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A new ANIMAL has arrived - the "geotrasher"


fun2seek

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I have very few FTF’s (only 2 in fact) and watch them for interest sake, so when there was a note posted about one of them I got a notification. “Stones Throw” has been made unavailable because it was trashed. Not by a “muggle” but apparently by a fellow geocacher. This is DISGUSTING!!!

 

It seems this person was upset by what appears to be a minor issue with the sale of geocaching items on TradeMe. Someone was selling travel bugs at a higher price than yourself so off you goes and trash their caches.

 

If this is true please explain the logic of this to me, perhaps I am also an idiot and simple minded – but I just can’t understand where this person comes from? --- “My opposition is more expensive than me, so lets go trash their caches?????” Wow – good thinking! The excellent mature aproach is also to be aplauded!

 

So who gets hurt? The opposition – I think not!! Perhaps the many cachers who will now not get opportunity to visit what were some excellent caches are your victims. YES looks like you managed to target everyone. Well done – do you feel good??

 

For more insight you can go to http://www.geocache.geek.nz/ for the one side of the saga. There are two sides to every story so perhaps the “geotrasher” would like to present theirs.

 

Based on what I have seen, if it were me, I wouldn’t – I’d be too embarrassed. But if I am wrong about my understanding of the "geotrashing" actions I will apologise openly in this forum!

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This is truly a sad day for Geocaching in New Zealand.

 

I really hope it’s not true and a fellow Geocacher is not responsible for this vandalism. It’s sad when a cache is destroyed by a muggle, but a cacher doing this? I hope it’s a misunderstanding.

 

The way I see it is that caches are placed in the wild for the fun of all cachers and in a way belong to all cachers, so when one is destroyed it does affect all cachers.

 

Quite often cachers have made minor repairs to my caches in the field, and I do likewise. The community does work together to keep the caches going, this is why this latest action is very shocking to myself.

 

Lets hope this issue can get sorted out between the parties involved.

 

KiwiGary :D

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I wish it were a misunderstanding… unfortunately not :D

 

Kathy has summed up hers and our feelings on this in our blog. I’ll post my personal thoughts (previously posted to another forum) below:

 

Thankfully the price of portable video surveillance equipment has dropped over the past years. Motion activated and battery operated devices are readily available, that record directly to a memory card the digital video and images recorded. Staking out in wait turned into setting up and waiting… and it wasn’t long before our apparent paranoia was confirmed a reality :lol:

 

Towards the future… We are still very taken back by all this, the caches were individually hand crafted to suit the locations. Each cache represented many hours of work and planning. The cost alone of replacement is significant and a factor in us not replacing immediately (has been no mention of recompense). My wife is shortly due for a hospital appointment and surgery that will require months of resting, We are in the process of moving house in the coming week which all equates to less time we can be out there Geocaching. This was the reason behind us setting up our Geocaching store and the placing of our hides over recent weeks. The hides are a great way for us to keep an active role in the Geocaching community while we are unable to travel. The store was another way for us to help benefit other Geocachers as it is something Kathy will be able to do while in recovery as well as hopefully become a much needed supplement to our income while Kathy is unable to work and my own time out supporting her.

 

Initial Anger turned into disappointment, turning into dismay. Maybe in weeks to come we can come to forgive the actions taken. We have received a E-mail apology from the perpetrator (yet missing omission of guilt to all the caches destroyed), The E-mail also absolves the other half of the team whom they Geocached with, from any involvement. Whatever the outcome it’s certainly something that will take a long time to forget.

 

I guess the time frame will be governed by the Geocaching community (especially those involved who had logged visits and exchanged trades) and their response to these events.

 

Ultimately it is the Geocaching community’s decision to make on how to move forward. Hopefully when we have settled in to our move and normality returns we can see if there is anything left we can work out with them

 

Back to reality and the task of packing up a whole house! :lol:

 

As always it's nice to be able to get an alternate perspective on this and advice from anyone reading this is always appreciated.

 

Regards,

Andy

 

The following is an edited version of a email I sent to a fellow Geocacher when all this started. I think it best outlines my thoughts at the time. I understand that many of you now know whom we are referring to but I have hidden their ID in the text for the moment. Personally I’m a strong believer of owning up to standing up to the actions you do before seeking forgiveness and allowing everyone to move on.

