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Roadside Cache used as "Amnesty Box"

The Leprechauns

By The Leprechauns
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The Leprechauns

+The Leprechauns

Posted
Posted

Today I went geocaching for the first time all month, and began with a "warm up" cache near my home in the Pittsburgh suburbs. I stopped at a roadside pulloff, guessed that the cache was in the end of the nearest guardrail, and walked over to investigate.

 

The first thing I noticed was a stack of geocoins, balanced on top of the guardrail's end post. There were five of them, and one more lying on the ground. I thought this was odd, especially since the cache container was large enough to hold all the coins, and there was nothing in the prior online logs suggesting a large coin dropoff. So, I decided to take all the coins home with me to investigate. They jingled in my pocket as I redeemed a prior DNF on a difficulty 4 cache, then while I admired a hilltop view at a local cemetery, and finally as I did a terrain 3 hill climb up some muddy quad trails.

 

Returning home, I entered the tracking numbers for the six coins. All were marked "missing" in 2006 or 2007, after disappearing from caches in Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. What a surprise this was! I now have the opportunity to bring these geocoins back from the dead.

 

I am planning on grabbing the coins from limbo, explaining how I found them, then dropping them in the cache where I found them, then retrieving them. Then, I am planning to send the coins back into the wild to continue their travels. Is that the right way to proceed?

 

I've never had this happen before. I am guessing that a former cacher had a guilty conscience and used a fairly new and easy cache as an "amnesty box," knowing it would be visited soon. Perhaps the cacher was visiting this area for the holidays.

 

So, coin owners, never give up hope for your missing coins! At least this one time, they do reappear and are found by an honest geocacher who won't add them to a personal collection.

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LionsLair

+LionsLair

Posted
Posted

Thats strange.... I've got a strange 'return from the abyss' story as well... I just recieved through a trade today an activated coin that has been missing since '06 from someone that is not the owner.

 

I'm waiting to hear from the trader first, but plan on contacting the original owner to see if it indeed is missing or was sold or traded away... I'll either ask for adoption or send it back to the owner because I doubt this coin makes it far in the wild... it's just too valuable and rare these days...

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The Moop Along

+The Moop Along

Posted
Posted

Today I went geocaching for the first time all month, and began with a "warm up" cache near my home in the Pittsburgh suburbs. I stopped at a roadside pulloff, guessed that the cache was in the end of the nearest guardrail, and walked over to investigate.

 

The first thing I noticed was a stack of geocoins, balanced on top of the guardrail's end post. There were five of them, and one more lying on the ground. I thought this was odd, especially since the cache container was large enough to hold all the coins, and there was nothing in the prior online logs suggesting a large coin dropoff. So, I decided to take all the coins home with me to investigate. They jingled in my pocket as I redeemed a prior DNF on a difficulty 4 cache, then while I admired a hilltop view at a local cemetery, and finally as I did a terrain 3 hill climb up some muddy quad trails.

 

Returning home, I entered the tracking numbers for the six coins. All were marked "missing" in 2006 or 2007, after disappearing from caches in Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. What a surprise this was! I now have the opportunity to bring these geocoins back from the dead.

 

I am planning on grabbing the coins from limbo, explaining how I found them, then dropping them in the cache where I found them, then retrieving them. Then, I am planning to send the coins back into the wild to continue their travels. Is that the right way to proceed?

 

I've never had this happen before. I am guessing that a former cacher had a guilty conscience and used a fairly new and easy cache as an "amnesty box," knowing it would be visited soon. Perhaps the cacher was visiting this area for the holidays.

 

So, coin owners, never give up hope for your missing coins! At least this one time, they do reappear and are found by an honest geocacher who won't add them to a personal collection.

 

You know. I wish you lived closer so we could go caching sometime. It sucks that we only see you once or twice a year. I love those kind of stories.

 

TMA

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hollora

+hollora

Posted
Posted

We can only control what we personally do with trackables in our possession. You are doing the right thing. I, personally, would wait to hear from the coin owners before sending them back on their way.

 

And as a cache owner, you can only go look at the logs where coins have gone missing and try to sort through the paper and then on-line logs to try and create a history. Then, if you are inclined, perhaps email folks who may have seen a trackable.

