Last to Find Before a Muggling

[+NSnyder86]

I have found 120 caches so far, and of those, there are 2 where I was the last person to find them before they were muggled. On both occasions where I found the caches, there were no other people around, and yet I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to them because I am just one of those people with a guilty conscience. One cache was vandalized, the other went outright missing. Has this happened to anyone else, and do you feel guilty too?

[+Chrysalides]

I have found 120 caches so far, and of those, there are 2 where I was the last person to find them before they were muggled. On both occasions where I found the caches, there were no other people around, and yet I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to them because I am just one of those people with a guilty conscience. One cache was vandalized, the other went outright missing. Has this happened to anyone else, and do you feel guilty too?

Yes and yes

[+niraD]

TBDTGTTS

 

All you can do is do your best. And as I discovered trying to maintain my own first hide, some locations are just prone to being muggled, no matter what seekers do.

[+StarBrand]

I don't feel guilty. I do my best to avoid muggles and to rehide the caches well. If they are discovered after me - I still know I did my best to protect them.

[+Chrysalides]

TBDTGTTS

Sorry, Google and GeoLex failed me. Took Buddy's Dog To Go To The Store?

[+NSnyder86]

I don't feel guilty. I do my best to avoid muggles and to rehide the caches well. If they are discovered after me - I still know I did my best to protect them.

 

That's a really good point. It's not like I left them out in the open or moved them from their original spots. What really boggles me though is the one that went missing was a lamppost cache... other than cachers, who looks under there? Before I started geocaching, I never even knew those bases lifted up!

[DannyCaffeine]

I would feel bad about it. I would know that it was not my fault because I am smart about steath.

 

If I really thought it was my fault (like mabey I was impatient and I wasn't stealthy or my foot found the cache first and crushed it) I would contact the CO and offer them a new container + logbook.

[knowschad]

TBDTGTTS

Sorry, Google and GeoLex failed me. Took Buddy's Dog To Go To The Store?

Woof!! Wag!

 

I was last to find on one that got blown up by the bomb squad once. Does that count?

[Andronicus]

I was the last to find a benchmark before construction crews dug it up. Does that count?

[+dorqie]

Thats never happened to me, but just today I had a cache muggled before it was published.

A bunch of people wasted their time looking for it, and a few people needlessly ventured into a creek (cache was never in the creek, but they thought they'd try)

I feel really really bad.

[+DragonsWest]

I was first and last to find before a cache went missing.

 

I haven't been back to it, but warned the CO the area was subject to being mowed, which could have contributed to it going missing.

[+J the Goat]

TBDTGTTS

Sorry, Google and GeoLex failed me. Took Buddy's Dog To Go To The Store?

 

Too bad dude, the gator took the stuff?

[+DragonsWest]

TBDTGTTS

Sorry, Google and GeoLex failed me. Took Buddy's Dog To Go To The Store?

 

Too bad dude, the gator took the stuff?

 

TBDTGTTS

 

The Big Dog That Got To The Stash

This Beats Digging The Ground To Take Second

True Blue Danny Took Good-Time Trisha Skating

There But Didn't Try Going Through The Stuff

This Be Dirty Turks Golden Treasure Trove, Scram!

They Bent Down To Grovel Then Talk Silly

[+Harry Dolphin]

I was the last to find a benchmark before construction crews dug it up. Does that count?

 

Hey. I had first and last to find on one of those! Not my fault they built a new pedestrian bridge over Rtes 1&9 in Jersey City!

 

As to caches: Has it happened to me? Yes. Do I feel guilty? No. There have been a few where I was worried that I might have been spotted. (Climbing over the sleeping girl. Dropping my backpack behind the heels of the lady leaning against the sign...) But, I've watched them to make sure the cache was found afterward. Some are just extraordinarily bad hides. I can see it from the sidewalk! (Surprised that one has lasted a week.)

[+DragonflyTotem]

I don't feel guilty. I do my best to avoid muggles and to rehide the caches well. If they are discovered after me - I still know I did my best to protect them.

 

That's a really good point. It's not like I left them out in the open or moved them from their original spots. What really boggles me though is the one that went missing was a lamppost cache... other than cachers, who looks under there? Before I started geocaching, I never even knew those bases lifted up!

