Travel bugs not in cache?!

[calikrypto]

I am fairly new to this sport but I have hit several caches recently that had all had long lists of travel bugs that were supposed to be in the cache. Upon finding, the bugs are nowhere to be found. The one I found last night had a list of 7 travel bugs and 2 geocoins that were supposed to be inside. None were in the cache! Am I just having bad luck or are the lists always inaccurate?

[Motorcycle_Mama]

This is fairly common. Some people take them and don't immediately log them.

 

Some people really take them and never log them.

[+Harry Dolphin]

And, some people don't log their cache finds, so we can't look at the cache in question. Or maybe just slow in logging?

Some TBs get muggled. Some get stolen. Some get picked up and moved, but not logged in or out.

Common? Unfortunately.

Cache owners and TB owners have to option to move missing TBs to an 'unknown' location, but many do not.

[+briansnat]

Cache owners and TB owners have to option to move missing TBs to an 'unknown' location, but many do not.

 

I will do this if someone e-mails me about a TB not in the cache, but it's not like I check my caches

all the time make to make sure the TBs are there.

 

So if anyone does encounter a missing TB, a note to both the TB owner and cache owner would be helpful.

Edited January 26, 2008 by briansnat

[Keystone]

I think there is still widespread blissful ignorance of the "mark missing" option, introduced in December 2003, that moves a trackable off a cache page and into an "unknown location." Or, even if the cache owner or trackable owner knows of this option, they aren't alerted to the issue of missing trackables on the cache's inventory.

 

Here are some suggestions to help with the problem. They come from someone who has moved more than 1,000 bugs and coins to "an unknown location" in the past six months.

 

1. If you are a cache owner, compare the physical inventory of trackables to what's listed on the page, each time you make a maintenance visit to your cache. Move the missing ones. Leave a note on the trackable's page to let the owner know what you did.

 

2. If you are a cache owner, and you see multiple reports from reputable geocachers that a bug or coin is no longer in the cache, and it was placed months ago, move that trackable out of your cache. Again, leave a note for the owner.

 

3. If you are a finder, take a moment to note in your log that you did not see the ABC travel bug and the XYZ geocoin listed in the inventory.

 

4. If you are a trackable owner, and your item hasn't moved for awhile, check the logs on the cache where it was last seen. If people have been reporting for months that it's missing, move your trackable out of the cache inventory and into an "unknown location." There's a point where you have to let go of the "delayed logging" dream and accept the fact that the trackable isn't in the cache.

[+MountainMudbug]

Try owning a cache where the TB turnover rate is big and the logging of TB taking is slow because people are on vacation or/and forget they took a bug.

 

On a regular basis cachers get disappointed because they thought there'd be a bunch of bugs based on the cache page info, but discover they'd already been taken and not yet logged online. And then some of the TBs never get logged online as taken, and I have to go through and "mark missing" on them after a while.

 

A finder once suggested that muggles were stealing the bugs (but apparently not doing anything else to the cache). Another recommendation was that I make the cache a micro so this wouldn't happen anymore.

 

All I can say is, cachers should strive to log TB movement online as quickly as possible.....

[jholly]

4. If you are a trackable owner, and your item hasn't moved for awhile, check the logs on the cache where it was last seen. If people have been reporting for months that it's missing, move your trackable out of the cache inventory and into an "unknown location." There's a point where you have to let go of the "delayed logging" dream and accept the fact that the trackable isn't in the cache.

 

So you marked your bug/coin unknown location and some time much later some one finds it in a cache and logs the bug/coin. Does it now move from unknown to the hands of the finder? If it does the mileage only the distance from the cache where it went unknown to the cache where it was found?

 

TIA,

Jim

[+Trucker Lee]

 

So you marked your bug/coin unknown location and some time much later some one finds it in a cache and logs the bug/coin. Does it now move from unknown to the hands of the finder? If it does the mileage only the distance from the cache where it went unknown to the cache where it was found?

 

When someone discovers a trackable that shows to be in an unknown location, they just need to "grab it" to get it into their inventory. Not sure about the mileage, but it seems only the mileage from known locations would be computed.

[Keystone]

Moving a trackable to an unknown location does not affect its mileage.

If it turns up later in the bottom of someone's backpack, the bug can be grabbed back from the unknown location and into that geocacher's inventory, without affecting its mileage.

When the rediscovered trackable is dropped into its next cache to resume its journey, the mileage will update from the last cache to the new cache, just as if it had never detoured to an unknown location.

 

In this regard, the "mark as missing" option is superior to the outdated "travel bug graveyards" which it was designed to replace.

[Rostropovich]

How do I move the travel bug icon from a cache when you search for It?

[Keystone]

A trackable bug can be moved from a cache's inventory to an "unknown location" by three types of people:

1. the owner of the trackable
   
2. the owner of the cache where the trackable is shown in the inventory
   
3. a volunteer cache reviewer or Eartha, the travel bug / geocoin moderator
   

If you are just a seeker of the cache you can't do anything except report the situation for action by someone in a position of responsibility.

[dutchmaster]

I'm afraid there is another reason, the owner of the cache has removed the TBs or coins and allowed the icons to remain to get more visits to that peticular cache. These same people will drop bugs and coins into their own cache(s) but log it as a find because posting a note or a maintenance check doesn't update the "last found" date. The cache looks more appealling if the last visit was a recent one instead of a cache with no finders for half a year or more, raising the question "is it still there?".

 

The most unacceptable, downright rude, nasty, etc., practice, is when someone picks up a sought after coin/icon and doesn't log it until the next finder visits the cache, comes up empty handed and reads the next day that the item is a (forgot to log it) or was dropped into another cache days ago. You know, like not logging a FTF until after the next guy finds it.

 

feeling depressed?

dutch