+kcrew5 Posted October 20, 2009 Posted October 20, 2009 Our area has been plagued for years by a geothief(or thieves). I was just wondering if this happens any where else? Sure every area will have its share of random mugglings, or caches that go missing due to groundskeepers, ect., but I am talking about someone devoting themselves to finding and stealing every cache in a 20 or so mile radius over, and over again. So obviously noone wants to invest time or money into creative caches--it has to be a container that can easily be replaced(over and over). We cannot place TBs or coins. No sense even bothering with SWAG. And it is pointless to try a high difficulty level because noone wants to search for an hour for a cache that probably isn't there anyway! What would motivate someone to do this for years? Obviously they own a GPS and enjoy caching. They are a premium member. It is certainly not a kid prank since they have a car and drive all over the place. WHY? Quote
+Gitchee-Gummee Posted October 20, 2009 Posted October 20, 2009 Our area has been plagued for years by a geothief(or thieves). I was just wondering if this happens any where else? Sure every area will have its share of random mugglings, or caches that go missing due to groundskeepers, ect., but I am talking about someone devoting themselves to finding and stealing every cache in a 20 or so mile radius over, and over again. So obviously noone wants to invest time or money into creative caches--it has to be a container that can easily be replaced(over and over). We cannot place TBs or coins. No sense even bothering with SWAG. And it is pointless to try a high difficulty level because noone wants to search for an hour for a cache that probably isn't there anyway! What would motivate someone to do this for years? Obviously they own a GPS and enjoy caching. They are a premium member. It is certainly not a kid prank since they have a car and drive all over the place. WHY? From the highlighted portion, it almost sounds like either a disgruntled (?) cacher, or somebody who forked up $30/yr because they want to mess with other people. Maybe a jerk vandal who uses their geocaching parents' account/computer to access the info. Could be a myriad of different scenarios. Does there seem to be any type of pattern? Quote
+bittsen Posted October 20, 2009 Posted October 20, 2009 The only way to stop t would be to bust the guy. I assume that he(or she) goes after urbans? If so, here's an idea. Set up an urban cache on a stop sign, fire hydrant or other regular type cache. Now set up a home webcam and get some software to manage it (I use Supervisioncam). You can set the software up to only record when there is movement to minimize hard drive space. Check the footage every day. After each visit to the cache, check to see if it is still there. When it goes missing, you will have a decent representation of your cache thief. If they drive to the cache, you will have their car description. Other than that, nothing much you can do. Quote
Mr.Yuck Posted October 21, 2009 Posted October 21, 2009 (edited) Our area has been plagued for years by a geothief(or thieves). I was just wondering if this happens any where else? Sure every area will have its share of random mugglings, or caches that go missing due to groundskeepers, ect., but I am talking about someone devoting themselves to finding and stealing every cache in a 20 or so mile radius over, and over again. So obviously noone wants to invest time or money into creative caches--it has to be a container that can easily be replaced(over and over). We cannot place TBs or coins. No sense even bothering with SWAG. And it is pointless to try a high difficulty level because noone wants to search for an hour for a cache that probably isn't there anyway! What would motivate someone to do this for years? Obviously they own a GPS and enjoy caching. They are a premium member. It is certainly not a kid prank since they have a car and drive all over the place. WHY? We shouldn't be paying attention to them, but your cache thief is likely the longest tenured in the entire world, going back to at least 2005, maybe even 2004. (I'm from the other end of New York State). This "cache piracy" has happened many times in many places, but I've never heard of anyone else making a career out of it like this guy. They may not necessarily ever paid for a premium membership, there are ways to figure out where the Member Only caches are if you have time. And apparently this guy has time. At this point, I'm just going to guess this is someone who feels Geocaches and Geocachers are harming the environment? Edited October 21, 2009 by TheWhiteUrkel Quote
