

 

I think most people who steal coins are smart enough not to bring them to events.

 

Not true. We have had Jeep TBs disappear from caches in the area, only to show up at an event in another state and discovered by others. There is only one local cacher who frequents the event in the other state. Coincidence? Maybe, but Nah....

Slimeball ---- probably

 

Amazingly, they leave the purloined TBs in the event cache so that they don't get nailed recovering them.