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How to track down Cache thiefs?


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Is their a way geocaching.com can track who is online in a particular area but yet no logged finds?

 

I received an email inquiring about a tb hotel I had. They found the hint (3 stacked logs) but stated the logs where throwed about.

 

I checked on the cache 5mins ago and sure enough the cache is gone!!!! THIS MAKES THE 3RD CACHE IN MARTIN COUNTY, INDIANA that I have hidden that had 5 or more travel bugs in and all ammo cans and they have been STOLEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

What can I do to stop this. nothing ticks me off more than to have an ammo can filled with goodies and 2-3 of my travel bugs along with other caching members TBs only to have some idiotic moron come along and steal the whole dang thing!!!!!!!! Then I have to explain to the TB owner that no I am not some moron that hides caches out in open view......

 

I honestly believe that it might possibly be someone that lives in my area. We are not a big population county. at least 50% is nothing but farm land.

 

1st cache to be MIA was in an area that was more popular than I thought. Kids climbing the rocks could have very well have found it. My fault for not thinking....

 

2nd cache was 30ft off of a fire trail in the forest. I replaced that one and its still there, but I make dang sure to break my neck to get out there and get the travel bugs out of it if one is dropped off.

 

3rd and most recent cache to be MIA was located 96 ft into the woods and you parked on a pull off next to the highway... It was taken sometime between Aug 31 and Sept. 7th

 

At this point I am saying the Heck with hiding caches and leaning more towards selling the gps. Due to finds in my area. (and very few placed)

 

By car, I would have to travel 24miles to be able to start searching for a cache.

 

Kinda discouraging when you have bought 20TBs and have released 12 of them only to actually have 2 that haven't been in a cache that got stolen across Indiana and Illinois..

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Deal with it at the local level. Only involve other local cachers. Don't drag it into these forums where it only give the thief the attention they are looking for.

 

Queue the internets detectives that now enter the thread and solve the mystery for you from several miles away...

 

Not sure exactly what you are meaning, but based on finds and small cache events the closest active member to me is 15miles away. only confirmed finds around here are usually people passing through this small hick town that I call home.

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Rule Number One to avoid having your caches stolen by other cachers: Don't make enemies of other cachers.

 

Obviously, this isn't 100% effective because sometimes maggots go after any and all caches, but if you find that someone is targeting your caches, it is very likely that they are mad at you, personally, for some reason or another.

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Deal with it at the local level. Only involve other local cachers. Don't drag it into these forums where it only give the thief the attention they are looking for.

 

Queue the internets detectives that now enter the thread and solve the mystery for you from several miles away...

 

Not sure exactly what you are meaning, but based on finds and small cache events the closest active member to me is 15miles away. only confirmed finds around here are usually people passing through this small hick town that I call home.

 

The best way to locate the thief is to work closely with your local cachers and see if they can pinpoint the culprit. They may have information that you don't or they may know the thief or a relative of the thief. 15 miles away is still local. Meet your other locals and see if they have any ideas. Every local group knows who the guy is that can't seem to re-hide the caches he finds, the guy that doesn't log travel bugs in and out of caches, the guy that replaces caches he can't find with pill bottles and claims a find. Might be that your locals already have an idea who the thief is because they have dealt with him in the past.

 

Is it possible that the caches were removed due to property owner issues...?

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Is their a way geocaching.com can track who is online in a particular area but yet no logged finds?

 

We've had TB thieves around here before.

 

Several local caches had all their TBs disappear. This happened in other communities around our state before and after it happened here.

 

This practice stopped after about a year of on again, off again disappearances.

 

Most likely your TB thief will stop when his antics don't draw attention.

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1st cache to be MIA was in an area that was more popular than I thought. Kids climbing the rocks could have very well have found it. My fault for not thinking....

 

2nd cache was 30ft off of a fire trail in the forest. I replaced that one and its still there, but I make dang sure to break my neck to get out there and get the travel bugs out of it if one is dropped off.

