Cache trashing - SW London

[+Primitive Person]

I've had it pointed out to me that there's a cache trasher at work in SW London. Three have been targetted so far, all in and around Worcester Park.

 

The culprits are not premium members, so I've immediately made my own caches premium-only and will check them shortly to ensure they're OK.

 

I thought hard about whether to post this here, but I thought it was the best way to make everyone aware. However, PLEASE don't make a bigger deal out of this than necessary - let's not debate it endlessly, as these people want attention and I fully intend not to give them any. Previous discussions on this topic have gone on forever and given the trashers far more attention than they deserve.

 

Just pointing this out for local cache owners to action as necessary.

 

Lee

[Edgemaster]

I've retrieved the cache that was initially found by the trashers (originally 8ft up a tree) on behalf of the owner.

The trasher had moved it some 20m away and rehid it (leaving a map to the new location in the original hiding place). They renamed the cache and took it upon themselves to "refurbish" it...

[+Primitive Person]

I suspect the novelty will wear off fairly quickly and the whole problem will pass. I'll keep an eye on the situation anyway.

[team tisri]

I can't help thinking that turning caches into simple multis/offsets would help the problem.

 

As it stands anyone can create an account and see the little green boxes on Google Maps, in enough detail to find them without a GPS at all. Turning them into simple multis would mean that the yellow box on the map isn't where the cache is, and they would need to make a reasonable effort to follow a puzzle. Whereas, for the genuine cacher, the simple puzzle is just a part of the game.

[+Primitive Person]

I can't help thinking that turning caches into simple multis/offsets would help the problem.

 

As it stands anyone can create an account and see the little green boxes on Google Maps, in enough detail to find them without a GPS at all. Turning them into simple multis would mean that the yellow box on the map isn't where the cache is, and they would need to make a reasonable effort to follow a puzzle. Whereas, for the genuine cacher, the simple puzzle is just a part of the game.

 

Well, maybe - but I strongly suspect the culprit(s) here are just bored kids who will rapidly get just as bored doing this, and give up soon enough. They don't seem to be doing it for the "ideological" reasons that some cache-trashers have been hiding behind. I suspect they won't do any more, because almost all the local caches are now premium-member only anyway. I'll give it a couple of weeks, and if the trashing account hasn't been active, I'll open them back up again.

 

Lee