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A lot of effort to thieve a coin


Blue Canary

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It is ashame.

And with all do respect,

I am so tired of hearing folks say ...

"Well , It's Just a coin"

or

" when you set it free, expect it to go missing"

 

That's like giving these scumbags permission to steal it.

 

If it's OK with the OP,

Maybe we should make a list here of the different ways we are finding that Thieves are using to Steal OUR Geocoins.

Bring attention to fact that we know what they are doing.

 

Sorry,

No coffee yet.

 

Opalsns

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Unfortunately, I have heard of this scheme before, although it has not happened to me.

 

But do consider this: There is a replica of your coin circulating, and the real one is out there too. What does he plan to do with it? If he allows any discoveries, you will be able to catch him. If he sells on e-bay, you will be able to trace it back to him. If not, all he can do is fondle it by himself - how sad. By watching the logs that occur, you may be able to figure out who the thief is. Look for multiple 'discovered in the hands of xxx' logs over time, or a log mentioning purchased on e-bay. I bet he lives in the Texas panhandle area to be able to visit the cache easily.

 

I'm not sure we should post all the schemes of stealing - I worry that thieves lurk in the forums too.

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Sorry.... I do not know if I understood correct.... someone took the coins, took photos of them and made sure the tracking numbers will be visible, made the fake ones, left the fakes in a cache and kept the original pieces????

 

hmm.... is anyone from the geocachers here in the police or something??? Maybe we can see from fingerprints who did it.... In case there are more fingerprints, we can sort it by checking the other finders of the coins.... :laughing: If someone take the coins from the cache and sent them to you....

 

Actually I hope this can be done!!! I do not know the laws in the States... this is so sad... I am deeply sorry my friend!!! :laughing:

 

On the other hand... the thief is probably living close.... I can not imagine someone to go at least 2 times (one to take the coins and one to place the fakes), if he lives far away..... it will cost more than to buy the coins! :ph34r:

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I'd heard of this before too. Someone thinks s/he's very clever stealing coins but leaving proxies in their place.

 

At one time a poster even showed us with pics and all how he took coins in the wild and made replicas that he'd release in their place. His justification was that his hand made replicas were worth far more than the originals so he deserved the prize. Dufus even advertised taking his sister in law's costume jewelry (without permission) for his forge - ries. Elaborate schemes indeed! :ph34r:

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This just highlights the need to "damage" coins you release to travel so that their resale value and collectibility is reduced. When we release geocoins to travel, we drill a hole in them and attach a goal tag with plastic coated aircraft wire. Once we started doing this, we have had very few issues with them being stolen.

 

--Marky

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It is ashame.

And with all do respect,

I am so tired of hearing folks say ...

"Well , It's Just a coin"

or

" when you set it free, expect it to go missing"

 

That's like giving these scumbags permission to steal it.

 

I disagree. I don't think the thievery is bolstered by the helplessness/fatalism of coin owners. That'd be like accusing the rape victim of "asking for it".

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there are some real unstable psychos out there. i actually once had someone write in a logbook that they took my activated geocoin. they never grabbed the geocoin or recorded a discovery and they never replied to my emails or notes on their own travel bug page. can you believe that?! these stories never cease to amaze me...and...they live among us! :ph34r:

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there is not much hope of any legal remedy for this

 

after all, the item(s) were left in a public place

if someone comes along and takes it/them, they have committed no crime

if they are not a part of the GC community, it is a simple case of "finders, keepers"

and even if they are fully aware of what they are doing, they are merely rude, not a criminal

 

some local governments have outlawed geocaches on public property

and they did not even have to make a new law

they just call geocaches "litter", and treat it in the same manner

 

leave a tupperware container in the park with a moldy sandwich in it ?

it's litter - throw it away !

 

leave a tupperware container in the park with some happy meal prizes in it ?

it's litter - throw it away !

 

sad but true - if you leave your umbrella in the shelter at the bus stop, it is fair game

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I am a UK cacher who is one of the owners of a traveller (in my case a TB) that has been turned into a poker chip while in this cache. My TB was a piece of costume jewellery from my late mother. When I sent it out as a TB I accepted that it would eventually become lost but I didn't plan on some weirdo doing this. I think even the person who has done this would have to accept that replacing my TB with a poker chip hasn't increased its sentimental value. Or its monetary value actually as who on earth would want a poker chip with a TB number on?

 

I have asked the person who has picked up the chip with my tracking code on to destroy it. I'll release the copy tag.