 

Just a few days ago as I waited in a parking lot for wife to come out of a store I watched a maintenance crew go to each lamp post skirt where they raised it and it looked like they did a quick check of the wiring. I've also been told by the local LEO that they have seen them used for drug deals (prompting me to ask in what areas so I can put them on my list of places I probably don't want to cache).

[+DragonflyTotem]

I have found 120 caches so far, and of those, there are 2 where I was the last person to find them before they were muggled. On both occasions where I found the caches, there were no other people around, and yet I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to them because I am just one of those people with a guilty conscience. One cache was vandalized, the other went outright missing. Has this happened to anyone else, and do you feel guilty too?

 

I guess that if I'd known about it I'd feel guilty but I've very seldom put a successful cache find on my watchlist, so I would probably be clueless that it had happened. I know that I've always tried to be careful and have sat in my car for quite awhile waiting to rehide something with muggles nearby. But if I did find out, I'd definitely think about it and wonder if it was me that caused it...and would sure hope it wasn't!

[oakenwood]

TBDTGTTS: even urbandictionary doesn't have it.

 

That's because dang thieves got to take swag?

Edited May 28, 2010 by oakenwood

[+Canids]

I guess that if I'd known about it I'd feel guilty but I've very seldom put a successful cache find on my watchlist, so I would probably be clueless that it had happened. I know that I've always tried to be careful and have sat in my car for quite awhile waiting to rehide something with muggles nearby. But if I did find out, I'd definitely think about it and wonder if it was me that caused it...and would sure hope it wasn't!

 

Pretty much the same sentiment here. I feel responsible for the cache until the next "Found it" log, then I take it off my watchlist. I'm the last one who touched it, so it's my responsibility to some degree. And that degree is that if it gets muggled because I was an idiot and someone saw me re-hide it, or I failed to re-hide it properly, then my bad. There are a couple of finds I made awhile ago, with no activity since. I went out and checked on one, and will probably check the other here soon. Of course you can do that with all of them, and sometimes, bad things happen to good caches . . . I'll get my coat

[+geodarts]

I was the first and last to find one cache. I felt a little bad, but I was confident I had returned the cache as I found it. I went back to the area with tools to see if the cache (an ammo box) had fallen out of reach of some of the people who had attempted to find it and I checked out the surrounding area. But I hate being last to find.

 

There are some hides that seem incredibly bold or misplaced, so I hope that someone will come along and find it after my visit, before it goes missing. But sometimes that does not happen. My responsibility is to rehide it properly and take appropriate caution. After that . . . .

 

We once hiked into an area to a cache that had only one or two finders. It was a fairly long hike with significant elevation changes until we got to a path that was almost overgrown and covered by downed trees, after hiking along that "trail" for awhile we bushwhacked down to the cache location. When we got there, we discovered that the cache had been found by an outsider, who fortunately left it there. But if non-cachers can find that one, they can find anything. There is only so much that cachers can do.

Edited May 27, 2010 by Erickson

[+Mosaic55]

I have found 120 caches so far, and of those, there are 2 where I was the last person to find them before they were muggled. On both occasions where I found the caches, there were no other people around, and yet I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to them because I am just one of those people with a guilty conscience. One cache was vandalized, the other went outright missing. Has this happened to anyone else, and do you feel guilty too?

 

Yes, twice now and I don't have that many finds either. The last one was in the winter and I feel bad because it may have been my footprints in the snow that lead someone to the cache.

[Hazelette]

I've tried to get two local caches several times and failed due to child muggles. At one, the kids play within 5feet of the cache spot. I don't know how it could possibly still be intact. They're both regular sized cache, so discovery would be easy.

 

Today I didn't see the kids (at the 2nd site) until I was right on top of them, because they were hiding behind an overgrown fence. If what they tell me is true (they talked my leg off!) they live RIGHT THERE! So I've no clue how to approach this cache without being seen. It's a daylight only cache since its on the edge of a cemetery. Epic fail!

[Mr.Yuck]

I have found 120 caches so far, and of those, there are 2 where I was the last person to find them before they were muggled. On both occasions where I found the caches, there were no other people around, and yet I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to them because I am just one of those people with a guilty conscience. One cache was vandalized, the other went outright missing. Has this happened to anyone else, and do you feel guilty too?

