Stolen Geocaches

[rocketfuel6]

I had one of my caches stolen "Yellowstone National Grid" and looked at the last Geocacher to have found it. I then looked at their other finds (28) and checked on those and most of them seemed to have gone missing for next visit. without naming geocacher check on my cache above "Yellowstone National Grid" and check on last geocacher and trace their finds and let me know what you think!! If you agree how do we report this

[+T.D.M.22]

No need to spam by posting 3 times. Once is enough. And if your cache is missing, why is it not disabled? Owner maintenance is when you are done fixing it. You should disable it so people know that. And third, not much you can do. Tell Groundspeak? If it's intentionel theft, the person will use a different account, IP address, whatever. Easy to get around being banned. Did you try talking to the person who found it? Maybe he moved the cache- some new cachers think that's what your supposed to do for some reason.

 

Ultimately if the cache is gone, either replace it or archive it.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Yes, it does look like there's a cache maggot in the area. 10 caches missing after they've visited, over a third of their finds.

My sincere condolences. This sure can take the joy out of cache ownership.

 

1. Consider paying for Premium Membership and make all your hides PMO. The cache maggot won't see those.

You can buy a 3 month membership instead of a full year to save money. This will let you set up your caches as PMO. You'll need to remember to STOP the auto renew on that. If you like Premium Membership, it will be cheaper to pay by the year, and if you don't really want it, you'll want to cancel before it bills again. You can see your own PMO caches just fine, once that membership lapses.

 

2. DISABLE your cache! it's gone.

 

3. Please, don't use Owner maintenance logs to report your intention to do something. Use it when you've ACTUALLY done something.

 

4. There's no point in "reporting" this or any other cache maggot. You could email local cache owners, and point out that there is one.

The only solution is time, they will lose interest and go on to some other vandalism eventually.

In the meantime, the best way to handle this is to make caches PMO, or hide Mystery caches and Multi-caches. Typically cache maggots won't seek caches any harder than low D/T Traditional caches.

[+wmpastor]

Sorry to hear about your stolen cache. It's especially discouraging since the cache was well-liked and took effort to make.

 

Probably you want to report it to Groundspeak, or you can talk to your local reviewer for ideas. I'm sure others will have suggestions as well.

[+Team Microdot]

It could be a simple case of misunderstanding of the game - not unusual these days with many people joining in five minutes after downloading an app - many blissfully unaware of the website or the guidelines / rules of the game.

 

I would be tempted to give the benefit of the doubt, contact the last finder in an friendly manner, thank them for finding the cache and ask them if they can describe how it was hidden when they found it, and if they re-hid it in the same way in exactly the same place (it's not unheard of for people to move caches to where their GPS device tells them it 'should' be).

 

They may reply - or they may not, but if they do then you have an opportunity to engage in dialogue and to help to educate them into, if they are not already doing so, playing the game according to the guidelines i.e. re-hiding caches well, exactly where they found them.

[+Bear and Ragged]

Without naming geocacher check on my cache above "Yellowstone National Grid" and check on last geocacher and trace their finds...

 

Without naming... You as good as, have named them.

 

They may not have taken the cache. Read a few comments on other caches "It appears the old cache was not hidden properly by an inexperienced cacher..."

 

Strange, that if they 'deliberately' take the cache, that they log a find!

(Unless they think that is what the game is about. There are some new cachers that think the game is 'Find it, hide it somewhere else')

[+Team Microdot]

Strange, that if they 'deliberately' take the cache, that they log a find!

 

Unless of course they think they are taking part in a treasure hunt - which might imply that they can keep what they find?

[rocketfuel6]

No need to spam by posting 3 times. Once is enough. And if your cache is missing, why is it not disabled? Owner maintenance is when you are done fixing it. You should disable it so people know that. And third, not much you can do. Tell Groundspeak? If it's intentionel theft, the person will use a different account, IP address, whatever. Easy to get around being banned. Did you try talking to the person who found it? Maybe he moved the cache- some new cachers think that's what your supposed to do for some reason.

 

Ultimately if the cache is gone, either replace it or archive it.

i didn't post it three times on purpose it was coming up with a red fault code. apologies. I have since disabled it as pointed out by a friendly and understanding geocacher

[+The Blorenges]

It could be a simple case of misunderstanding of the game - not unusual these days with many people joining in five minutes after downloading an app - many blissfully unaware of the website or the guidelines / rules of the game.

 

I would be tempted to give the benefit of the doubt, contact the last finder in an friendly manner, thank them for finding the cache and ask them if they can describe how it was hidden when they found it, and if they re-hid it in the same way in exactly the same place (it's not unheard of for people to move caches to where their GPS device tells them it 'should' be).

 

They may reply - or they may not, but if they do then you have an opportunity to engage in dialogue and to help to educate them into, if they are not already doing so, playing the game according to the guidelines i.e. re-hiding caches well, exactly where they found them.

 

Yes... This ^^^

 

MrsB

[+colleda]

There was a similar thread a while ago re stolen caches. The gist of it was that it is a criminal offence and is reportable to the police. From memory a police cacher also contributed to the thread and there was an instance cited of a cache thief being charged. Caches belong to people, wherever the cache may be and if taken without the authority of the owner then it is theft, whether it's in a home, a forest or wherever.

Someone may recall the original and post a link.

[+Legochugglers]

It could be a simple case of misunderstanding of the game - not unusual these days with many people joining in five minutes after downloading an app - many blissfully unaware of the website or the guidelines / rules of the game.

 

I would be tempted to give the benefit of the doubt, contact the last finder in an friendly manner, thank them for finding the cache and ask them if they can describe how it was hidden when they found it, and if they re-hid it in the same way in exactly the same place (it's not unheard of for people to move caches to where their GPS device tells them it 'should' be).

 

They may reply - or they may not, but if they do then you have an opportunity to engage in dialogue and to help to educate them into, if they are not already doing so, playing the game according to the guidelines i.e. re-hiding caches well, exactly where they found them.

 

Yes... This ^^^

 

MrsB

 

I agree with the above as well. I wonder if some contact has already been made from one of the other affected CO's as they haven't been out caching for a good few weeks now although they did visit the site yesterday. On one of the caches they found (and then the next cacher didn't find it) they actually posted a further found it log explaining where it was 'a nano 8ft up on a lamppost". A peculiar modus operandi for a serial cache destroyer?