Stolen Trackables

[Edenwood]

I own 3 trackables and 2 have been stolen. My third has been retrieved recently but I have the feeling that is the last I will hear of that one as well as it is a bit overdue. Is this a common problem and do others suffer this. Is there any way to stop it?

[+Relheok]

It is common and there is an easy solution.

 

Don't release trackables

 

The uglier they are, The longer they will last I am sure. Why anyone collects trackables is beyond me anyways. Good luck!

[knowschad]

Its a very common problem. They go missing in many different ways. Not much you can do about it, I'm afraid. But my own feeling about it is that its silly to buy a travel bug tag or geocoin and not put it out. In some ways, the risks that it takes to survive is what its all about.

[+Chokecherry]

I released a trackable. It's nothing impressive to look at it. I wanted it small enough to fit into various caches. It's been held by 2 people since I released it in August and dipped into a variety of caches and I suppose at some point here it's going to just disappear.

 

Anyhow, I was really impressed to see that it made to Italy recently. I know it's going to vanish but I'll always get to see where it's been and I think that's pretty darn cool.

[+Scubasonic]

Is there any way to stop it?

 

One Word "NO"

[GOF and Bacall]

Is there any way to stop it?

 

One Word "NO"

 

That is incorrect. If you don't release them they won't go missing.

[+BlueDeuce]

I own 3 trackables and 2 have been stolen. My third has been retrieved recently but I have the feeling that is the last I will hear of that one as well as it is a bit overdue. Is this a common problem and do others suffer this. Is there any way to stop it?

 

1. Never release anything you aren't willing to lose. That way when it goes missing, you won't care.

2. It is possible to pick a traveler to release what is somewhat interesting but not really worth keeping.

3. Include clear logging instructions. Preferably something more durable than a printed piece of paper. Don't rely on a baggie to protect your bug, or the instructions.

4. Think of a bug just like you were sending your own kid off to college. Hearing from them once in a while is a pleasant surprise. Don't expect anything more than that

5. Sometimes it's a hard world for the little things.

6. If you can't take disappointment, if you feel the need to control others, or if you jump to conclusions when you don't get a quick answer to your questions, travel bugs are not for you.

7. Always, let me repeat that, ALWAYS be supportive to someone who has been holding your bug for a while. Even a jerk responds better to offered assistance than criticism. If you pester someone and find out later that real life got in their way of dropping your precious bug, guess who's the real jerk?

8. Make your bug worth moving. A huge majority of bugs have a mission of: Move to another cache. Dull should be marked as missing. Why should the rest of us be held accountable for moving something that you couldn't even take the time to give it some thought.

9. Set an example. Are you treating other bugs as you would like your bug to be treated? Do you take pictures, tell stories, have fun with it?

10. Bugs never die. Make it, release it and when it goes missing give enough time to verify that it is truly gone and then re-release it for another round of travel adventure.

Edited September 25, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[Keystone]

I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the Travel Bug forum.

[+Eartha]

I see one that came out of hibernation, the dinosaur bulldog.

The trackabulldog was discovered overseas, and you should ask that person if they saw it in person, is it still there, or did they get the tracking number off someone's list? (that would be a virtual log and not allowed, and you can delete it, if so)

The person who took that one from an event has over 3000 finds, and has moved 300 trackables in 4 years, and probably just gets so busy caching, they don't remember what they found when and what they left where.

You should ask them again. Events are black holes for travel bugs. Remind them where they picked it up from, it might jog their memory. They may have placed it in a cache, and don't remember, because it's marked missing it won't show up in their inventory to remind them they have it. I think the overseas log is a virtual log.

And your third one was just recently grabbed, and I think you are being overly pessimistic about that one. It's not overdue if it was just picked up on the 17th of this month. The recommendation is to try to place it within two weeks, but not everyone is so fortunate as to be able to go caching every week.

I don't see any that look stolen.

[Edenwood]

I see one that came out of hibernation, the dinosaur bulldog.

The trackabulldog was discovered overseas, and you should ask that person if they saw it in person, is it still there, or did they get the tracking number off someone's list? (that would be a virtual log and not allowed, and you can delete it, if so)

The person who took that one from an event has over 3000 finds, and has moved 300 trackables in 4 years, and probably just gets so busy caching, they don't remember what they found when and what they left where.

You should ask them again. Events are black holes for travel bugs. Remind them where they picked it up from, it might jog their memory. They may have placed it in a cache, and don't remember, because it's marked missing it won't show up in their inventory to remind them they have it. I think the overseas log is a virtual log.

And your third one was just recently grabbed, and I think you are being overly pessimistic about that one. It's not overdue if it was just picked up on the 17th of this month. The recommendation is to try to place it within two weeks, but not everyone is so fortunate as to be able to go caching every week.

I don't see any that look stolen.

Thanks for your reply I appreciate your time. Just to take the Trackabulldog for now the last entry was discovered 18/4/2009 with the comment 'overseas now' and with no further entries. I have tried to make contact but no reply. I fail to see how this is not stolen. The finders last entry was 1/5/2009

[+Eartha]

OK, well, I think I see the problem. The last logger on the Trackabull TB only "discovered" that TB, but said it was now overseas. Does this mean they saw it in a cache overseas from where it was? Or they took it and were going to take it overseas? We don't know. They won't answer you. Frustrating. They might not be getting your emails. They might have their preferences set not to receive them, or they've changed their email address.

In order for them to have it in their inventory, they needed to log it as "grabbed". They are new, and only have 13 cache finds. They didn't know how to log properly, and so they could not drop it off if they wanted to, because it was not in their inventory, and if they did drop it in a cache, they probably didn't write down the tracking number. So much time has gone by that even if you send them a message now, they probably cannot remember which of the caches they dropped it in. Since the day they logged it, none of their cache logs mention dropping off a TB. Yours is the only TB they've ever logged. My guess is that your TB could pop up someday, when it's finally picked up by someone who knows how to log it. You might want to add a link to your TB description to the TB logging instructions pinned at the top of this thread, or the Groundspeak Knowledge Books link that is in my signature.

I still don't see this one as stolen, just a case of lack of logging knowledge. We must teach our newbies well.

[+meredithida]

if the trackable says it is in a cache that it is not in it could be grabbed from a different cache if someone forgot to log it witch you probably know......