+meanbone Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) I'm having trouble with muggles stealing my caches. I had a nice pine cone cache..placed yesterday....stolen today. A bison tube there one day gone the next. I made all of my hides "Premium Only"tonight. Does anybody think that might slow the muggle thefts down? Edited January 19, 2021 by meanbone Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 10 minutes ago, meanbone said: I'm having trouble with muggles stealing my caches. I had a nice pine cone cache..placed yesterday....stolen today. A bison tube there one day gone the next. I made all of my hides "Premium Only"tonight. Does anybody think that might slow the muggle thefts down? A lot depends on why your caches are being muggled. If there is a local cache maggot with a basic account who makes a point of stealing caches, then the cache maggot won't be able to see a PMO cache listing without paying for premium membership. If your caches are in areas where a lot of finders draws the attention of muggles to your caches, and then the muggles steal the caches, then a PMO listing may reduce the traffic to your caches, and therefore reduce the attention drawn to your caches, and therefore help your caches survive longer. If your caches are in areas where muggles just find them (e.g., places where teens like to hang out), then PMO status won't matter. 3 Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, meanbone said: I'm having trouble with muggles stealing my caches. I had a nice pine cone cache..placed yesterday....stolen today. A bison tube there one day gone the next. I made all of my hides "Premium Only"tonight. Does anybody think that might slow the muggle thefts down? Might, but at 1.5 or less in terrain, and you didn't mention odd logs, so are you sure it's cachers ? Don't think others are spotting them, or noticing people accessing those caches ? PMO doesn't mean anything to someone curious... We've seen non-cachers at the same areas we go, when the terrain is 3 and a mile in the woods. Did you ask for permission ? We headed to hides dozens of times to find a parks crew took the caches that didn't belong there. Realize that a pm doesn't mean one is more responsible/trustworthy just because they plunked down money to play. Edited January 20, 2021 by cerberus1 Quote Link to comment
+meanbone Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 (edited) 24 minutes ago, cerberus1 said: Might, but at 1.5 or less in terrain, and you didn't mention odd logs, so are you sure it's cachers ? Don't think others are spotting them, or noticing people accessing those caches ? PMO doesn't mean anything to someone curious... We've seen non-cachers at the same areas we go, when the terrain is 3 and a mile in the woods. Did you ask for permission ? We headed to hides dozens of times to find a parks crew took the caches that didn't belong there. Realize that a pm doesn't mean one is more responsible/trustworthy just because they plunked down money to play. That is one of the mysteries you don't know unless you actually witness. Edited January 20, 2021 by meanbone added to post 1 Quote Link to comment
+lee737 Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 3 hours ago, meanbone said: Does anybody think that might slow the muggle thefts down? It tends to, at least around here. We've had a cache-maggot here 'cache smasher' come out from under a rock and smash up a bunch of caches, only ever non-PMO/easily accessible ones. As said above, it can't help with accidental finds from non-players..... Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 On 1/19/2021 at 11:50 PM, niraD said: If there is a local cache maggot with a basic account who makes a point of stealing caches, then the cache maggot won't be able to see a PMO cache listing without paying for premium membership. Making it PMO before/after replacing it, wont stop the cache maggot. If its where it was before you made it PMO they still know where to look... 2 Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Bear and Ragged said: Making it PMO before/after replacing it, wont stop the cache maggot. If its where it was before you made it PMO they still know where to look... True. Another approach that may work though is to leave the cache disabled for a few weeks, to give the cache maggot time to get bored and move on to other pursuits. One of my caches had been hit by a cache maggot, so I left it disabled a few weeks, and then replaced it in basically the same location, but with a different container. I didn't have problems with cache maggots after that, and I think it was mainly giving them time to get bored. But that probably works better when the cache maggots are bored teenage boys than when they're adults on a Mission From God™... 2 1 Quote Link to comment
+kunarion Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 On 1/19/2021 at 6:36 PM, meanbone said: I'm having trouble with muggles stealing my caches. I had a nice pine cone cache..placed yesterday....stolen today. A bison tube there one day gone the next. I made all of my hides "Premium Only"tonight. Does anybody think that might slow the muggle thefts down? That reduces Finds down to mainly those who have Premium account access. If it causes fewer persons to hunt it, that's less stress on the cache and location. How long did you leave it in place before submitting the cache page? I've typically placed mine as long as 6 months in advance, although even that doesn't cover all seasonal activities. Several of my caches are at or near kids' soccer fields, so one day there's nobody, and then next, 500 bored kids all over the nearby forest. Another cache site seems to be a hangout. A bunch of my caches are subject to being removed by landscapers. Other caches are moved by animals at times. If you had it in place before activation, and it was fine the whole time, then you know what changed -- people are now directed to the place. If you did no such tests in advance, PMO might not help except to reduce particular Finds. So that's why I asked. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 19 hours ago, kunarion said: How long did you leave it in place before submitting the cache page? I've typically placed mine as long as 6 months in advance, although even that doesn't cover all seasonal activities. Yep. We've done that also. With our game lands the largest landowner, one of our favorite hiders has been placing caches while hunting too, so we're talking at least four months in advance for a lot of new ones now. When we scout for turkey/coyote sign before other seasons start, foliage is still around (so we kinda know what fair-weather cachers see), and that makes it an even longer timeframe before we submit for publish. 1 Quote Link to comment