 

Lastly, as a trackable owner - you, too, have the ability to try and track and/or contact folks who may have been in touch with or seen your trackable. Sometimes it helps to know one cacher did or did not see it in the cache to pin point a date something may have gone MIA.

 

Woo hoo on this recovery. Thanks, too, for sharing the story.

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The Leprechauns

+The Leprechauns

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have now entered my "good news!" logs on each geocoin's page, and dropped them into the cache, which is ironically called "Silver". You can see the geocoins on the cache page right now, or later on by clicking the "history" link in the trackables box after I've retrieved the coins.

 

In my logs on the geocoin pages I asked the owner to contact me if they had any special instructions. I will hold onto the coins for a little while before releasing them to resume their travels, in case any of the owners respond.

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Droo

+Droo

Posted
Posted

Great story and what a way to start the new year on a good note.

 

I think you did the best possible thing. These were released to travel and after a long vacation they are back on the road again. Woohoo.

 

B):) Why would a coin owner want their resurfaced coin sent back to them? I've never heard of a traveler being pulled out of the game by the owner.... it's usually by a muggle or a thief!

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teamhaynes

+teamhaynes

Posted
Posted

Must be the season to find the lost travelers...

 

I found a missing coin TB1KBQ7 yesterday as well... I took a trip out to GC30 Mingo (oldest active cache) to get my 800th find and came across a coin that had been missing since 07...

 

I contacted the owner to see what she wants since she had ressurected the coin as a travel bug so we don't want two items with the same tracking number traveling around.

 

Sure was fun to bring this one back from the dead

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GeeOCachers

+GeeOCachers

Posted
Posted

Back in 2006, I went to a local cache which was fairly difficult, but a nice find none the less. I grabbed the TB that was in the cache, and brought it home to log it. Turns out, it had gone missing 1 year to the exact date of my finding it. Very weird! Someone had been out that day and dropped it off as an amnesty as well. Nobody knows who did it, but it was returned!

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RadishSpirit

+RadishSpirit

Posted
Posted

Wow... I was just planning a visit to some of your caches in Pittsburgh, Leprechauns!

Sounds to me like some muggle ended up with them and put them there, not knowing what to do. Maybe some kid's mother found them and wanted to return them.

Now I'll have to keep an eye out for stacks of coins laying around Pittsburgh guard rails!

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CCWelch

+CCWelch

Posted
Posted
to get my 800th find

 

Wow!! Congrats on 800!! :rolleyes:

 

Thanks :P

 

Congrats on 800!!

I think I would contact the coin owners first and see what they want done with their coins, I know I would want mine sent to me to sit in my collection. If you don't hear from them in a couple of weeks then send them back out.

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teamhaynes

+teamhaynes

Posted
Posted
to get my 800th find

 

Wow!! Congrats on 800!! :rolleyes:

 

Thanks :P

 

Congrats on 800!!

I think I would contact the coin owners first and see what they want done with their coins, I know I would want mine sent to me to sit in my collection. If you don't hear from them in a couple of weeks then send them back out.

 

I contacted the coin owner and she was delighted to see it back in action... She wants it to be put back into circulation...

 

Funny thing about this coin.. It went missing despite one of those hitch hiker companion dog tags attached to it...Coin was drilled and Don't Keep Me/Please Move me tags was attached...

 

I guess those don't even work to keep people from holding onto them... But nice to see it moving after 2 years of missing

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Carbon Hunter

+Carbon Hunter

Posted
Posted

Brilliant story.

 

It seems something similar happened up in Washington a while back.

 

One of my coins (missing for over a year) was found by a cache along with 8 others that were all MIA.

 

It was amazing as I had a second coin that went missing in South Africa a year before appear in the UK unexpectedly in the same month - also after a year.

 

Both coins did not seem to have a "trail" belong to any particular cacher that I could pin point either.

 

So these things do happen - and it REALLY brings joy to you when they do.

 

Thanks for Sharing Leps. And a happy and blessed new year to all. Hope to hear more similar stories in 2010!

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