Pajaholic Posted October 21, 2009 Posted October 21, 2009 This thread describes a group who hate geocaching and want to destroy our hobby. According to them, Geocaching is littering the countryside with plastic boxes filled with trash. Perhaps you have one of the 30 members of that group (or a member of similar group) in your area and that person believes paying $30 to find and destroy the PMO caches represents good value for money. I'd consider suspicious anyone who's been a premium member for a while but has very few, if any, logged finds. Quote
+kcrew5 Posted October 21, 2009 Author Posted October 21, 2009 This thread describes a group who hate geocaching and want to destroy our hobby. According to them, Geocaching is littering the countryside with plastic boxes filled with trash. Perhaps you have one of the 30 members of that group (or a member of similar group) in your area and that person believes paying $30 to find and destroy the PMO caches represents good value for money. I'd consider suspicious anyone who's been a premium member for a while but has very few, if any, logged finds. Wow. I went to the link. That's some interesting/crazy reading. I guess sociopaths need hobbies too! Quote
+Renegade Knight Posted October 21, 2009 Posted October 21, 2009 ...What would motivate someone to do this for years?... OCD combined with EGO and the JOY they get out of it. You can control how much the ego is fed. Quote
+MacysofTollhouse Posted October 21, 2009 Posted October 21, 2009 ...What would motivate someone to do this for years?... OCD combined with EGO and the JOY they get out of it. You can control how much the ego is fed. Hi folks, I happened on this discussion while trying to curb my ire after reading a notice in Groundspeak that OUTWARD BOUND in San Francisco, CA is taking their "students" to Golden Gate Park to geocache. I see a problem here. Our community made it clear Outward Bound was not a welcome neighbor in our area. The group tried to buy property in several different locations within a 40 mile radius around here including 49 acres adjacent to us, so a lot of research was done regarding the organization and program. The "students" are not necessarily individuals with low self-esteem. Most are "troubled youths" who have already been involved in criminal activity. Now you have a group of kids sharing their knowhow of questionable activity with each other and you have added to it the knowledge of computer search and finding and physical locating of geo caches. Could this be a link to the cache thieves in your area? Quote
Mr.Yuck Posted October 22, 2009 Posted October 22, 2009 ...What would motivate someone to do this for years?... OCD combined with EGO and the JOY they get out of it. You can control how much the ego is fed. I'm glad you're here RK. I know you have often talked about having a long standing cache maggot in your area. Are they as prolific as this clown? As mentioned previously, this guy in upstate NY has been stealing caches since '04 or '05. Quote
+Team Noodles Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 Our community made it clear Outward Bound was not a welcome neighbor in our area. I'm glad I am not part of 'your community'. 20 odd years ago I was one of those so called 'students'. I won't bore you with the details of it as you clearly have already formed your opinion but let's just say I learnt quite a bit from my short spell with OB. Went back to college, joined the army and I currently run my own business (yes, it's legit before you start asking ). I would like to say you are being extremely narrow minded, and trying to link cache theft to your brainfarts is out of order in my not so humble opinion. Cache theft happens everywhere, try not to single out a specific group as perpetrators eh? GL with yourself and your prejudice, seems you need it more then said 'students'. Quote
+Gitchee-Gummee Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 Our community made it clear Outward Bound was not a welcome neighbor in our area. I'm glad I am not part of 'your community'. 20 odd years ago I was one of those so called 'students'. I won't bore you with the details of it as you clearly have already formed your opinion but let's just say I learnt quite a bit from my short spell with OB. Went back to college, joined the army and I currently run my own business (yes, it's legit before you start asking ). I would like to say you are being extremely narrow minded, and trying to link cache theft to your brainfarts is out of order in my not so humble opinion. Cache theft happens everywhere, try not to single out a specific group as perpetrators eh? GL with yourself and your prejudice, seems you need it more then said 'students'. I have looked at this (and read it) a couple of times over the last few days. I feel it deserves comment, but suddenly changed my mind (since starting this response). It is already far enough off-topic. In closing, Ryuchan I give you +1 for most of your first paragraph, -1 for the next two. Call it even. Let's go caching, instead! Quote
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