Cache archiving and CITO

[+The HERB5]

I recently found a cache not knowing it had been archived.

I also have a CITO geocoin I need to place.

I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and clear the archived cache and place the coin in a nearby active cache.

 

My quandary is this.

Leaving the cache in situ would/could tarnish the name of Groundspeak, therefore it should be removed.

 

Ground speak don’t allow the adoption of a cache without the Owners consent.

The cache is still the owner’s property, it follows that if I remove the cache, and it would be theft?

 

If the cacher does not respond to emails, can we assume he has abandoned the cache and therefore, it could be removed?

 

If it’s allowable to for it to be removed, could it not be adopted?

[+Bear and Ragged]

Could be listed/active on another site...

[+Morton]

The cache is still the owner’s property, it follows that if I remove the cache, and it would be theft?

It's not theft if you "[appropriate] the property in the belief that the person to whom the property belongs cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps". What's reasonable depends on the value of the property - if you find £1000 in a handbag then you're expected to do more than if you find £5 on the pavement. In this case, sending a couple of emails to the registered address is surely enough to be reasonable.

 

Morally, I'm sure you can make a guess from the owner's account record what's likely to have happened here. If they found a handful of caches, hid one and then had it archived for non-maintenance, *and* if they don't reply to emails, then it's probably safe to assume they've lost interest and remove the cache. If they are still active in general, or had a substantial record but then disappeared, then it may be better to assume that there's something more complicated going on and leave the cache for now.

 

Cheers

Richard

[+The HERB5]

Thanx for that, I'll clear the cache then

[+Simply Paul]

In the past I've collected an abandoned cache which had been archived and left in situ. In my Found log I offered to recycle the box and contents as a new cache where possible, or return it to the owner. They seemed happy with that.