Long Lost Travel Bugs!

[+izzyvet]

I am very new at this, have only looked for about 20 caches, started a few weeks ago. So I don't know if this is unusual or not, but I think it's a little wierd. Twice now I have found TB's in caches that didn't have them listed and both times the bugs were MIA from the caches they were supposed to be in. The first one I found hadn't been logged in a few months, so I posted a grab for it and have since placed it in a new cache. Today at the cache I put that bug in, I found another bug.....cool! so I grabbed that one. Went to track it online and lo-and-behold, no one has logged this one since 2004!! I think it's great that I am finding these so they are getting logged again, but I have to wonder why they went missing, especially the one for 3 years? Are people moving them from cache to cache without logging them (my first guess). I kind of suspect the one I have now got lost under someone's car seat and they found it again and stuck it in another cache to cover it up

 

So is my experience unique? or can I expect this kind of behavior from travel bugs all the time?

 

I'm hoping to set my own first TB free soon, so I am curious if something like this will happen to it.

[Luckless]

I think a couple of times I've grabbed a bug and placed it in a cache without recording the TB number on the tag. When I get home to log it I can't because I don't have the number. I just have to hope the person who finds it isn't as dumb as me.

TBs get lost. My first one was traveling around Germany when the cache got muggled and it was stolen.

My second one I haven't heard from in a while. It only moved a couple of times. I'm still hoping it's only stuck in a cache that isn't frequented and maybe one day it will show up on the move again.

Things happen to TBs. Some TBs start out as one thing and end up as another because folks mess with them or lose parts to them.

I guess you have to be open minded enough to not be too disappointed if disaster happens and willing to take a chance that it'll have an adventure that you'll enjoy as it travels around.

[+BlueDeuce]

 

So is my experience unique? or can I expect this kind of behavior from travel bugs all the time?

 

Yes, it is unique. It's possible someone was holding on to one or two (or more) for quite some time and finally got around to releasing them. You just happened to hit the same caches.

 

I'm hoping to set my own first TB free soon, so I am curious if something like this will happen to it.

 

One of the most common pieces of advice given around here for Travel Bugs is Don't release anything you aren't willing to lose. That should tell you that having your bug go MIA is a distinct possibility. Try to give your bug every chance to stay in circulation. Start by reading this thread: Snoogans' Tb Longevity Clinic

 

Good Luck!

[4wheelin_fool]

 

So is my experience unique? or can I expect this kind of behavior from travel bugs all the time?

 

I'm hoping to set my own first TB free soon, so I am curious if something like this will happen to it.

 

Your experience is unique, but it's pretty cool that the bugs reappeared.

 

How far from Area 51 are you?

Edited November 11, 2007 by 4wheelin_fool

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

You'd be surprised. Our first travel bug went MIA pretty quickly. Our second has been held by someone who normally does a lot of caches, but has been busy at work lately and hasn't done much. But I trust it will eventually get moved.

 

Then there's the first geocoin we launched. It was in a cache that got stolen, so we marked it missing. A month later someone logged it saying they had taken it out before it got stolen, moved the coin, and was sorry they forgot to log all this time Now the coin has "crossed the pond to the UK"

[+izzyvet]

I read the Longevity Clinic Thread, it was very informative, and no, I don't plan on setting anything free I don't plan on losing. But for 10-15 bucks, even if it only gets tracked for a month or two, is still a pretty decent "entertainment value" Heck that's less than the price of a movie now-adays!

 

You guys are all so helpful, you rock!!

 

[+Ambrosia]

Every once in a while, a TB will pop back into circulation, which is so cool! One of mine was missing for over 3 years, before someone found it in a cache 3 miles from the cache it had gone missing in. One of the happier moments in geocaching for me.

 

But - I don't think I've ever found a missing TB like that myself, after 5 1/2 years and 1150 caches. That would be fun!

[+CSpenceFLY]

I found one earlier this year that had been missing for a couple of years.

The person that dropped it in the cache said their kid found it in the sand on a playground.

[+StarBrand]

Keep in mind there are a growing number of cachers that don't log anything online and sometimes they move our trackables around as well. I know of a local non-logging cacher that sees nothing wrong with moving Travel Bugs without logging.

[+trainlove]

You might be located in the area of a remourseful repenetant traveler thief who had come to his senses.

 

Now if only all those stolen geocoins would mysteriously re-appear.

[+BlueDeuce]

Holy cats there trainlove!

 

Ease up on the submit button, will ya?!

 

[+StarBrand]

So are you now a remourseful repenetant repeat forum post submitter?

[+trainlove]

I have no idea how those dozens of posts occurred. I blame the forum servers which must be on the verge of crapping out like the caching servers were back in January.

Now if only one could delete extra redundant repetative duplicate extra posts then all but one of those could go away.

Or if one could edit a post that's more than an hour old then I could 'blank' them out. I only now noticed the glitch and it's about 20 hours later.

[+Harry Dolphin]

We found a bug in NJ that had disappeared from a cache in Florida six months earlier. No one knows how it moved those thousand miles.

[Mr.Yuck]

Every once in a while, a TB will pop back into circulation, which is so cool! One of mine was missing for over 3 years, before someone found it in a cache 3 miles from the cache it had gone missing in. One of the happier moments in geocaching for me.

 

But - I don't think I've ever found a missing TB like that myself, after 5 1/2 years and 1150 caches. That would be fun!

 

Get out! I find them all the time. Longest one was lost almost 2 years to the day, and was dumped in a cache by an old-timer who rarely logged caches online. Just a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed one that was moved 500 miles unlogged, although it was only "lost" a couple of months.

 

As far as what the original poster said:

 

You might be located in the area of a remourseful repenetant traveler thief who had come to his senses.

 

Now if only all those stolen geocoins would mysteriously re-appear.

 

I don't know why I typed that, it was just in my head for some reason.

[+briansnat]

Not a getting started issue

[+Trucker Lee]

All the reasons for your finding those untracked bugs you see listed above are completely bogus!!!

 

The real reason for your spate of lucky finds is.....................

 

 

 

you just that good!!

[+Illinois Bill]

Every once in a while, a TB will pop back into circulation, which is so cool! One of mine was missing for over 3 years, before someone found it in a cache 3 miles from the cache it had gone missing in. One of the happier moments in geocaching for me.

 

But - I don't think I've ever found a missing TB like that myself, after 5 1/2 years and 1150 caches. That would be fun!

 

Get out! I find them all the time. Longest one was lost almost 2 years to the day, and was dumped in a cache by an old-timer who rarely logged caches online. Just a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed one that was moved 500 miles unlogged, although it was only "lost" a couple of months.

 

As far as what the original poster said:

 

You might be located in the area of a remourseful repenetant traveler thief who had come to his senses.

 

Now if only all those stolen geocoins would mysteriously re-appear.

 

I don't know why I typed that, it was just in my head for some reason.

Now that they have the discovered option for bugs just log any you see at group meetings and some may get back in circulation.