Stolen Travel Bug

[+scottmcblane]

So, this is more of a rant than anything else. But I do want to start a discussion about Travel Bugs becoming stolen.

 

So mid 2011 I sent my first Travel Bug on its way. Very excited I had big hopes that it would travel all around the world and come back to Australia. So more than a year later it has travelled 14kms and has been in the hands of a cacher for about 7 months. I contacted them to begin with and they said that they would resend it on its way. Then reconnected them. They said the same thing. Recontacted them and no reply. I've marked it as missing and have given up that it will ever be in another cache.

 

I would love to hear some stories that have happened to others that are similar to mine and also just a discussion about this problem of missing Travel Bugs.

 

What are your thoughts?

[+patsu]

So, this is more of a rant than anything else. But I do want to start a discussion about Travel Bugs becoming stolen.

 

So mid 2011 I sent my first Travel Bug on its way. Very excited I had big hopes that it would travel all around the world and come back to Australia. So more than a year later it has travelled 14kms and has been in the hands of a cacher for about 7 months. I contacted them to begin with and they said that they would resend it on its way. Then reconnected them. They said the same thing. Recontacted them and no reply. I've marked it as missing and have given up that it will ever be in another cache.

 

I would love to hear some stories that have happened to others that are similar to mine and also just a discussion about this problem of missing Travel Bugs.

 

What are your thoughts?

I just had my T.B. reappear after about 3 years

[+Panther&Pine]

I'd just let it go. Once it leaves your hands you can't do anything about it or it's travels.

 

I know it is hard but sometimes you just have to let them sit (sorry to the cacher who's Cachekinz I've had for ages, I moved and it's still packed. I'm trying to find the right box tonight).

 

I haven't checked on my wild trackables in a while, humm I should do that. Or I'll wait another few months.

[+The Blorenges]

I had a look at your Flip Book #1 TB...

 

It appears to be a typical case of "the road to hell being paved with good intentions", or, in this case, maybe the road to London. We can recreate a likely scenario:

 

It was picked up by a fairly new cacher who had found only 10 caches. He reads that it wants to travel to every continent. "Great!" he thinks, "My mate Badmanizm is off to England soon so I can ask him to take it there." Badmanizm gets a quick explanation of what geocaching is about, creates an account on geocaching.com and, with Awesomer's guidance, he grabs your TB. TB goes into his rucksack and then...

 

Well, who knows?

 

This is where it starts going downhill and the temperature rises because Badmanizm never ever logs any caches, anywhere, and hasn't been active on the site for months.

 

What can you do?

 

It might be worth dropping an email to The Awesomer to ask him whether he's still in touch with Badmanizm but I would hold out much hope because Awesomer is not a very active cacher either. It's been nearly a year since your TB stopped travelling so I think I'd plan to re-release a replacement using the same tracking number. Start afresh and hope for more miles this time round.

 

Good luck.

 

MrsB

[+scottmcblane]

I had a look at your Flip Book #1 TB...

 

It appears to be a typical case of "the road to hell being paved with good intentions", or, in this case, maybe the road to London. We can recreate a likely scenario:

 

It was picked up by a fairly new cacher who had found only 10 caches. He reads that it wants to travel to every continent. "Great!" he thinks, "My mate Badmanizm is off to England soon so I can ask him to take it there." Badmanizm gets a quick explanation of what geocaching is about, creates an account on geocaching.com and, with Awesomer's guidance, he grabs your TB. TB goes into his rucksack and then...

 

Well, who knows?

 

This is where it starts going downhill and the temperature rises because Badmanizm never ever logs any caches, anywhere, and hasn't been active on the site for months.

 

What can you do?

 

It might be worth dropping an email to The Awesomer to ask him whether he's still in touch with Badmanizm but I would hold out much hope because Awesomer is not a very active cacher either. It's been nearly a year since your TB stopped travelling so I think I'd plan to re-release a replacement using the same tracking number. Start afresh and hope for more miles this time round.

 

Good luck.

 

MrsB

Thanks for your reply. How do I re-release a replacement? Do I use the copy tag?

[+kunarion]

How do I re-release a replacement? Do I use the copy tag?

You can send out a new attachment on the copy tag. Or you can computer print or hand-make a tag (laminated or engraved or whatever), if you include enough info so people know it's a Travel Bug. Then you can keep the copy tag. Does the "Copy Tag" have the Tracking Number? Some sets of TBs only have a Tracking Number on the "Don't Keep Me" tag.

 

If people assisted the original TB and made logs, it's good to leave the old logs intact. But you may change most anything else about the TB page, for your revived TB.

 

And you don't even have to "release" it at all. You could instead make a car sticker or a T-Shirt or hat to wear, so that cachers may spot you and log the "Travel Bug" discovery. When I restore my previously lost TBs and coins, I keep them myself. I might bring one to a special cache for a Visit (or allow cachers to discover it). They're much fancier than the originals I placed into a cache to travel.

Edited January 8, 2013 by kunarion

[+nevadanick]

e-mail about proxies sent.