New cache missing!

[+WookieWanderers]

Anyone else had their newly placed cache go missing in less than 24 hours? It had it's FTF yesterday after being placed and approved, then earlier today someone added it needed maintenance already as they DNF. Upon checking the area throughly it appears our rock cache is missing, it was our first hide and we're feeling super disappointed. It was carefully placed not in a high traffic area with plenty of coverage, we walk past this place a lot and no one really goes near. So feeling super confused, we even had a note on the bottom to ask if was found by mistake to either join the geocaching game or place it back where they found it. 

[+Max and 99]

I had one cache taken before FTF. Just really bad timing with a scheduled major community project at a cemetery. I was sure my tree host was safe but they cut off all branches under 7' and there went my cache. FT F was kind enough to message me and replace it since it was quite a drive in dirt roads.

[+TheLimeCat]

I read the FTF log on the cache and they seem to indicate that there was a lot of muggle activity nearby. If they were digging around in a high traffic area at night, someone might've come along to figure out exactly what it is they were doing. At the same time though, it might've just been bad luck. This is why micro caches are becoming so common.

[+arisoft]

One of my caches disappeared before the FTF and the replacement also disappeared after the FTF. There was no foreseen reason for that because same type of caches normally last many years. Changing the container type by a player who made a throw down maintenance helped a lot.

Edited June 24, 2018 by arisoft

[+cerberus1]

12 hours ago, WookieWanderers said:

Anyone else had their newly placed cache go missing in less than 24 hours? It had it's FTF yesterday after being placed and approved, then earlier today someone added it needed maintenance already as they DNF. Upon checking the area throughly it appears our rock cache is missing, it was our first hide and we're feeling super disappointed. It was carefully placed not in a high traffic area with plenty of coverage, we walk past this place a lot and no one really goes near. So feeling super confused, we even had a note on the bottom to ask if was found by mistake to either join the geocaching game or place it back where they found it. 

 

Curious what you mean by "placed and approved".   

I agree with LimeCat, someone poking around (at night no less...) with a lot of muggle activity gets people curious, and probably what did it in.  

[+BCandMsKitty]

5 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Curious what you mean by "placed and approved".   

I agree with LimeCat, someone poking around (at night no less...) with a lot of muggle activity gets people curious, and probably what did it in.  

 

Isn't that self explanatory?

Sounds to me like they placed their cache and had it approved.

 

And I agree. lots of muggle activity watching someone finding it at night is a recipe for disaster.

[+cerberus1]

1 hour ago, BCandMsKitty said:

Isn't that self explanatory?

Sounds to me like they placed their cache and had it approved.

 

No.   

[+NanCycle]

1 hour ago, BCandMsKitty said:

 

Isn't that self explanatory?

Sounds to me like they placed their cache and had it approved.

 

 

Sounds like that to me too.  Except for the misuse of the word "approved "

[+kunarion]

21 hours ago, WookieWanderers said:

Anyone else had their newly placed cache go missing in less than 24 hours? It had it's FTF yesterday after being placed and approved, then earlier today someone added it needed maintenance already as they DNF. Upon checking the area throughly it appears our rock cache is missing, it was our first hide and we're feeling super disappointed. It was carefully placed not in a high traffic area with plenty of coverage, we walk past this place a lot and no one really goes near. So feeling super confused, we even had a note on the bottom to ask if was found by mistake to either join the geocaching game or place it back where they found it. 

 

Is it a "rock" that may attract muggle explorers?  How long did you test it in its spot before submitting it for review?  Since I didn't want to have a cache where just anybody finds it easily all the time, several of mine were in place for as long as 6 months before I submitted them.  My ammo boxes had a break-away cord so I could tell right away if it had been opened.  If the cache is unmolested for months, I'm assured it will definitely last one day as an active cache.  Most have been in place as active caches for years.  This is in a park where COs historically can't keep caches, so I needed to test some ideas first.

 

Six months was not good enough for Schnippi.  It was in a leetle forested area among boulders, between two soccer fields.  A mass of people descend on the place for kids' soccer games, and soccer must be very boring, because a lot of kids would be playing around the boulders among the trees instead of watching the game.  The Schnippi box would be found, opened, and dragged a few hundred feet, and end up somewhere that I had to go find it.  I would follow the trail of Swag.  That cache only lasted two years before it vanished.  I don't think it was re-hidden the last time.

 

Anyway, a place that looks completely empty now can acquire a large number of people who are just there to wreak havoc.  You may be surprised where they will go.  In your case, it looks like another layer of difficulty is advised.  The cache must be more aggressively hidden.

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by kunarion

[321geocache]

Since your cache is Premium Members Only, I can't see it. But I will ask a few questions:

 

What does the cache look like? Does it blend in with the surrounding area? Is the cache located in a relatively urban area?

 

Sounds like the area can experience heavy muggle traffic from some of the above posts. Combine that with a nighttime FTF, and you have a recipe for a missing cache. Since I can't see the cache listing, I can give you some help if you're able to answer the above questions and give me some basic info about the cache.

[+kunarion]

29 minutes ago, 321geocache said:

Since your cache is Premium Members Only, I can't see it. But I will ask a few questions:

 

What does the cache look like? Does it blend in with the surrounding area? Is the cache located in a relatively urban area?