+colleda Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 (edited) On 1/20/2021 at 1:38 PM, lee737 said: It tends to, at least around here. We've had a cache-maggot here 'cache smasher' come out from under a rock and smash up a bunch of caches, only ever non-PMO/easily accessible ones. As said above, it can't help with accidental finds from non-players..... Looks like cache maggot with Premium membership is at it again. Just disabled another four of my PMO Two Beaches Series that have been hit. Some caches the containers are gone and contents scattered, another just scattered contents but container still there and another with scattered contents, log book gone but container left. "Scatterbrain" with a grudge or poorly potty trained. Edited August 28, 2021 by colleda typo Quote Link to comment
+lee737 Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 4 hours ago, colleda said: Looks like cache maggot with Premium membershio is at it again. Just disabled another four of my PMO Two Beaches Series that have been hit. Some caches the containers are gone and contents scattered, another just scattered contents but container still there and another with scattered contents, log book gone but container left. "Scatterbrain" with a grudge or poorly potty trained. Bugger.... your Two beaches caches are well hidden too.... no chance that three are randomly muggled at once. Thankfully we haven't had much muggling happening for a bit - not that we can check many anyway, most are outside of our (tiny) government area..... Quote Link to comment
+colleda Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 2 hours ago, lee737 said: Bugger.... your Two beaches caches are well hidden too.... no chance that three are randomly muggled at once. Thankfully we haven't had much muggling happening for a bit - not that we can check many anyway, most are outside of our (tiny) government area..... It's times like that when the now defunct ability to see who has looked at your caches would handy. I miss that feature. Someone looking at but not logging any finds - could be telling. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 7 hours ago, colleda said: Looks like cache maggot with Premium membership is at it again. Just disabled another four of my PMO Two Beaches Series that have been hit. Some caches the containers are gone and contents scattered, another just scattered contents but container still there and another with scattered contents, log book gone but container left. "Scatterbrain" with a grudge or poorly potty trained. This forum really needs a "Sad" response. Quote Link to comment
+Viajero Perdido Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 Someone could've stolen a GPS unit with the coords of all nearby PMO+regular caches loaded. Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 3 hours ago, colleda said: It's times like that when the now defunct ability to see who has looked at your caches would handy. I miss that feature. Someone looking at but not logging any finds - could be telling. I believe I mentioned a few times that we were harassed on numerous occasions by anal retentive, micro-managing COs who assumed that simply because I "looked at" their cache more than once, we were the ones that took/misplaced/vandalized their gladware. I've always traveled for one cache, but usually waited for another close by that I'll do to warrant the gas/distance. Clicking on someone's cache and hitting "all nearby" on the cache page isn't telling anyone anything... 1 Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 1 hour ago, Viajero Perdido said: Someone could've stolen a GPS unit with the coords of all nearby PMO+regular caches loaded. Or simply found... There was a promotion a while ago that allowed basic members a temp pm to do advanced and pmo hides. Any basic member could have loaded every pmo cache in two states before that temp pm ran out. 1 Quote Link to comment
+barefootjeff Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 8 hours ago, colleda said: It's times like that when the now defunct ability to see who has looked at your caches would handy. I miss that feature. Someone looking at but not logging any finds - could be telling. I expect that, with the ongoing lockdown here, there are lots of people (including me) looking longingly at caches but not logging any finds. I've just set a new Longest Slump stat, now 63 days and likely to grow well past 100. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+TriciaG Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 And keep in mind that the "Who has seen this cache" feature did not log views from the app or other API partners. So it was a VERY limited view of who saw the cache page. The person who trashed the cache probably wouldn't have shown up in the audit logs. That's one reason the feature was dropped. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+humboldt flier Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 On 1/19/2021 at 3:36 PM, meanbone said: I'm having trouble with muggles stealing my caches. I had a nice pine cone cache..placed yesterday....stolen today. A bison tube there one day gone the next. I made all of my hides "Premium Only"tonight. Does anybody think that might slow the muggle thefts down? Worked for me. After a rash of thefts and or destruction I "premiumed" mine. (problem solved). Quote Link to comment
+NanCycle Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 On 8/28/2021 at 10:05 AM, cerberus1 said: I believe I mentioned a few times that we were harassed on numerous occasions by anal retentive, micro-managing COs who assumed that simply because I "looked at" their cache more than once, we were the ones that took/misplaced/vandalized their gladware. I've always traveled for one cache, but usually waited for another close by that I'll do to warrant the gas/distance. Clicking on someone's cache and hitting "all nearby" on the cache page isn't telling anyone anything... I am planning a trip for next spring which will include geocaching. I am looking at many caches in several states, but will not be logging any finds for 8 months; and many of the caches I looked at several times, I will probably never log. How is this telling? (Rhetorical question, no need to answer.) 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+Max and 99 Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 1 minute ago, NanCycle said: I am planning a trip for next spring which will include geocaching. I am looking at many caches in several states, but will not be logging any finds for 8 months; and many of the caches I looked at several times, I will probably never log. How is this telling? (Rhetorical question, no need to answer.) Similar here. During promotions I spend a lot of time looking at different caches seeing which ones would be appropriate to find with my friend in a wheelchair. I will not go looking for most of them. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
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