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Missing caches


coyotebill

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It is frustrating to go through the process of getting land owner permission, placing a cache where you'd expect only cachers may find it, and then have it messed with by everyone. Simply discovering that people will enter property to vandalize what they find, is discouraging, even alarming.

 

How long was the container in place before you submitted it for review? Mine are in place as long as six months, just so I know that locals don't hang out there, or at least don't bother caches there.  Some of my chosen spots are near what may be called hangouts, and most are completely devoid of people except on certain days, when the place becomes overwhelmed with people.

 

Why was the cache spot available to you? I placed my first ones in a county park, and then cachers mentioned how they've found caches there over the years, that nobody can keep a cache there. Yep, the place fills with bored, entitled little brats who have no respect for others' property.

 

I've made it a personal challenge to place caches in such a place in a way that the cache endures. Some of my hides impress the local cachers. It may require extra work, but there may be a way to hide a cache where it gets found only by cachers. Many cachers are also bored, entitled little brats, but at least it's a plan.

 

One of the caches you placed years ago was found by a groundskeeper (I guess removed by him).  That's the #1 way my caches are destroyed or go missing.  They bush-hog right over the bush, or chop down the tree, or whatever. One way to mitigate that kind of thing is to go a little further off the trail.

 

I can't tell anything by the cache numbers you posted. But if you could contact some cachers who've had success in that place and ask, they may advise. And ask the land owner. There are some “available” cache spots where, if you hope to keep a cache there, you're gonna need to put on your game face.

 

Edited by kunarion
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Since this thread pertains to geocaching, I moved it from the Off Topic forum.

 

The implication in the OP is amusing, at best.  One of your reviewers does not live in Massachusetts and the other lives far away from where the cache is hidden.  I trust you understand that reviewers have zero interest in stealing or destroying caches?  Rather, their goal is to publish them.  Had you fully answered your reviewers' questions, yours would have been published long ago.

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On 8/18/2018 at 3:24 PM, coyotebill said:

Only Two people ( the reviewers$ knew where GC7T5HN and GC7T59H . One was destroyed other stolen. Placed July 4 answer multiple same questions over and over. How does this happen !!!!!!!

 

If you've never stumbled across a geocache by accident, it happens. 

 

Someone may have seen you hide two geocaches and investigated.  Or someone might just have found them, like the groundskeeper that found your first traditional cache

 

When it's a geocacher that does it, it (normally) results in a "found it" log.  When it's a muggle that does it, the container might get taken, or tossed out.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's a good bet that the reviewers didn't walk off with your geocaches.

 

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On 8/18/2018 at 9:24 AM, coyotebill said:

Only Two people ( the reviewers$ knew where GC7T5HN and GC7T59H . One was destroyed other stolen. Placed July 4 answer multiple same questions over and over

 

The only person who knew where your caches was hidden was you. At the first review, the reviewer asked you about the cache page coords - on one cache they're on the roof a private residence, and on the other in some heavy forest on a ridge, 8 miles east of the parking coords you offer - possibly in Mount Holyoke Range State Park.

Neither cache page has coords that would allow anyone to know where your caches are. I think you may be entering Degrees Minute Seconds coords into boxes for Degree Minutes Decimal Degrees. The 8 miles east thing is likely a typo on your part.

 

"multiple questions over and over" - you were asked the standard questions by the first reviewer - to supply the info that's asked for at the time a cache is submitted, 1) what property your  cache is on, that "public property" is not sufficient, 2) what you hid, the container and 3)  how you hid it, finally 4) asked to check your coords.

You did come back with name of property.  At this point, I expect  the reviewers are waiting for answers on 2, 3 and most importantly 4<--- coords.

 

Look at the cache pages on the website - under the Hints field is a list of online maps - all of the maps their EXCEPT the first Geocaching.com show your coords as a push pin.

Try clicking the link of the Google map, it's third on the list  - that will show your coords as a push pin on map. GC7T59H coords are on Cherry street on the front porch of a rather lovely old home.

 

Edited by palmetto
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I'm still trying to understand what the OP is even saying.  

 

On 8/18/2018 at 9:24 AM, coyotebill said:

Only Two people ( the reviewers$ knew where GC7T5HN and GC7T59H . One was destroyed other stolen. Placed July 4 answer multiple same questions over and over. How does this happen !!!!!!!

 

 

Whaa....?

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On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 9:24 AM, coyotebill said:

Only Two people ( the reviewers$ knew where GC7T5HN and GC7T59H . One was destroyed other stolen. Placed July 4 answer multiple same questions over and over. How does this happen !!!!!!!

 

We've yet to see a Reviewer out looking at caches and placements before publishing them.

Most times when we hear of problems before the cache is even published, it had to do with lack of permission, or an employee/caretaker of that property not knowing about permission (with either taking/destroying the container).  

Many assume a park/open area is public property, but they may have a geocaching policy in place, and need to be asked to place a cache.

Urban hides might have someone viewing the CO place it from something as simple as (oh, let's say...) a facing window.

Out-of-the-way hides, we've found that muggles are drawn to the same spots that COs thought great for a cache.

