Bit of Advice please

[+Grumpy old Git]

Here goes; I am in the process of archiving one of my caches, I have disabled it in preparation and picked up the ammo box cache container. Before I archive it I am checking the online logs against the paper log from the cache, to make sure everyone has logged it online before I archive it. The last cacher to log it online does not have an entry in the cache paper log and the seven travel bugs that they placed are not there. I have messaged the cacher with no reply and it appears looking at the travel bug histories that they are placed in a cache listed as missing by fellow cachers and then grabbed by the owner again. Is this common practise ? or am I missing something.

[+TriciaG]

If a travel bug owner knows their TB is missing (has been missing for a long time), they may "grab" it back and send out a proxy or a new version of the TB. So yeah, common practice.

 

If the TBs aren't in your cache, I'd suggest marking them as missing. You can do that as the CO.

Edited October 3, 2016 by TriciaG

[+cerberus1]

It seems weird (to me) to see a TO know a trackable's missing, yet "grab" it from missing, to place nothing in another's cache.

Something similar was explained in the forums by another just a short while ago, though most times it's in the cache a CO marked it missing from.

This one's odd...

 

When you finally grab the container and archive, you can mark those trackables missing - again.

[+Grumpy old Git]

Further to my original post I have had no alternative but to submit the following to the website moderators after being accused of stealing the cachers travel bugs.

 

Hi I recently archived one of my geocaches “Barney's Travel Bug Hotel” GC5X2Q3. After firstly giving a warning of its impending archiving. Just before I took it off line a cacher ID: tomtomgogo, entered a found log and recorded that he had dropped off 7 travel bugs:

El Hierro TBJDKF

Fuertaventura TBJKFM

Gran Canria TBJAF0

La Gomera TBJGGK

La Palma TBJA87

Lanzarote TBJEJ1

Tenerife TBJCQ3

When I collected the cache there were no travel bugs present and no entry from them in the cache paper log. I messaged the cacher in question and asked them why there was no log and that there were no travel bugs in the cache and requested they message me back. I received no reply and therefore deleted their log entry and archived the cache.

Checking the travel bugs home page, he has stated that they have been stolen and states it was the cache owner in one log La Gomera TBJGGK. Looking at the logs for all these travel bugs it appears that reporting them missing and grabbing them back is a common occurrence. I can only assume that they did not visit my cache and logged the travel bugs falsely in order to log miles on them. I have every sympathy if his travel bugs have been taken previously, however the correct procedure would be to transfer the travel bug number onto another medium and release that or have them in your inventory so that you can log them as visiting caches you visit. I consider their statement and implication that I have stolen the travel bugs and their actions of falsely logging the travel bugs and accuse fellow cachers of repeatedly taking them in contravention of the terms and conditions of the use of this site. I am therefore reporting them for this abuse of this site.

Regards

GOG

[+cerberus1]

I wouldn't know what "stolen, taking back", and "stolen by dodgy cache owner-taking back" means either, so maybe Groundspeak is the correct route, JIC.

How could someone "take back" something that's not there?

[+irisisleuk]

It seems all these trackables were lost and he made replacements (maybe the copy TB) with new missions. So that he grabbed them from caches where they were lost and then renew them isn't very strange.

What is strange that he says he dropped them in your cache, but if he did, why didn't he log the logbook?

Maybe he is mistaken and logged the wrong cache and with that dropped all trackables in the wrong cache. It's a pity he didn't contact you to verify so this could be determined for instance by describing the cache.

 

Contacting Groundspeak seems useless, he didn't do anything wrong, he can do with his own trackables whatever he wants. You feel attacked because he says you are dodgy and he's far from happy because all his newly made trackables are (or might be) lost right after he dropped them. Assuming he falsely logged them for the miles seems very unlikely, what is the use especially since it isn't their mission to have as many miles as possible.

 

I can understand he is frustrated, wouldn't you be when so many of your TBs are missing/stolen from caches and when you replace them they get stolen again? I would simply email him telling you read that he described you as dodgy and that you don't understand why he is accusing you of stealing his trackables. I would explain that you took the time to email him and ask him to contact you but he didn't, so there is no way in figuring out this way what happened. The only thing you are sure of is that 1) there is no log in the logbook of this specific cache 2) there were no TBs in the cache. So is he really sure he found this cache, or maybe another? Ask him to describe the container he found, maybe he found something else nearby or maybe he just made a mistake with the GC-code.

Edited October 6, 2016 by irisisleuk

[+Walts Hunting]

If you worry about every TB you run into that is not where it is supposed to be you won't have much of a regular life and certainly won't have time to cache.

[+HyppeSyster]

"When I collected the cache there were no travel bugs present and no entry from them in the cache paper log."

 

I've never logged a trackable into the paper log that is in the cache itself.... am I supposed to?? To me, this would take up page space and take too much linger time at the cache location.

I log it through the webpage as soon as I get home (within 8 hrs of find) or log it at the time I log the cache and write a sentence or two later.

[+cerberus1]

"When I collected the cache there were no travel bugs present and no entry from them in the cache paper log."

 

I've never logged a trackable into the paper log that is in the cache itself.... am I supposed to?? To me, this would take up page space and take too much linger time at the cache location.

I log it through the webpage as soon as I get home (within 8 hrs of find) or log it at the time I log the cache and write a sentence or two later.

Before tiny strips of paper for a log became the norm, we entered what trackables left/grabbed, what we swapped in swag, and sometimes the weather into full-sized log books, the smallest often a tablet.

 

Today, a small, spiral tablet's considered a big-deal, yet most just log their name/date on a single line.

[+cerberus1]

"When I collected the cache there were no travel bugs present and no entry from them in the cache paper log."

 

I've never logged a trackable into the paper log that is in the cache itself.... am I supposed to?? To me, this would take up page space and take too much linger time at the cache location.I log it through the webpage as soon as I get home (within 8 hrs of find) or log it at the time I log the cache and write a sentence or two later.

Before tiny strips of paper for a log became the norm, we entered what trackables left/grabbed, what we swapped in swag, and sometimes the weather into full-sized log books, the smallest often a tablet.

 

Today, a small, spiral tablet's considered a big-deal, yet most just log their name/date on a single line.

In addition, the "numbers" wasn't such a thing yet, and we'd head out for one cache for the day.

Since many caches were a hike in the woods, we'd often take lunch, and actually read the cache's log, which often contained drawings too.

 

For us, caching's changed a lot (maybe not for the better)...

[+HyppeSyster]

Thanks.