Lost Travelbulldog

[+yostrop]

Can anyone help us, we placed a trackerbulldog in one of our caches and it was picked up in June, my 2 boys were looking forward to watching its travels. Sadly the person who picked it up has not moved it on, despite me having contacted him several times. Is this something we should just "put down to experience" and get a new one, or is there anything we can do?

[+BlueDeuce]

I looked through his logs but I didn't see that he might have been out caching with someone who knows him. I don't know, maybe something happened in his life that took him out of caching for a while.

 

Give it time, sending more emails won't help.

 

Never release anything you aren't willing to use. You might start to use TB tags. Once those are confirmed missing you can re-release them much easier than a coin.

Edited September 12, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[+yostrop]

You might start to use TB tags. Once those are confirmed missing you can re-release them much easier than a coin.

 

Thats interesting, how would you go about doing that then? sorry bit of a newbie question I know, but we ARE new to this game

[+BlueDeuce]

With travel bugs you are normally given two tags (plus you can make homemade ones as well) Geocoins are harder to replace with another duplicate coin and many people don't like 'fake' (aka proxy) coins.

 

Typically you have to wait a long time before re-releasing a missing bug, up to a year. After that you can change the traveler, name, description, photo, mission/goal, just don't delete the logs of the people who previously assisted your bug.

 

If the missing bug should re-surface you'll have to pull one out of circulation as you cannot release multiple bugs with the same tracking number. (One reason why you have to wait so long to ensure the bug is truly MIA)

[+FourRiverRatz]

Missing since June isn't missing that long. We has one that went missing for over a year, came back into play for a few months.,,,went missing again in April...back agian last night. Hang in there...it's early yet.

 

Another of ours was gone for a good year or more, showed up just out of the blue with a dif. cacher.

 

We picked one up over the summer and moved it..when I looked at its history, it had been out of play for almost 2 years...the last logger said something like "sorry..I forgot I had this until I found it in the trunk of my car" LOL..guess he doesn't clean his trunk out often!

[+BlueDeuce]

...

Edited September 12, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[+NanCycle]

Several of mine have been out of action for more than just 2-3 months before turning up again.

 

One had been in the hands of a new cacher for over a year; just recently heard from him that he'd been in a bad car accident and was just now up to getting out caching again. I had re-released this one after a little more than a year of no contact.

 

Another has been in the hands of a cacher since December and he recently posted that he found it under the seat of his car, but he hasn't moved it yet.

 

My best suggestion is to go ahead and release more trackables, so that you aren't so heavily invested emotionally in a single one.

[+Mole60]

Several of mine have been out of action for more than just 2-3 months before turning up again.

 

One had been in the hands of a new cacher for over a year; just recently heard from him that he'd been in a bad car accident and was just now up to getting out caching again. I had re-released this one after a little more than a year of no contact.

 

Another has been in the hands of a cacher since December and he recently posted that he found it under the seat of his car, but he hasn't moved it yet.

 

My best suggestion is to go ahead and release more trackables, so that you aren't so heavily invested emotionally in a single one.

[+Mole60]

I think it extremely interesting how geocaching can teach one about various personalities out there, psychology, and life's experiences in general.

[+Buntings24]

sorry for being thick but im curious of how to re release using the same TB number of a missing TB?

[+The Blorenges]

sorry for being thick but im curious of how to re release using the same TB number of a missing TB?

 

When you buy TB tags they come as a pair - one is the Copy tag which you keep at home.

 

If your original TB goes missing on its travel you can release a replacement TB using the copy tag. It's usually recommended to wait about a year before releasing the replacement, unless you're absolutely sure the original has gone for good (i.e. forest fire, dropped into deep water, cache totally muggled etc).

 

If that replacement TB also disappears you can still release another replacement by making up your own TB tag with some laminated card (or similar) with the same tracking number.

 

With all these opportunities for replacement it's important to make sure that there's only one item out in circulation for each tracking number. This means that if your "totally lost" TB reappears 3 years later you'll need to pull it (or the replacement) back home.

 

MrsB

[+Buntings24]

thankyou blorenge i understood that good job! i didnt realise you kept one of the tags at home lol (blonde momment lol)

Edited September 14, 2010 by Buntings24