Hoarding? What to do now...

[+Jamesonsdad]

Hi all, I need some advice on what to do about a "situation". Here's the story:

I left 3 new travelers in 3 new caches I placed back in August of this year. The same person took all 3 which was just fine with me. What has happened since isn't fine. This person logged all 3 into another cache. A quick visit to that cache's listing revealed that it contained dozens of travelers placed there by this same person. This raised my curiosity, but not any alarm, since I had met this person before and assumed they were on some kind of Southeastern US travel bug reallocation campaign and not doing any real harm. After a couple of days I visited the actual cache in question, and as I suspected it contained not one TB. Soon afterwards the TB's began being fetched from the cache by a relative of the person who put them there. Again, no alarm, they were just getting ready to move again, or so I thought. This person grabbed all 3 of my travelers on 8/25 and, unfortunately, has held them since. This person still has a total of 12 travelers they retrieved from that cache in their online inventory. It seems the family lost interest in Geocaching around this time since it was months before they logged another cache (Perhaps my hides were so mediocre they swore off?) but they both have been out in the woods again since and make visits to GC.com. I E-mailed a friendly letter some time back requesting that my travelers be placed in a cache, any cache, as soon as possible but heard nothing in reply.

I put a lot of time and effort into two of the bugs, and the coin was a neat one that I wanted to share. I strongly disagree with comments posted elsewhere on this board stating anything you place into a cache is given away. That may be true of swag, unactivated coins and personal coins, but a TB or coin that has been activated and has a specific mission is not a trade item but property of it's owner entrusted to the geocaching community.

Right now I'm in wait and see mode about my captive travelers. What do you all think? Is there anything I can or should be doing?

[+BlueDeuce]

I'd wait a couple more months before sending another friendly email.

 

I know it's not fun waiting but I do think they will eventually be released.

 

I've got one that's been held since March and a couple that were held for over a year so I do understand the frustration.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I would hate to bring it to your attention, but, seemingly, some people who play this game may be less than honest. I know that that will come as quite a shock to you, as it did to me. I am think of a case wher I visited a cache, and left some geocoins. The next cache finder retrieved them, and 'put them back in the cache'. After that, they were reported missing. A few months later, the brother of said cache finder visited the cache (without leaving his home state quite a distance away), and picked up the geocoins (which no one had seen in the interval). Some were placed in a 'not yet published' cache (which has never been published). Some are still in the possession of said brother.

Now, I am perfectly sure that there is a honest, logical explanation for what happened here. But I have not yet figured it out.

So, as others will warn you, do not become too attached to your geocoins and travel bugs. They may or will travel, or they may disappear. Such is life.

Yes, there is more to this story, but there is nothing that can be done.

[+BlueDeuce]

HD is not wrong that TBs and (especially) coins are stolen.

 

When we say 'Don't release anything that you aren't willing to lose', that also means "Yes, you are not going to like it when it happens but you need to get the idea that your traveler might go missing, and half the time it's not by accident."

 

In this situation, I don't think we've reached the Lost Cause level. I think there is still enough time to have them put back in circulation.

 

Give it time.

[+joranda]

I feel your pain. I too have a TB that has been held by a guy in Canada for over a year now. I've emailed several time but no response. So I now what you mean. It sucks.

[+Miragee]

After reading this thread, I decided to check on my TBs. It looks like all of them have gone missing . . . except for one. However, the person who has that one left an obscene log which I promptly deleted. After that, I wonder what the chances are they will release it . . .

[+Jamesonsdad]

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I'll just wait longer and see what happens. Perhaps I'll run into this person on the trail or in a store, since we live within 5 miles of each other and ask them FTF whats up.

Travel bugs and Geocoins in my opinion are some of the most exciting yet most misunderstood elements of the Geocaching game. I still remember finding my very first coin. It was shaped like a pair of lips instead of like a quarter. Right then I realized I didn't know squat about Geocoins. Of course that didn't stop me from slipping it into my pocket and then later placing it in another cache

[+Renegade Knight]

...Right now I'm in wait and see mode about my captive travelers. What do you all think? Is there anything I can or should be doing?

 

Reading through what you have done I'd say you have done what you can do and done a good job of it. Now it's wait and see. Let out a long sigh, give up on the travel bugs and get on with life. One day you may be pleasantly suprised when they surface. If you turn any more lose, place them out of this persons normal range. Unless they don't bother picking up bugs anymore.

 

In the end this is a risk of doing business as a travel bug owner.

[+bettsbugs]

My husband and I first got into Geocaching in the fall of 2004. At the time we came across a travel bug named Abbey. The purpose of the travel bug was to visit different jobs. We happily took Abbey on a tour of Fairbanks, AK (where we lived at the time). Then the long winter in Fairbanks hit and Abbey got placed out of sight and forgotten.

 

The next spring, we were packing to move out of state when we discovered, to our dismay, Abbey in her 'hiding place'. We immediately took the time out to place her in a nearby cache to get her on her way.

 

After 8 months with cachers with only 13 finds to thier names, I am sure the owners of Abbey probably thought she was gone for good. It was an honest oversight on our part with no malice intended. Although, given the information you have given, there seems to be reason to believe that they TBs are gone, but it may just be real life got in the way.

 

I wish you luck.

[+joranda]

Since he lives so close, maybe you should have a event and he may show up dropping your TBs off into the event.