 

Yes, on two occasions. And also in both cases, I felt no one saw me. One was in a park near a college, and the owner, who lived 100 miles away, had a daughter that went there. I replaced it, and became the local maintainer.

 

The other one was in a City Park about 100 miles from me. Again, no way in heck anyone saw me. I still owe that CO, whom I've attended many common events with, a lock-n-lock. I will get around to it some day.

[+mountainman38]

I don't feel guilty. I do my best to avoid muggles and to rehide the caches well. If they are discovered after me - I still know I did my best to protect them.

I just found a cache that is in the V where a very busy street splits. The cache itself was on a utility pole, right next to the street where cars were whizzing by almost non-stop.

 

While I tried to act nonchalant, there's only so stealthy you can be when about a few hundred people have seen you poking around a completely open strip of grass, right next to the street.

 

I'd feel bad if someone got curious about what I was doing and came along after me and messed with the cache, but there's only so much you can do on some caches.

[+brslk]

I don't feel guilty. I do my best to avoid muggles and to rehide the caches well. If they are discovered after me - I still know I did my best to protect them.

I just found a cache that is in the V where a very busy street splits. The cache itself was on a utility pole, right next to the street where cars were whizzing by almost non-stop.

 

While I tried to act nonchalant, there's only so stealthy you can be when about a few hundred people have seen you poking around a completely open strip of grass, right next to the street.

 

I'd feel bad if someone got curious about what I was doing and came along after me and messed with the cache, but there's only so much you can do on some caches.

 

Indeed, I feel the cache safety is a 50/50 split between the cache owner and the cache finder.

 

I will do my best to not be seen and hide it back where I found it. You do your best to make sure that is possible.

[+niraD]

TBDTGTTS

Sorry, Google and GeoLex failed me. Took Buddy's Dog To Go To The Store?

There Been, Done That, Got The T Shirt

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It wouldn't have anything to do with typing too fast.

[+Chrysalides]

TBDTGTTS

Sorry, Google and GeoLex failed me. Took Buddy's Dog To Go To The Store?

There Been, Done That, Got The T Shirt

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It wouldn't have anything to do with typing too fast.

And there I thought you were trying to speak like Yoda.

 

There been. That done. T-Shirt We Got.

[+stanolli]

I have found getting on for 400 in the year I have been caching and there are 2 archieved where I was the last to find and the reason I feel bad about them is I left TBs in both.

One was in the roots of a tree with a deep hole that I nearly lost it in, but I just managed to retrieve it and did my best to block the lower part of the hole. The first DNF was many months later so maybe weather or animals disturbed it or maybe a cacher dropped it further in and didnt log. It's 100 miles away, but I plan to return and check when I next pass.

The other I find strange because this was hidden in a hole in the middle of a forrest covered by a stone covered with bark and I chose to drop a coin because it looked safe. This was 400 miles from home but I made a slight detour on another trip to check and there was the bark covering the stone exactly as I left it. Phew I thought those DNFs did not even find GZ, but I am afraid under the stone was an empty hole.

[+redsox_mark]

As far as I know I've not been last to find before a muggling, but it could have happened and I did not notice.

 

Recently I found a cache in a location which was overlooked by houses. The same day I found it, it was temporarily disabled due to "complaints of local residents". I felt bad, as I assume I had been spotted. It's since been moved.

[AZcachemeister]

I have found 120 caches so far, and of those, there are 2 where I was the last person to find them before they were muggled. On both occasions where I found the caches, there were no other people around, and yet I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to them because I am just one of those people with a guilty conscience. One cache was vandalized, the other went outright missing. Has this happened to anyone else, and do you feel guilty too?

 

It had to be somebody, and it was just your turn.

No need to feel guilty unless you actually saw someone go for the cache and take it right after you re-hid it.

[+drfred]

Yes and no. No guilt because this is a game and I really try my best not to be observed.

 

OK OK - Have to hedge a little bit. There have been a number of occasions where I have been "observed" by a muggle and I do watch that cache for a while to make sure that it gets found again. I have even sent a note to the CO on occasion to mention that the spot may be compromised.

 

So - where does that leave me - I guess with a big Yes and YES. How about that for denial of guilt!