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Ever lose a trackable after removing from a cache?


cmargo810

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Hi all! Anyone have a story about losing someone else's trackable that you picked up out of a cache? What did you do? Here's my "Almost lost it" story:

 

Yesterday I found a nearby cache listing that had a geo coin placed in it a few days earlier. I really wanted to find it and take the coin because we are new to this hobby and my grandson and me have never seen a "real" geocoin before. He has taken various poker chip type of disks out of caches and calls them his "geocoins", but that is the extent. Anyway, I knew this geocoin in the cache probably wouldn't stay there till the weekend without someone else picking it up, so I decided to go after it myself before work and show it to my gs this weekend, if I can get him. My Swedish meatballs took a little longer than planned to finish up and this cache wasn't really a P&G, so I was cutting it close time-wise and would have to fly straight to work from cache site.

 

Reading logs, one finder indicated getting feet wet, so I brought dry socks and my work shoes. I loaded up work and geocache stuff and headed out. A lovely area full of muggles, I parked, started walking path, waited for a break in muggles and slipped into tree cover. Gps was bouncing a bit and the hiding places were endless. Got my feet totally wet and still hadnt found cache and was running out of time. Finally the sky opened, the angels sang, and there it was.

 

I pulled cache to ground, got on my knees and opened it up. Wished my grandson was with me cuz there was some cool swag inside. Anywho, that wasn't my purpose at this cache. I had a TB to unload and a geocoin to find! A thing of beauty she was, this geocoin! My hands were literally shaking as I pulled her out of the ziploc baggie and removed her from her protective coin sleeve. I'm not making this up, I felt the same joy I felt the first time I found the travel bug I was now dropping off. Then, as if I wasn't in geo heaven enough, I spot a small swag item in the cache. It was a small plastic butterfly that looks uncannily like the butterfly geocoin in my hand. Same colors and all. (I took a photo of them side by side.. it's amazing) I hadn't brought swag to trade but had to have this plastic toy anyway. I held the plastic toy and geocoin both in my hands, marveling at them. Then reality bit me you know where, and I realized I am so outta time here! I had to get moving.

 

I rummaged thru cache looking for pen and only came up with an unsharpened pencil. Darn, I left my pen in car and now I couldn''t even sign log book! I hastily put my baggie with TB in cache. I put geocoin baggie that also contained some Chicagogeocacher.com cards into my pocket, patting it lovingly. Closed and replaced cache and headed out. Checked the time. I could make it! I had just enough time to get back to my car, change my shoes and socks, and fly to work! The Universe was on my side, after all!! Got to vehicle, changed shoes, put key in ignition, pulled out geocoin baggie for one quick, loving peek, and OMG....she's gone! What the ****? Looked around seat, floor, ground. Geocoin is nowhere. I had to make a decision. Retrace my steps and find geocoin and be late for work, or fly to work now and sort this out later. Don't judge me, I opted to preserve my job. I just made it to work in the nick of time. Clocked in. Told my supervisor, I needed to clock out for lunch now, take an extended lunch, because I had lost something at the park and had to find it before it got dark. He gave me the green light without questioning it. (whew)

 

I raced back to GZ. There, lying on the ground 2 feet away from cache site, was Isabelle the geocoin, and Isabelle the clone, the plastic butterfly. I was so relieved to find them unscathed, I forgot to open up the cache and sign log book with the pen I had put in my pocket. I hightailed it back to the car, clutching my treasures.

 

What would I have done had I never found Isabelle the geocoin again? I had planned to email the person who had dropped coin in cache, get tracking info from that person, then contact coin owner and beg for forgiveness. I was going to offer to buy them a new coin as a way to settle out of court. Thank goodness this had a happy ending. I don't know if there is a moral to this story besides, don't go geocaching when you're pushed for time.

 

Any one else have a story? I'd like to know I'm not the only one, goofballs love the company of other goofballs!

 

Happy Caching!