 

A quick search on the Geocaching.com forums wasn’t much use, as most posts are reports of muggled caches in the traditional sense. I think what's hit us so hard is not the fact that the caches are gone (it's a risk any cacher takes) but that they were obviously done with malicious intent and by a fellow geocacher. The contents are irreplaceable in many cases and it's extremely saddening when we realised some TB's were lost in those caches.

 

As adults I guess you begin to believe that others share the same morals and maturity having left this kind of behaviour in the school playground. It’s a big kick in the teeth of reality that the world even on your own doorstep can be quite different. We also feel that once a cache is placed it becomes the property of the Geocaching community as a whole, as it contains shared items and the responsibility of all geocachers to help maintain; A personal attack by destroying a cache placed by us seems all the more misguided?

 

I returned to Whitwoods to have a hunt around with a clear head. I managed to find 2 items that were in the cache (a sticker and a hand made dog toy), both within a meter of the cache location, Unfortunately no sign on the TB which was the reason for my return ;)

 

I will try to fill in the background and series of events that I believe have led up to this. Maybe the best starting point is our profile on Geocaching.com that Kathy wrote:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=08...f6-d629505991a7

 

The ultimate goal of us setting up a Geocaching online store was to fill a gap in what we were able to find in NZ ourselves, we assumed that if we were looking for Geocaching supplies then others would be too. Because we had gathered a lot of information and research on making our own cache containers I wanted to benefit the community by sharing this. Kathy designed our online store but it was only 'live' the past 2 weeks.

 

*** REMOVED on advice – Text referring to competitive pricing of products

 

This was a matter days before the cache destruction’s occurred. (logs show Whitwoods was alive on the 17th Feb and a reported DNF of “143” was the first indication.)

 

*** REMOVED on advice – Text referring to general observations regarding events and our suspicions.

 

We wondered if we were looking too much in to things. Short of staking out in wait with a video camera we were at a loss as to how it could be resolved. We thought about caching under a different ID but believed the style of our cache hides (even more so our future ideas) would give us away.

(Kathy’s blog entry on our site continues from where this letter ends)

Edited by WackyB
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Looking at the profile of the said cacher i did see this

 

"Fun - That’s the only reason why geocaching is one of our hobbies. We don’t take it too seriously and we don’t take part in any discussions about the game. The minute we stop having fun doing it, the GPS devices will be turned off." :laughing:

 

I wonder if now that a lot of the caching community know who the person is, weather or not they will enter into any discussions??? At the VERY least make a PUBLIC apology to WackyB for all the stress caused.....or will they hide???

 

It's all VERY sad to see someone stoop this this level. :D:D;):D

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Well, Andy & Kathy, it was with real sadness that I read this thread !! - -------

I hope the person involved now sees how this sort of thing could make the whole game less fun than it should be. There is a huge market for sales in NZ, and it is so nice to be able to get coins & things without the delays. There should be plenty of scope for several suppliers anyway. --------------

 

I have now purchased 2 items from you on Trade-me with a quick delivery on 1st and lovely service and I'm just waiting now for the 2nd. Please take heart and keep going. Good Luck

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This is awful. I am quite new to geocaching. I find it a bit pathetic that someone seems to be suffering professional jealousy. Have made a purchase on trademe with Andy and Kathy (delivered today) and no doubt will be purchasing in the future.

 

Anything I can do just sing out.

 

TM username - andrel.

 

Regards

 

Andrew

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geez pud and TWS, why can't you just play nice!?

 

(Geocaching GURU? I haven't even cracked a half a grand and my FTF count's higher. So what makes one a guru? pure find count? Surely isn't find to placement ratio... I guess it's like "bishop" Tamaki... self appointed?)

 

LOL

 

The Pud is obsessed with me, why else would he have my profile pic as his avatar...... Sorry Pud, Im a married man :laughing:

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hello all

i,ve been geocache for only a few months so after cheching out the site decided to place my first cache unfortunately after only a couple of weeks it was trashed now if it was some one finding it by accident moving it or damaging it out of ignorance i could live with that (almost) but the thought that some one is deliberately going out and destroying it is really annoying especially as i put a lot of work into hiding and camouflaging it hopefully these people will get bored and move onto something more constructive and not destructive.

 

Derek

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