 

3rd and most recent cache to be MIA was located 96 ft into the woods and you parked on a pull off next to the highway... It was taken sometime between Aug 31 and Sept. 7th

 

Sounds like you need to plan your hides better, not immediately think that there is some thief ganking all your hides. You yourself said the first hide was not an ideal spot, the second might have washed away (from your own log), and the third is a TB hotel next to a highway, which naturally have a high rate of being muggled. Heck, the people in the house to the south of the TB hotel might have removed it because it might be on their property and they didn't want people on it. But instead you think that some evil cacher is out there stealing hides.

 

The sun rises in the east, everyday. Babies are born, people die, and the IRS wants their cut on April 15th without delay. Caches get muggled, disappear, and need maintenance. All of the preceding are facts of life. If it bothers you that you have to partake in said maintenance, or that your caches might disappear... Well, I don't know what to tell you. Take up knitting, perhaps?

Edited by Cpl. Klinger
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What about making your caches available to premium members only.

This is likely the most productive advice here.

There are many possibilities regarding who could be taking your ammo cans.

One of those possibilities are bored thugs looking for opportunities to spread mayhem.

As geocaching gains popularity, folks who have no interest in playing become aware of it.

A few mouse clicks will show them there are goods to be had by following a GPSr.

Often, these folks are unwilling to fork over $30 a year for the priveledge of stealing stuff.

 

If it is not bored thugs, making your hides PMOs might not help.

 

There's a cacher in here by the moniker of Unkle Fester.

Rumor has it, he'll rent you a horde of mutant Ninja zombies for cache security. :laughing:

 

At this point I am saying the Heck with hiding caches and leaning more towards selling the gps.

What kind of GPSr? Maps? How much? :)

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Two years ago, we had a cache maggot stealing dozens of ammo cans, and befouling other types of containers with human waste and other nasty things, all around central and northern Indiana. There was a lot of conjecture about who the culprit was, and even games initiated to try and catch him. At some point, a name was bandied about, but I don't know if they ever did confront the guy. Eventually, he got tired of his own game and quit, just as many cachers do. Things that helped:

 

As suggested, premium members only caches may help. It did in our case.

 

Don't state the container on the cache description. Saying 'Ammo can' in these parts is tantamount to ringing a dinner bell: "Come and get it." There is an active market to buy ammo cans for $3-$4 each at army surplus stores, likely entirely related to the demand that cachers create for them. Just post the size of the cache and leave it at that.

 

Or use a different type of container. Old thermos jugs are pretty watertight, roomy, and there is no used market for them. I find them at thrift stores and flea markets for $1 or two each.

 

Take it out of the forums. He/she may like the attention and enjoy reading the rants. If you seek support of cachers in your area, try private email groups instead. Close this thread.

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Once you convert them to PMO caches, you can follow the audit log of those who visit the cache pages. That might help narrow it down to a culprit. The history will only include visits from the date it becomes a PMO cache.

I have had two night caches swiped and thought the audit logs would help. It did to a certain extent. A couple of cachers who don't like their stealing/vandalizing made public and were PO ed at me for doing that, looked at the caches the night before and immediately the morning after they were taken. At that time, those same cachers wouldn't go within 10 miles of one of my caches. Curious coincidence? Maybe, but even I have to admit, the log doesn't PROVE a thing! I "know" who did it but there is no direct proof.

How I solved the problem? The ammo boxes are now pad-locked to trees using aircraft cable! I know the cache contents are not protected and because of that, I do not encourage placing TBs in those caches.

Note to thieves; if you want to go back equiped with a bolt cutter, have at it!

I have a bias against TB/coin hotels for the reason the OP started this thread. The really innocent suffer because when a hotel is raided, TBs/coins go missing and that is the real shame.

Folks, now you know one of the reasons I have gotten really deep into EarthCaches. None of this crap is involved! :)

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'Bout all you can do is:

'Create' a new cache hide, somewhere easy, but not too easy. No container actually there.

'Drop' several TBs in the cache as bait. No TBs actually in the non-existent container.

'Stake-out' the location and wait to see what happens.

When cachers show up, check IDs, and then offer the log to be signed.

Your thieves will have received notice that you might be watching them.

 

Not very practical.

