I gave a geocacher three travel bugs, be he has failed to log them

[+Highpointer]

On Jan. 6, 2011, I parked my SUV in a parking garage on the ASU campus to work at a basketball game. I noticed that the vehicle parked next to me had a geocaching sticker on it. After the game, while I was preparing to leave, I wrote a note with my contact information and left it on the vehicle. However, just before I was preparing to drive away, the owner of that other vehicle returned. We chatted and exchanged our geocaching names. I told him about a few caches on the ASU campus, including one under the statue of a former coach near the football and basketball facilities, and I gave him three travel bugs and logged them into that cache. That other geocacher told me he would go looking for that cache and would move the travel bugs.

 

After a couple of days, that geocacher had failed to log that cache nor the three travel bugs that I gave him, so I sent him a reminder to ask him to do that. He failed to respond. I sent three more e-mails over the next week, but he never responded to any of them. After waiting another two weeks, he still never responded to any of my e-mails, nor did he ever log the travel bugs. I sent him another e-mail earlier today and I am still waiting for his response.

 

Looking back at my e-mail logs, I noted that he had taken a travel bug from a cache during the summer of 2009, and noted that in his log entry but he never logged the travel bug. I sent him an e-mail in November 2009 to ask him to log that travel bug, but he never did that and the travel bug owner marked the travel bug as "Missing."

 

What can I do about this geocacher who fails to log travel bugs, and fails to respond to e-mails that I have sent to him? I have included my phone number in e-mails and have included the link to the information on how to log trackables, but this person appears to be irresponsible and does not care about proper geocaching procedure. I have asked the owners of the trackables I gave him to contact him, but he ignores e-mails from other geocachers as well.

 

If you want more information about this geocacher, please respond and I can send you that geocacher's name.

 

Ken Akerman (a.k.a. Highpointer)

[+The Blorenges]

I don't think you can do any more.

 

I suggest that you've sent him more than enough emails. Hopefully he'll get round to logging them out of the cache and "doing the right thing" eventually.

 

The one other thing I would probably do in this situation is to put a note on each TB's page, dated for when you handed the TB over, and documenting what happened and the name of the cacher who took the TBs.

 

MrsB

[Derf69]

 

After a couple of days, that geocacher had failed to log that cache nor the three travel bugs that I gave him, so I sent him a reminder to ask him to do that. He failed to respond. I sent three more e-mails over the next week, but he never responded to any of them. After waiting another two weeks, he still never responded to any of my e-mails, nor did he ever log the travel bugs. I sent him another e-mail earlier today and I am still waiting for his response.

 

 

After two or three days days you sent this guy four emails in the course of a week. Are you really surprised that he didn't respond to your hounding him? I would at best have been creaped out.

[+Eartha]

The only thing to do now is to stop emailing him, he probably feels like you are stalking him now. There is nothing more you can do, except hope.

[+Max and 99]

I think you should log a note on each TB page explaining where the TBs are. It lets you off the hook, and puts the responsibility on him.

 

I personally wouldn't have logged the TBs into a cache when they weren't in a cache, but in someone's possession.

 

It's really a shame these things happen, and we understand your frustration. You've emailed this guy too many times. He is clearly not going to do the right thing, so give it up.

 

Sorry about your frustration!

[+BlueDeuce]

Contact your locals and see if anyone has seen his car around the area.

[+jmw61]

As a Geocacher, your responsibility for a travel bug ends when you physically place the bug in another cache. Giving them to a stranger to place is just asking for trouble. I know we would all like to think that our fellow cachers are trustworthy and want to do the right thing but it just don't work that way. While I'm sure your intentions were good, there are three bug owners out there with missing bugs now. You could call him out publicly on the forums, but it's way to easy to change a user name and/or open a new account for that to be any real deterrent. I hope they do the right thing but it doesn't look good.

[+Walts Hunting]

I think you should log a note on each TB page explaining where the TBs are. It lets you off the hook, and puts the responsibility on him.

 

I personally wouldn't have logged the TBs into a cache when they weren't in a cache, but in someone's possession.

 

It's really a shame these things happen, and we understand your frustration. You've emailed this guy too many times. He is clearly not going to do the right thing, so give it up.

 

Sorry about your frustration!

 

I don't think you can write a note w/o the tracking number so since he doesn't have the bugs that won't work.

 

As to asking cachers if they had seen his vehicle I would strongly recommend against that. Someone may see the vehicle and then decide to leave a note or even worse approach him to talk about it. 30 years of law enforcement leads me to think that this can only lead to problems. Bad idea.

[owaitress]

As a Geocacher, your responsibility for a travel bug ends when you physically place the bug in another cache. Giving them to a stranger to place is just asking for trouble. I know we would all like to think that our fellow cachers are trustworthy and want to do the right thing but it just don't work that way. While I'm sure your intentions were good, there are three bug owners out there with missing bugs now. You could call him out publicly on the forums, but it's way to easy to change a user name and/or open a new account for that to be any real deterrent. I hope they do the right thing but it doesn't look good.

 

I was thinking the same thing... Say we give this guy the benefit of the doubt, with emails going unanswered what other reason could it be but that he had a horrible fatal accident on the way home. Well then, I would rather think he's just untrustworthy.

 

Ugh, I'm rambling, let me stop.

[+BlueDeuce]

 

I don't think you can write a note w/o the tracking number so since he doesn't have the bugs that won't work.

 

 

You can post a Note on the bug without a tracking number.

[+The Blorenges]

 

I don't think you can write a note w/o the tracking number so since he doesn't have the bugs that won't work.

 

 

You can write a note onto any trackable's page without having the tracking number.

 

 

I think it's too early to be Truly, Madly, Deeply concerned about these TBs - They were handed over on the 6th January, that's just 3 weeks ago. I think I'd be at Slight Concern level at this stage. It's possible that some Real Life things may be happening with this cacher, which are taking priority. Let's hope for the best here and I'd give it another month or so before escalating the anxiety level.

 

MrsB