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We had a stretch through the summer of moving several TBs. The kids were super excited that we were finding and moving so many. While at a local lake, we came across a "rock climbing travel bug", which was very fitting since there is great rock climbing at this lake. We have 2 tupperware boxes we carry in the car for geocaching. One has the swag we've found and the other has our items to trade and the travel bugs / geocoins we need to place.

 

Fast forward a few weeks and we have placed all of the travel bugs in our possession, however, I'm still showing to have the rock climbing bug on my profile page. We look through all of our containers, all over my desk, my dresser, the car.... we cannot find this travel bug anywhere. I'm feeling terrible now because I've lost a travel bug.

 

I decide we need to retrace our steps and see if we dropped it into a cache and forgot to log it. So, we revisit many of our past caches and cannot locate the bug anywhere. The main caches where I thought we'd have dropped it had no visitors since us, and I had received no e-mails from anyone saying they'd found the bug.

 

Well, I was resigned to the fact that I was now going to have to tell the owner that I lost his travel bug. The kids were a bit upset that we somehow lost a TB, being as careful as we are with our caching, logging, etc. Well, a few weeks back, I'm packing for a hunting trip to Colorado. I pull out my backpack in which I carry water, etc. and what is this?!?! The TB is in a pocket, safe and sound. I had carried this bag on many caching trips and we must have stuck it in there with some trade swag, and never dropped it. I was relieved.

 

This was perfect timing as well, because I could now drop it somewhere in Colorado or Utah while on our trip. I e-mailed the TB owner and let them know why I had it in my possession for so long, and he was very understanding. However, while on our trip, we didn't make any stops for caching, and I STILL have this TB in that pack. I really need to drop it soon. Thanks for your story and in turn the reminder that I still have this TB.

 

Take care...

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My almost lost one was when we had just started and I went out with my 3 kids and my friend and her 3 kids (yes we make quite a scene and stick to the woods with all of them for a reason :D). my friend was letting the kids take turns holding the first TB any of us had ever seen. My 9 year old had it in her sweatshirt pocket and lost it somehow. She was SO upset and we felt bad as it was one of a set and the only one still in circulation.

So we back track and realized the only place she could have lost it was at the first one, sure enough, she had jumped over a log and it fell out.

 

The best part was it fell next to a bird house on the ground, she opened it up and there was a set of keys and a note that said congrats for finding!! Happy birthday enjoy your new car! Ummm what?! Obviously they had NO clue it was 25ish feet from a real cache!

As we were leaving we saw 2 teens wandering around with a gps, so we stopped and pretended to tie shoes and get the little ones food and water so we could watch them. They were super excited when they finally figured it out and we were excited to see them.

But I couldn't help thinking the what ifs, someone else finds it and takes it being so close to the other one, ya know? Kinda an interesting time out, but we did manage to refind that TB! :D

Edited by onthegomom
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These stories are great! Ok, here's mine:

 

Last year while out caching, we picked up a geocoin from a cache. Generally we only hold onto them for a short time. I usually keep them in one place but since this was our first coin, we kept admiring it. I remember showing it to the kids and then I put it on the counter (normally I put them in our geocaching backpack). Bad move on my part. :D

 

The next weekend we went caching and planned to drop this coin in one of the caches. OMG! Where is the coin?! I blamed the kids first and they swore they didn't touch it and I was the last one seen holding it. Then I blamed my husband but he said he never saw it in the first place after we left the cache we retrieved it from. This was not good. ;)

 

I was terrified of the thought of emailing the owner of this coin that I lost it. Should I buy a new one for him? Should I lie and drop it in a cache? No, that is just wrong. We tore the house apart looking for this thing to no avail. I decided to just keep looking for it and hopefully find it before long. :blink:

 

Four months went by and it was still bothering me....I should really clear my conscience but dang, I know I put it on the counter! Another month went by and I decided that after I bring up the Christmas decorations from the basement, I'll email the coin owner. :D

 

I went to the basement to start bringing the plastic bins up and had to move boxes out of the way that were on the floor in front of the racks with the Christmas decorations. What? What's this on the floor? OMG! It's the COIN!!! Holy cow! How did it get down here behind boxes?! :)

 

It was our cat, Tiva. She steals everything and plays with them. She will grab something (like the geocoin in its plastic sleeve) and run off in the house with it. I picked up the coin, which was still in the plastic sleeve, and examined it. There were two little bite marks where she had it in her mouth. :D

 

So she had taken it to the basement, batted it around down there for awhile until it got wedged under a box!

