Travel bug being held a long time?

[prestonbunch]

We are relatively new to geocaching. My three young daughters do it with us. My two oldest daughters (8 and 6) started their own trackables last fall. My oldest daughter's has been to several different caches and traveled hundreds of miles already. My 6-year-old's made it to a couple of caches, but since it was picked up in December, it hasn't been placed in another cache. She's discouraged watching her sister's go all over the place while hers is just stuck. I emailed the last folks to pick it up twice but got no response. Are we just out of luck?

Edited April 27, 2013 by prestonbunch

[+whh0]

Happens a lot unfortunately and there isn't a great deal you can do about it...... Sometimes these things can drop from the radar for months or even years and then resurface, sometimes they are gone for good. Are the people that have it still active on the site?

[prestonbunch]

Happens a lot unfortunately and there isn't a great deal you can do about it...... Sometimes these things can drop from the radar for months or even years and then resurface, sometimes they are gone for good. Are the people that have it still active on the site?

 

I'm not exactly sure how to tell if they are still active. When I look at their profile it says last visit was August 2012, but they logged their find of my daughter's travel bug in November 2012. I'm not sure if they've found any after that. How would I tell?

[+terrkan78]

Happens a lot unfortunately and there isn't a great deal you can do about it...... Sometimes these things can drop from the radar for months or even years and then resurface, sometimes they are gone for good. Are the people that have it still active on the site?

 

I'm not exactly sure how to tell if they are still active. When I look at their profile it says last visit was August 2012, but they logged their find of my daughter's travel bug in November 2012. I'm not sure if they've found any after that. How would I tell?

When you get to their profile, click on the "geocaches" tab, then click on "all geocache finds." It shows that they found two caches (in January 2013) since they picked up the travel bug in December - one was an earthcache (so they couldn't have left the travel bug there) and one was a multi that's been found several times since January.

 

It's possible that they left the travel bug in the multi and just didn't log it right. The next person who logged that multi was a new cacher, and their log said, "Took toy, left toy, SL" - so it's possible they picked up the travel bug without knowing what it was. You could try e-mailing them and asking if they remember seeing your travel bug in the cache (don't accuse them of taking it - don't want to make them mad just in case they do have it - but a nice e-mail might work if they did indeed take it not realizing it wasn't a trade item). I think that's a long shot though.

 

The most likely scenario is the cacher still has your travel bug somewhere, has forgotten about it, maybe even lost it, etc. Unfortunately, it happens a lot. If they don't respond to your e-mail, there's nothing else you can do on that front. You can always release a new dog tag (or something similar) with the missing travel bug's number engraved on there and send it out as a replacement.

 

Sorry this is happening to your daughter! It's tough for little ones to see their travel bug die a quick death, especially when sister's is alive and well!

[+Malcelly73]

I share your 'grief'. I have 3 TBs belonging to my grandchildren, I set them off together and they all started travelling. I usually acknowledge to the person who logs it as a find by email and always get a reply to say they will move on. I then see they go Geocaching practically everyday but 2 weeks later they still haven't dropped off...its a shame not everyone drops off quickly as I always do. I have found TBs in UK, been in contact with owner and taken them to Canada, where I visit my grandchildren, sometimes it been a month or so but I think its just polite to let the owner know if you intend holding on to it for more than a week.

[prestonbunch]

I share your 'grief'. I have 3 TBs belonging to my grandchildren, I set them off together and they all started travelling. I usually acknowledge to the person who logs it as a find by email and always get a reply to say they will move on. I then see they go Geocaching practically everyday but 2 weeks later they still haven't dropped off...its a shame not everyone drops off quickly as I always do. I have found TBs in UK, been in contact with owner and taken them to Canada, where I visit my grandchildren, sometimes it been a month or so but I think its just polite to let the owner know if you intend holding on to it for more than a week.

 

My hubby and I were asked to help a Girl Scout group from a neighboring county learn to geocache. We explained that we were still relative newbies, but they didn't care. They just wanted to try it out. So we went and found a few caches with them. It was fun. But there was another woman there to teach them as well and when we mentioned travel bugs, she opened up this case and dumped out at least 40 travel bugs that she told the girls she had found! I was surprised she had so many in her possession at one time. If we don't think we will be geocaching in the next week or so, we don't pick up a travel bug.

[+D+L Blades]

I have someone that took my TB and keeps carrying it to all of their finds so I have pages and pages of where it's been with the same people. I asked them to drop it off but they haven't yet. They log in all the time. They have found 191 travel bugs/trackables and I'm wondering if they drive around with ALL of them in their car?! I don't care where YOU go I want to know where all my bug can get on its own!

 

Can Groundspeak ask them to speak up on what they are going with them??

[+D+L Blades]

But there was another woman there to teach them as well and when we mentioned travel bugs, she opened up this case and dumped out at least 40 travel bugs that she told the girls she had found! I was surprised she had so many in her possession at one time. If we don't think we will be geocaching in the next week or so, we don't pick up a travel bug.

 

Please follow up with her and have the girl scouts all log her finds and place them on their way!

[+kunarion]

I have someone that took my TB and keeps carrying it to all of their finds so I have pages and pages of where it's been with the same people. I asked them to drop it off but they haven't yet. They log in all the time. They have found 191 travel bugs/trackables and I'm wondering if they drive around with ALL of them in their car?! I don't care where YOU go I want to know where all my bug can get on its own!

 

Can Groundspeak ask them to speak up on what they are going with them??

Have you stated on the TB page that you want it placed into a cache container, not "Visited"?* Or at least a note log? Did you include your email address in your PM to them? It's up to you to speak up.

 

 

 

*Big, bold red letters might be good.

Edited May 29, 2013 by kunarion

[+lmgscaplis]

I have just found my first travel bug in Germany but am travelling to the UK next month so contacted the owner to ask could I keep hold of it so I can help it on its travels. They responded immediately that it was fine.