Needing to vent!

[+J&J Team Yukon]

I am at a loss as to why fellow geo-cachers steal TB's. I was so excited to place 2 TB's in a TB motel that is close to an Air Force knowing they would be picked and moved. That was back in March...still showing up in the cache but they are not there. They were nothing special, just tags with little animals attached to them....why STEAL them?

[+cx1]

I completely understand your frustration. I released one in the wild and it promptly went missing for a long time. Now someone seems to be packing from cache to cache but not releasing it like it is now their own personal mileage tracker.

It happens.

Now I will occasionally do a discovery log on a TB so their owner might get an idea where it is but otherwise I ignore that aspect of the hobby.

[+Brooklyn51]

It is very frustrating. We have a couple of tbs in similar situations. In fact, we had one that we had pretty much given up on when it suddenly reappeared from the bottom of a cacher's father-in-law's bag. The father-in-law had picked it up when they were all caching and not knowing what it was, dropped it in his bag, until apparently at dinner sometime much much later, he asked if the son-in-law knew what it was. He did and put it back out in the wild. So there is hope. I guess it's just one the risks of this part of the game. Hopefully yours will reapear soon.

[+TerraViators]

IBTM

[MisterEFQ]

I dont get it either. We found at a cache in Griffith Park, Los Angeles at the top of a long ridge line hike. Its not the easiest hike in the world. We put 2 TB's in the cache.

 

We came back a week later, nobody logged the cache, and the only thing missing was one of the Travel bugs.

 

Good thing its misson was to get as close to the Hollywood sign as possible (it came from Germany). That thats about as close as you can get.

[+BruceS]

Moving to Travel Bug part of forums

[hoosier guy]

My 11 yr old wanted a TB for Christmas. So we ordered her one and helped her set up the page. We placed it in a local cache and then it was gone. No one ever logged taking it.

[+Davequal]

I bought one set it my first cache. It moved 13 miles.......

[sabrefan7]

I dropped on last year into a cache it went ZERO miles before the cache was stolen. This morning I get an email about another bug I marked missing a year ago. It was discovered. I moved it a little then sent a note to the cacher asking them to retrieve it again and of course thanking them for finding it. Frustrating but it happens

[ChrisEMT1]

I had released one last year, prior to me getting a prospected international job in the middle east, with the mission to be in a cache in that country about a month or so prior to me coming home, with stops in other countries along the way.... My intention was to have a very interesting trip out there, then pick it up while I was there, and finally retiring it once I placed it back into a cache that I owned here, to show it's travels around the world... It had mad it out to New Orleans by a cacher that is local to me (which was greatly appreciated) and another cacher picked it up and logged it, and has not found a cache since November of 2010 when he picked it up. Unfortunately, the cacher has not replied to my emails asking him to even mail it back to me at my expense. The most recent time he logged into his account was within the past few (2 or 3) weeks... I just wish I got an answer to my emails, even it was an "I'm sorry, but I lost/misplaced/can't find the tb" email so I could send out the copy tag....

 

Fortunately, it was only a tb with the mission sheet, so it was not something I was attached to, but would have loved to see the wonderful travels it could have had....

 

Enough ranting on my part.... Just part of the game/hobby I guess.....

[+magkirk]

sorry. messed up.

Edited July 20, 2011 by magkirk

[+magkirk]

One of my travel bugs traveled a bit, then was picked up by someone on vacation who logged it but did not log the cache or any other cache. I eventually sent a polite email and asked to send a self-addressed stamped envelope for them to send it back to me. I received my little bunny back yesterday! I wonder how many times that happens. There are nice people in the world.

[+JBnW]

[rant]

I'm starting to wonder what it is about Las Vegas and TBs! Of the 8 trackables we've released, 4 of them have gone to or through Las Vegas and have either immediately disappeared or have been (are being) held hostage! One of them (TB2B28V) was held hostage for 9 months, released, and then one week later by a cacher who then dropped out of the game! Another (TB2TDQG) has been held by a cacher that logs in frequently, finds caches every now and again, and posts nothing about its activities.

 

I know, a 50% loss rate is probably normal and may even be pretty good in the grand scheme of things, but a 50% loss rate in a single city is just about enough to make me stop wasting money on trackables! I've got other ways to loose $5 in Vegas!

[/rant]

[+Walts Hunting]

maybe a reviewer can merger this with the other thousand on this issue.

[Bolivar Bill]

I've sent out 3 travelbug tags. One is a disabled cache and probably gone. One was picked up in Florida months ago by a cacher who said they were taking it to England, and I just noticed that the cache the third is in appears to be missing. So much for travelbugs, I'll stick to moving other peoples around.

