Who owns this cache in Columbia, MO?

[Glenn Rice]

Hello, I'd like to alert the owner of this cache in Columbia, MO. It's located at 38.943023, -92.346573, but it's not shown on geocaching.com -- maybe it's the final destination of a multi? It's labeled as a geocache but is not identified by ID on the label or in the log book.

 

The cache is usually very poorly hidden, if at all, only a couple of feet from the street almost at eye level. This street, being a major access point to a pedestrian/bike trail, gets a lot of foot traffic.

 

I'm concerned for a couple of reasons. This cache sits on my property and in my neighborhood. When it's left exposed like this, it looks like trash. Even when "hidden" behind rocks, it's still easily visible, even from a passing car. I've seen it exposed like this many times.

 

I'd really like the owner to reconsider this hide.

 

Glenn R

[Keystone]

At those coordinates, along South Glenwood Avenue, there are no physical geocache waypoints in the Geocaching.com database.  This includes stages of multicaches, mystery caches, etc., which are hidden from public view.  The nearest waypoints are in Grasslands Park to the east of this location, more than .2 miles away.

[Glenn Rice]

Thanks for looking that up! Yet the container does have a Geocaching.com sticker/label on it, a log book with some signatures, etc. I wonder if it was found elsewhere and moved here. It's been in this location a good six months or more. 

 

Is there a policy regarding such orphans? Can I dispose of it? Frankly, if it's not in the DB and it's not identified, I would consider it to be trash. The only people finding this are muggles.

[Keystone]

The fact that there are signatures in the log rules out a cache that was never published. 

 

Can you provide some of the names of the geocaching accounts who signed the log, and the dates of their visits?  From that information, "forum detectives" can hopefully pinpoint which cache was signed by JoeCacher on April 2nd, then by SusieStasher on May 13th, etc.

[Glenn Rice]

Sure, I'll take a look and post some names or photos of the log tonight or tomorrow.

 

I think it's possible that muggles (don't we have a better word for non-cachers?) have signed the log, since it's highly visible on a road that's well-traveled by pedestrians. Still, as you suggest, the fact that there's even a log book at all must mean it was once a legit cache, perhaps moved from some other location. (Is there some way to list caches that have gone missing recently in my area?)

 

The only other remotely plausible explanation, to me, is that someone placed this cache and then forgot to add it to the database. Perhaps the hider got distracted. Seems unlikely though.

 

Perhaps the log entries will shed some light on this mystery.

[Glenn Rice]

OK, this is interesting. The log goes back farther than I remembered -- May of 2017. You can see my name on the first page, haha -- that's when I still thought this was a legit cache, and when I went to geocaching.com to log it & didn't see it there.

 

Almost all of these "logs" appear to be made by non-cachers. These all are real names, no handles. Usually cachers will write at least a few words or a "thanks", and date it. Also, there's nothing in the cache except the log, a Sharpie, a red fine-tip pen, a silver BC20, an elephant eraser, and a dead green stink bug -- not really the kind of stuff that would be in a regular cache.

 

The Millers from VA and the Howes might be cachers. We have no neighbors by that name. Those names are written in the same hand, suggesting they were all together, which is something cachers do sometimes, right?

 

Justus is a kid who lives on our street.

Grant Elementary is a school in our neighborhood; there's a Grant bus stop near this location, but I don't know of any neighbor kids named Mary. I do hope the recovering drug addict stuck with their recovery.

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by Glenn Rice
add info

[+hzoi]

Interesting.  Nothing on the cover of the notebook, just names in the tube?  Could be a never published cache.  Or something hidden by folks who heard of geocaching but didn't tfollow up by actually going to geocaching.com (or other sites).

[Keystone]

It's unusual that ALL the signatures are the real names of people.  Geocachers use our account nicknames.  My guess is that all the signatures are from muggles, and the cache was never submitted for publication on Geocaching.com.  (As a reviewer, even unpublished caches would have shown up in the search I ran the other day.)

[Glenn Rice]

That's what I think, too -- that the cache was never submitted to geocaching.com. Maybe a kid put it together?

 

I suppose I could simply claim it and make it official! But it's still a crappy hiding place. I might end up just tossing it. 

 

Thanks for the input!

[+wmpastor]

"Private" cache?  (which would explain the locals, but not the out-of-stater...unless the out-of-stater was visiting a relative in town there)

 

Just some random musing...