 

Sounds like the area can experience heavy muggle traffic from some of the above posts. Combine that with a nighttime FTF, and you have a recipe for a missing cache. Since I can't see the cache listing, I can give you some help if you're able to answer the above questions and give me some basic info about the cache.

 

It looks to be generally in the area of this park (not giving away the spot, which may not matter now, but whatever), but farther into the clearing to the left.  It would be good for the CO to return to the park manager and ask if landscapers might remove caches.  It seems to be a well-manicured spot.  I can't tell why it may be considered a place that "no one goes near".  The previous finders also may advise.  Maybe changing the hide style slightly would do the trick.

 

Just as an example of how it may work, I follow a permission plan from a county park manager for my caches.  I asked if caches would be left in place when the landscapers come through, and was told there are no guarantees.  Caches are allowed, not protected.  One of my caches was mowed to pieces (who knew they'd "mow" an entire bush?).  Another long-standing cache (my first, on a tree branch) was gone when both Cyprus trees were cut down.  OK, they never looked super healthy down there in the shade.  Very attentive landscapers may remove any "containers" they find.

 

When I placed caches around a pretty empty county park, locals' "Found It" logs would mention how they could never keep caches there.  The caches vanish.  So after chatting with the guys at local Events, I placed caches where the main consideration is that they are "to be found only by cachers".  That's kind of a challenge to do!

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by kunarion

[321geocache]

13 minutes ago, kunarion said:

It looks to be generally in the area of this park (not giving away the spot, which may not matter now, but whatever), but farther into the clearing to the left.  It would be good for the CO to return to the park manager and ask if landscapers might remove caches.  It seems to be a well-manicured spot.  I can't tell why it may be considered a place that "no one goes near".  The previous finders also may advise.  Maybe changing the hide style slightly would do the trick.

 

 

Thanks Kunarion. I looked at the area, and and you said, it looks like a well-manicured spot. I second the idea of speaking with park management. Looks like an area that has plenty of muggles. Possibly hiding the cache off the ground (maybe camouflaged in a tree?) would help? I would recommend you change the style of the hide at minimum. A rock in such a high-traffic area will probably disappear.

[+kunarion]

31 minutes ago, 321geocache said:

 

Possibly hiding the cache off the ground (maybe camouflaged in a tree?) would help?

 

That might do.  My favorite idea is placing a container just above eye level.  Placed in a way that people don't see it on approach.  Because when a branch is right there in their face, they duck under, or move it aside, but they don't see a cache container up there, just above. Cachers poke around all over the ground.  It's magic.  There's a match tube in town that's been there for years like that.  So I made a couple of AMMO BOX caches hanging just above eye level among bushes.  This amazed the locals, and these were among my least-muggled and most successful hides. 

 

This was SEATO, a hanging ammo box, which remained for 5 years, until tragically all the bushes died off:

 

"So I look at this thing thinking "That ain't gonna last."
Then I remembered how long we looked for it.
And how many times I looked right at it.
And that Piglet I passed within 2' of it.
So I changed my mind.
Good job 'ol man.
You do have a way of hiding things in plain sight.
If you come here with some preconceived notion,
'ya better leave it at the edge of the wood.
Thanks for placing this here.
Took a pathtag, left a LED flashlight."

 

 

SEATO Rises is in a new place, but hidden basically the same way.

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by kunarion

[+hzoi]

On 6/24/2018 at 1:39 AM, Max and 99 said:

I had one cache taken before FTF. Just really bad timing with a scheduled major community project at a cemetery. I was sure my tree host was safe but they cut off all branches under 7' and there went my cache. FTF was kind enough to message me and replace it since it was quite a drive in dirt roads.

 

Perhaps this is a side discussion more appropriate for the Found It = Didn't find it discussion thread, but I'd argue they weren't really first to find if they claimed FTF on their own throwdown.  First to DNF, sure, but how does one find a cache that one placed? 

 

But I digress.

 

To the original topic, I've seen it happen; an example that comes to mind was not one, but two caches in a row at the same spot: Hiss!!! and Hiss Again!  Apparently someone just didn't want a cache around their gas pipeline.

[+Fugads]

I sympathize with the CO. Major bummer to have issues with a cache placement right after it is published. My own example is a multi-cache I placed over a 8 miles of greenway trail in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Right after publication I got some DNFs and went to check on it... all 9 stages had been taken. Someone really didn't want my multi out there, because they went through quite a bit of effort to hike/run the whole multi. Needless to say, I didn't try to hide any more caches in that greenway.

[+WookieWanderers]

Thanks for the replies I guess we just got unlucky. Yes it is in a major park but this really is a quieter spot, the tree we placed it under creates a natural dome canopy around a bench. The rock cache was placed in an area where branches touch the ground, due to the branches the grass does not get mown there either.

[+hzoi]

6 hours ago, WookieWanderers said:

Thanks for the replies I guess we just got unlucky. Yes it is in a major park but this really is a quieter spot, the tree we placed it under creates a natural dome canopy around a bench. The rock cache was placed in an area where branches touch the ground, due to the branches the grass does not get mown there either.

 

Never underestimate the powers of muggles to find geocaches.  We once found an ammo can that was in the woods at the edge of a clearly abandoned picnic area in the mountains.  It was hundreds of feet away from anyplace the public would be expected to be.  The last log was from a hunter who had stumbled across it.