[+E_ZIG_A]

I quite often take TBs along with me and visit them into a heap of caches before releasing them, sometimes weeks later; I'm getting the miles up on the TBs while I look for that "perfect" cache to place them in.

 

I've had a heap go missing too, out of my own stable of TBs; some of them have popped up again mysteriously and others I'm still waiting for. The most disappointing one was my first GC release; it went missing minutes after I dropped it into a cache!

[+threenow24]

A sore spot with me as well... of the 11 bugs/coins I've released over the last three years just two are still moving, and I'm fairly certain they'll also stop soon enough. Obviously there are people that know what they are and how to handle them but unfortunately it seems like there are many more cachers that don't have a clue, or even worse deliberately steal and keep them.

[+ATXTracker]

Here is one idea intended to help - in general it would make TBs harder to target through searches.

 

http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1858117-option-to-hide-the-current-location-of-a-trackable

Edited August 3, 2011 by ATXTracker

[+BlueDeuce]

My bugs are meant to be found. If you need to hide your bugs to enjoy them you're better off creating a coin portfolio to share at events.

[+t4e]

Here is one idea intended to help - in general it would make TBs harder to target through searches.

 

http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1858117-option-to-hide-the-current-location-of-a-trackable

 

useless afaic...there are no TB thieves...just newbies that have no idea how to log them and cases of being misplaced/lost etc...

Edited August 3, 2011 by t4e

[+BlueDeuce]

Here is one idea intended to help - in general it would make TBs harder to target through searches.

 

http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1858117-option-to-hide-the-current-location-of-a-trackable

 

useless afaic...there are no TB thieves...just newbies that have no idea how to log them and cases of being misplaced/lost etc...

 

For the most part, you are correct.

[PreciousPisces]

I need to vent too. Besides the stealing, I also don't understand why people don't log that they took a travel bug from a cache. I left my very first TB in California in June, it was moved once to a new cache, then it just sat there. Now it's August. I checked online at the cache it's supposed to be in and after reading the latest log entries, I discovered that someone wrote that there was no TB in this cache. Well that means someone moved my TB without logging it. And I see caches in my town that show TBs in their inventory and when I find them, no TB in sight. PLEASE, if you take a TB, log that you moved it. Why are there so many cachers who don't do this?

[7rxc]

I need to vent too. Besides the stealing, I also don't understand why people don't log that they took a travel bug from a cache. I left my very first TB in California in June, it was moved once to a new cache, then it just sat there. Now it's August. I checked online at the cache it's supposed to be in and after reading the latest log entries, I discovered that someone wrote that there was no TB in this cache. Well that means someone moved my TB without logging it. And I see caches in my town that show TBs in their inventory and when I find them, no TB in sight. PLEASE, if you take a TB, log that you moved it. Why are there so many cachers who don't do this?

There are many 'correct' methods to move trackables in use, depending on who you are, where you cache etc. In this forum, it seems that the consensus is to find one,log it out, move it, log the drop. But, we seem to be a small sample of Geocachers, since most never come to the forums at all, let alone the TB forum. All we can do is suggest an 'ideal' to follow, that runs withing the guidelines, even seeks to improve those guidelines, spread the word on the method and follow it ourselves. The best advice is to be familiar with the process and share the knowledge of how to log them, and the importance of doing it in a timely manner (not always immediate).

If you 'discover' a trackable and it is not in a cache setting (say at an event, or in the hands of a cacher), give credit to the holder as having it, and where you 'discovered' it. That helps in tracking the history and status of the Trackable.

 

Relax and have fun.

 

Doug 7rxc

[TeamShadow3d]

The same thing happens in the UK,I've been to caches that where ment to have TB's in them but haven't.

[+Dewns]

I too feel the need to vent I went on a Geocoin Adventure earned my coin and it was a beauty!! So stupid me thought I would share it and send it on its own adventure by activating and sending it on. The poor thing got snagged out of the very first cache and has disappeared, no log no trace so it is what my stupidity for thinking people would play the game and let everybody enjoy it and trust them to log my coin. Thanks for the chance to let it out

[+Chokecherry]

I too feel the need to vent I went on a Geocoin Adventure earned my coin and it was a beauty!! So stupid me thought I would share it and send it on its own adventure by activating and sending it on. The poor thing got snagged out of the very first cache and has disappeared, no log no trace so it is what my stupidity for thinking people would play the game and let everybody enjoy it and trust them to log my coin. Thanks for the chance to let it out

 

On of my pink yimes went that way too. First cache and a new person took it and then they and my coin vanished. I'll send out a proxy eventually.

[+The Fall Guy]

It is frustrating. You buy them, wait for them to arrive in the mail, add a trinket, set up the listing and photo of it and it goes 23 miles...wow. I guess it's a roll of the dice to release them in hopes that they will actually go somewhere.