 

Maybe you should just wait a few months until the thieves go back to cow-tipping.

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Say you find out who it is, when what. Publicly denounce them? Get them banned? Escalate the situation?

 

Do this. Ignore them. If it continues move your caches to a higher level of difficulty and continue to ignore them.

 

That's about it.

 

I get so sick of the "what will you do if you catch them" replies.

Only a fool would say what they are going to do. Ever hear the term "plausible deniability"?

 

Sheesh!!

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Say you find out who it is, when what. Publicly denounce them? Get them banned? Escalate the situation?

 

Do this. Ignore them. If it continues move your caches to a higher level of difficulty and continue to ignore them.

 

That's about it.

 

I get so sick of the "what will you do if you catch them" replies.

Only a fool would say what they are going to do. Ever hear the term "plausible deniability"?

 

Sheesh!!

 

byte me.

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'Bout all you can do is:

'Create' a new cache hide, somewhere easy, but not too easy. No container actually there.

'Drop' several TBs in the cache as bait. No TBs actually in the non-existent container.

'Stake-out' the location and wait to see what happens.

When cachers show up, check IDs, and then offer the log to be signed.

Your thieves will have received notice that you might be watching them.

 

Not very practical.

 

Maybe you should just wait a few months until the thieves go back to cow-tipping.

 

There needs to be a website where people can buy small items that can be tracked. Cell phones are pretty small and have GPS capability now, so it's got to be possible soon to do the whole James Bond "tiny magnet tracker on the bottom of a car" thing.

 

Anyways, what WE could use them for is, if they're tiny enough, we put them INSIDE our TBs. That way, if our TB ever ends up missing, there can be a website we go to that allows us to see our "tracker"'s location live.

 

It reminds me of this story I heard on diggnation...a girl's macbook pro was stolen, and she used remote desktop to log into her computer on occasion to see if she could snap a built-in webcam pic of the thieves. She ended up succeeding, they were caught, and she got her laptop back.

 

It would be great if we could control such situations as well. :-)

 

Another thing you could do is:

call the police, (911 is preferable)

tell them a container filled with inexpensive trinkets was stolen from you where you left it under some leaves and sticks in the middle of publicly-owned woods,

follow them to the subsequent raid of a number of suspects' homes,

roll in the enormous pile of your retrieved travel bugs when the suspects are apprehended, tried, and executed.

 

But something tells me my first idea is significantly more plausible.

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Say you find out who it is, when what. Publicly denounce them? Get them banned? Escalate the situation?

 

Do this. Ignore them. If it continues move your caches to a higher level of difficulty and continue to ignore them.

 

That's about it.

 

I get so sick of the "what will you do if you catch them" replies.

Only a fool would say what they are going to do. Ever hear the term "plausible deniability"?

 

Sheesh!!

 

byte me.

 

 

As in, "Bits 'n bytes"? :anibad::o

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Don't state the container on the cache description. Saying 'Ammo can' in these parts is tantamount to ringing a dinner bell: "Come and get it." There is an active market to buy ammo cans for $3-$4 each at army surplus stores, likely entirely related to the demand that cachers create for them.

 

Oh, THAT could explain it.

 

IN that case, I have an idea. Make the ammo can useless for sale. Spray different color spots on it, like black and brown. Make the paint job UGLY... like lots of drips everywhere. Spray a smile face on it.

 

Then take a hammer and put a small dent on it. Enough to make it ugly, but not enough to make it useless.

 

No army surplus place would buy a "vandalized" ammo can.

 

Still good for geocaching, but not good enough to steal and sell. HA!

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Say you find out who it is, when what. Publicly denounce them? Get them banned? Escalate the situation?

 

Do this. Ignore them. If it continues move your caches to a higher level of difficulty and continue to ignore them.

 

That's about it.

 

I get so sick of the "what will you do if you catch them" replies.

Only a fool would say what they are going to do. Ever hear the term "plausible deniability"?

 

Sheesh!!

 

byte me.

 

 

As in, "Bits 'n bytes"? :blink::D

 

 

 

I can't believe this has gone unnoticed for as long as it has!! :)

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