Hopefully you're responding to Reviewer questions to satisfaction, so your caches get published.  Good luck.    :)

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On 8/18/2018 at 6:43 AM, kunarion said:

I placed my first ones in a county park, and then cachers mentioned how they've found caches there over the years, that nobody can keep a cache there. Yep, the place fills with bored, entitled little brats who have no respect for others' property.

When I placed my first cache, I had no idea how much abuse the location would receive from the local skateboarders. The cache was well-camouflaged, but the skateboarders would slam into the wooden steps where it was hidden, which would jostle the cache out of position. At that point, it was very noticeable. I was maintaining and replacing that cache pretty frequently until the skateboarders finally destroyed the wooden steps, and then destroyed the replacement steps, and then the city gave up and left the location without a set of steps.

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2 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Urban hides might have someone viewing the CO place it from something as simple as (oh, let's say...) a facing window.

One of our FTF's was from a muggle telling us where he saw it being placed. So in regard to the OP, the Reviewer was not the only one who knew about the hide.

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9 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

One of our FTF's was from a muggle telling us where he saw it being placed.

 

My favorite example of muggles that can't help  but watch is the  many Cracker Barrel micros that were placed at one time.

Many pages cautioned people about folks waiting in lines,  but those huge windows had a chance of 50+ people watching you pretty-much any time of the day.    :D

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1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

 

My favorite example of muggles that can't help  but watch is the  many Cracker Barrel micros that were placed at one time.

Many pages cautioned people about folks waiting in lines,  but those huge windows had a chance of 50+ people watching you pretty-much any time of the day.    :D

Which is why Cracker Barrel is the only business that has banned all new geocache placements at any of their restaurants across the USA.

 

Which is why reviewers sometimes ask about permission - more so than was the case in the early days of geocaching when the "Off Your Rocker" series became popular.

 

Which is why geocachers should answer such questions completely, so that their caches can be published instead of waiting "on hold" for six weeks.

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I have a question on possible stealing, well, I already have had 2 caches taken from the same spot and I archived that spot, anyway, I purchased a ammo can, $8 to use but I got to thinking if it would get taken, contents and all, since its a nice one, not all rusty. Has anyone used an ammo can and had it taken? I thought about chain/locking it to a tree truck to make it a lot harder. Am I going overboard?

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Ammo cans often go missing. The are a target for cache thieves. Yes, you can chain them to something but that's no guarantee it wont disappear.

A few points to consider.

  • If you place an ammo can don't advertise it in the cache description or hint.
  • If a finder mentions they found an ammo can in their log you could politely message then with a request to edit the ammo can reference out. e.g. "liked finding an ammo can for a change" to "it was nice to find a larger container" or words to that effect.
  • Making the cache PMO may help but, again, no guarantee.
  • Place where muggles are unlikely to venture, at the end of a long hike, not P & G.
  • Make the cache a mystery or a simple multi, less chance of casual app cachers coming across it.

Others may chime in with other suggestions. I have a few ammo can caches but, so far, none have gone AWOL.

 

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It depends a lot on the region too. The containers I've lost (none of them ammo cans) have either been washed away in storms, buried under rockfalls or taken by muggles (probably kids as they happened during school holidays), but a bit further north of here there have been a few incidents of vandals signing up for an account then going on a cache-smashing rampage. If there are other ammo-can hides in your area that have survived the test of time then there's a good chance yours will too, but if thefts are reported in cache logs or, say, in the local caching FB groups, then maybe think about something less attractive.

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I've lost many, many ammo cans to hunters.   I've lost one for sure to a geocacher (ie, they replaced my ammo can with a large painted pretzel jar, clearly they came prepared to make this "trade", my $ quality container for their garbage)  I've lost far more to fires and some to floods.

 

They're inherently valuable, and may well be taken if found.  I now stencil the outside with geocache on one side and BSA (Boy Scouts of America) & the BSA logo on the other. I was given a  can with BSA Gulf Coast Council and the BSA logo on both sides.  They'd used it for a temp cache for working on the merit badge. I put in a place where I'd had a lot of trouble with missing cans at the end of hunts, and it was NOT taken. (it did finally burn) Now I mark all cans that go into areas with hunting with my BSA stencil

 

Chain to tree. I've NOT seen this be effective, but I suspect it depends on the area. I have seen it work where the can was quite exposed, front porch of a Pioneer Museum comes to mind. Stealing it from there would be simple, unchained, but tough to break or cut the chain unobserved. 

Sprite #18.jpg

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In our area, one of the challenges of placing a cache in a unique location in a State Game Lands is that hunters will inevitably eventually run across the cache container.  I've had ammo cans and preforms taken by muggles in SGL's, likely hunters, one ammo can a few weeks ago. Location placement is key; you want the cacher to see the element that drew you to the location, but you don't want the container to be too obvious.  Well, hunters are trained to be astute observers, and tend to move around a great deal looking for game.  So...

 

After the container goes missing the first time, it gets moved, and the coords changed on the website.  This last time, a cache in a mountaintop blueberry bog, the replacement container was a preform, and it was placed in a tree ~50' from the original GZ; luckily, the website allows the CO to change the coords for a small changes, so the change went quickly.  Gets the cachers to the interesting location, but reduces the chance of inadvertent discovery.

 

I like Colleda's points above.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

 

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