 

I immediately ran upstairs yelling I found it! I found it! Jim! After a good laugh and sigh of relief, we went to a cache and dropped it off.

 

Yes, I emailed the coin owner and told him the story and we both had a good laugh. :P

* Note to self: just put the TBs in the caching bag so the cat doesn't steal them.

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I did lose a tracable. I picked it up 2 years ago. A couple months later, realized I didn't have it and probably place it in a cache.

 

I contacted the owner and apologized. Didn't hear back from them. Have waited to see if someone picked it up.

 

It is still on my inventory list. How can I mark it as missing or remove from my inventory?

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Never lost a trackable, but I did place a trackable into a cache once only to have the cache get muggled shortly afterwards. Felt bad about it, as I try to pick a cache for dropping trackables only if it looks reasonably unmuggleable. Technically, I guess I’m absolved of the crime because I did my obligation, still felt bad about it though as I was the last geocacher to have my paws on it.

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Never lost a trackable, but I did place a trackable into a cache once only to have the cache get muggled shortly afterwards. Felt bad about it, as I try to pick a cache for dropping trackables only if it looks reasonably unmuggleable. Technically, I guess I’m absolved of the crime because I did my obligation, still felt bad about it though as I was the last geocacher to have my paws on it.

 

I have a story much like this one. I placed a beautiful coin in a cache near a hiking trail. The next "cacher" took it and logged "what a beautiful coin. I think I'll start a collection." Someone must have told him he wasn't supposed to keep it because he changed his log to "Picked up my first coin. Let's see if I can help it on the way." He then deleted his "Retrieved" log and hasn't logged another cache or trackable find in the ensuing 2 1/2 years. The coin is still "in his hands."

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Far too many "last cacher to log". Looked like good caches to put them in... But they are still listed as being in the caches despite many finds since. Too many cachers do not know what to do with a TB.

Almost lost? Checked my coat pockets. Checked the car. Finally decided it must have fallen out of the coat pocket. E-mailed the TB owners, but they had not signed on since November. Last week I was cleaning the computer desk. And there it was! Hiding in the mystery cache print outs! Only been hiding there for four months! It is now in one of my caches. Hopefully it will move on soon.

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I have about 40 trackables, but none are valuable coins that I would just release. I have lost about a half dozen that have gone undiscovered for about a year, so I replaced them with a proxy. I usually wait till about a year if they dont move, as some I have sit somewhere for about 5 or 6 months, for some reason.

 

I found a tb tag in my pocket but lost the actual item the owner had attached, somewhere on a trail.

I immediately emailed him and apologized profusely, asking him if I could replace the item and release it again for him. I opted to snail mail him the trackable tag back. He advised he had lots of TB's that got lost and I was the first geocacher that EVER contacted him, and none who had such concientious diligence. I was pretty shocked that a cacher who knows they lost one, would not at least offer to return or replace it?

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We almost lost a TB once. My husband had taken it out of the container and laid it off to the side as he went through the swag in the container. I signed the logbook, gave it back to him and he closed everything up. It wasn't until later that evening when I was logging in my finds for the day that I remembered to ask about the TB. We usually just log all TB's and coins through my account, it keeps things simpler that way. Well we searched the bag and car but couldn't find it. The next morning we went back to the cache and there it was still laying on the ground where he had left it. Whew, I was happy! Ever since then, we are very careful to make sure the TB or coin goes immediately into the bag. And we carefully check the area to be sure that nothing is left laying around.

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