Has a long lost travel bug shown back up ?

[+okieinjun]

I had a travel bug I put out in '04. It has been missing for about ten years now. Then all of a sudden I start getting emails saying my tb was "discovered" by numerous people. What is "discovered" ? Do they actually see the tb ? It has supossedly shown up in the Netherlands at a geocoin event in Eindhoven. Whats going on ? It's not a geocoin, it was a travel bug. The bug is/was called Girls Gone Fishin'. Check out the logs and see if anyone can help me figure out whats going on. Thanks.

[+Isonzo Karst]

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=39354

 

Someone probably mis-entered a trackable code, and it worked for your old TB. Now it's on someones list of TB codes, and people are passing that list around, and logging "discovered". Most of these people probably don't know whether they actually saw it or not. They saw a LOT of trackables, and are just logging from a list of tracking codes.

 

What is "discovered" ? - it's a log that can be used to log that you saw a trackable, without having to Grab it, move it, and then Drop it again.

People bring their collections of coins and travel bugs to events now - others can see them, take note of the tracking numbers and log "discovered". At events lists of tracking codes are shared. Some owners of large collections will have printed lists of their own codes to pass out.

You might use it if you saw a travel bug, but you didn't want to be responsible for moving it. The "discovered" log should reassure the owner that you actually saw the trackable in whatever cache.

 

Do they actually see the tb ? In this case, almost certainly NOT.

 

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You should mark this item missing - clearly, it's not in the cache where it's now shown. Mark Missing is an option on the bug's page, on the right side, under ACTIONS. This will put the bug in an "Unknown location". It doesn't add mileage, and it can be started up again, should the original be found, or should you decide to release a copy tag.

 

You can let the current run of discovered logs remain on the page, or delete them (assuming they're false).

I'd Mark Missing

edit the page and ask for no Discovered logs without ACTUALLY seeing the item

delete the current bunch of logs

[+jellis]

It's happened to me many times. There is a list of trackables getting around europe and cachers are logging them even if they are missing. After I deleted the logs on the missing ones I own they have stopped logging them.

I found some coins that were missing for years that were held by a hoarder and I returned them to the owner. Then years later some cachers started logging them and the owner tried asking how they can log coins he has at home.

[+jellis]

I had a travel bug I put out in '04. It has been missing for about ten years now. Then all of a sudden I start getting emails saying my tb was "discovered" by numerous people. What is "discovered" ? Do they actually see the tb ? It has supossedly shown up in the Netherlands at a geocoin event in Eindhoven. Whats going on ? It's not a geocoin, it was a travel bug. The bug is/was called Girls Gone Fishin'. Check out the logs and see if anyone can help me figure out whats going on. Thanks.

Or you can do what I do on ones I am not sure are missing. I contact the ones who logged it to see what they found.

[+Auld Pharrrt]

I had a travel bug I put out in '04. It has been missing for about ten years now. Then all of a sudden I start getting emails saying my tb was "discovered" by numerous people. What is "discovered" ? Do they actually see the tb ? It has supossedly shown up in the Netherlands at a geocoin event in Eindhoven. Whats going on ? It's not a geocoin, it was a travel bug. The bug is/was called Girls Gone Fishin'. Check out the logs and see if anyone can help me figure out whats going on. Thanks.

Or you can do what I do on ones I am not sure are missing. I contact the ones who logged it to see what they found.

 

I would also hide the tracking code number which is clearly visible in the photograph!