Edited by Pieman
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A lot of effort to thieve a coin

 

Probably rationalizing the theft. "It's trackable so if I steal the coin and replace it with a tracakable the mission is intact and it's not really a theft after all and I get to keep the coin I stole"

 

Couple that with thinking that they will get away with it, because the number still travels and the owner is unlikely to see the item again to know it was swapped out. And even if they find out, what can they do about it.

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A lot of effort to thieve a coin

 

Probably rationalizing the theft. "It's trackable so if I steal the coin and replace it with a tracakable the mission is intact and it's not really a theft after all and I get to keep the coin I stole"

 

It kinda makes you want to find the person, take their car and leave them with a small die-cast hot wheels.

 

This type of thing unfortunately is pretty prevalent in a lot of other aspects of society. I am an assistant manager of a large chain bookstore where we find "things missing" all the time. I have one thief that tears off the back cover of the books so we know what is missing perhaps thinking that we get credit for the book if we know what it is. Another boggling theft is that the Bible is one of the top ten books stolen each year as people rationalize it as "the word of God" should be free.

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I just had someone contact me that had "retrieved" one of my geocoins. It seems that someone visited a cache in the Texas panhandle, took 7 geocoins, and replaced them with 7 poker chips with facsimiles of the geocoins attached, each in its own zip lock bag. Has anyone else heard of similar occurrences. Here is a link to the photo of the fakes. missing coins

 

Yes, I sent my avroair personal to Europe... it came back with a plane attached and a tag with a tracking number on it.

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I just had someone contact me that had "retrieved" one of my geocoins. It seems that someone visited a cache in the Texas panhandle, took 7 geocoins, and replaced them with 7 poker chips with facsimiles of the geocoins attached, each in its own zip lock bag. Has anyone else heard of similar occurrences. Here is a link to the photo of the fakes. missing coins

 

Yes, I sent my avroair personal to Europe... it came back with a plane attached and a tag with a tracking number on it.

Kind of like the "Rumors" game. Maybe that can be a new concept in Trackables? Send one out, and see what it changes into?

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It is ashame.

And with all do respect,

I am so tired of hearing folks say ...

"Well , It's Just a coin"

or

" when you set it free, expect it to go missing"

 

That's like giving these scumbags permission to steal it.

 

I disagree. I don't think the thievery is bolstered by the helplessness/fatalism of coin owners. That'd be like accusing the rape victim of "asking for it".

 

That was uncalled for.

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That was uncalled for.

I'm sorry I meant no offense. But it sounded like you were accusing the victims' acceptance of their coin's fate for what happens to their coins. Perhaps my metaphor was not the most accurate.

 

I did not Acuse anyone of anything.

All I said was that I will Not ACCEPT someone is going to thieve my coins.

Your metaphor was not in anyway a comparison to what I said.

 

But...

I accept the appology.

Thank You.

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I'd recommend that if you release a real coin, that you mark your coin's page with a line of text that says something like "This is a real coin, not a copy or proxy". If you release a proxy, put in a line of text on the coin's page that says something like "This is a proxy/copy of the actual coin, which is staying with me for safekeeping" (or something).

 

That way, you might have a chance of someone contacting you if they find the proxy or copy (if they see that it's supposed to be real, that is) and let you know that the original coin was stolen.

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And then, if the original is stolen, you change the name to "Stolen **** Geocoin - Pull the Fake out of Circulation!", or something bold like that. But please, be sure that it is actually stolen, and not just one that is lost in limbo because of a new cacher who doesn't know how to log it, or some other such situation. There must be some kind of proof, such as described above, to change the name in this manner. Don't call it stolen if it's just missing in action. There's a big difference.

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Call me the eternal optimist. Even if my coin is stuck in someone's collection for an untold amount of time (years) I still figure they will give up or die off eventually, and there is still hope for it to come back into the game.

 

And I can't bring myself to deface a coin and devalue it. If it is that important to the thief, then they can have it - no joy in it for them anyway.

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It kinda makes you want to find the person, take their car and leave them with a small die-cast hot wheels.

thank you for a small laugh on a very sad thread!

 

Ona more serious note - This person is indeed very strange and very needy - a bit child like in his/her rationalisation

i wonder what a profiler would make of it all?

 

maybe someone nearby could visit the cache and drop in a bunch of fakes ( bait ) and a BIG note (small slap) so the thief might understand the feeling of the other party - the let down of finding bits of paper however carefully crafted and labeled

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