Odd muggling

[+barefootjeff]

Today I went out on the headland at the end of the local beach to do a routine check on my AL bonus cache hidden there, which I do fairly regularly as it's in a high muggle area. It's a regular-sized Sistema tucked into a cavity under a ledge, with a camo rock covering it like this:

 

 

Except today the camo rock had gone, leaving the otherwise intact cache exposed to view:

 

 

There's no sign the cache was interfered with at all, with nothing taken or written in the logbook beyond the last finder a couple of months ago, and I'd checked on it after their find so it wasn't them who left it uncovered. I couldn't see the missing rock anywhere around GZ, but there was a muggle sitting close by drawing seascapes in a sketch pad so I couldn't do a proper search for it. I've taken the cache home for safe-keeping, and disabled the listing, until I can get back over when there are fewer muggles about to do a proper search or find a replacement rock. A pity if it's gone, though, as it was a perfect fit for the hiding place.

 

Has anyone else had something like this happen?

Edited October 25, 2023 by barefootjeff

[+lee737]

Somebody needed it for their garden?!

[+TeamRabbitRun]

Are you sure it was a rock?

 

In your photo, it kinda looks like a brown tortoise, which might have up and left after you planted the hide.

 

Did you look at the sketcher's drawings? Did he see it leave?

 

For that matter, did you happen to notice what HE was sitting on?

[+cerberus1]

17 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

... Except today the camo rock had gone, leaving the otherwise intact cache exposed to view:

Has anyone else had something like this happen?

 

No.  That doesn't make sense.  I'd guess since it was "camo" you lugged it in yourself... 

It had to be perfect for "something", but what are the odds someone other than a cacher would check there for cool rocks?

I used an ALICE pack frame to lug a huge, flat rock I took from our neighbor's quarry, and spray painted it flat black for a cache once.

Everyone thought I was BSing them, but a cacher went with me to reclaim it when we archived the cache.

 -  They never spotted the huge flat black rock in a boundary stone wall in state game lands...       

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

I'd guess since it was "camo" you lugged it in yourself...

 

It was a loose rock I found nearby on the headland when placing the cache three years ago. In spite of the constant stream of muggles walking around there, including some occasionally sitting right in front of the hiding place soaking up the sun, it's never been disturbed until now. Anyway, it's a cold rainy day today so when we get a break in the showers I'll duck across and, if there are no sketch-pad artists sitting there, see if I can find the rock or a suitable replacement.

[+GerandKat]

On 10/25/2023 at 5:08 AM, barefootjeff said:

 

Has anyone else had something like this happen?

 

21 hours ago, lee737 said:

Somebody needed it for their garden?!

That's how we started geocaching 15 years ago:

we found a small erratic stone formed and rounded in the last ice age in a perfect size for a garden project, with a lock &lock container underneath. And tbh, that stone is still in our garden, but we've placed another stone on top, but not as beautiful as the former one (and told the COs a few weeks later what we did)!

[+colleda]

I have a cache hidden by a rock of that size. The cache is a bison tube in the rock. The rock has gone missing a couple of times but each time I have found it in a nearby creek. Apparently it's a rock not too big for kids to pick up then  drop in the  creek to see it make a big splash.

Edited October 26, 2023 by colleda

[+barefootjeff]

27 minutes ago, colleda said:

I have a cache hidden by a rock of that size. The cache is a bison tube in the rock. The rock has gone missing a couple of times but each time I have found it in a nearby creek. Apparently it's a rock not too big for kids to pick up then  drop in the  creek to see it make a big splash.

 

 I suspect it's a similar story with my rock. I went back out onto the headland during a break in the rain today and had a good look around, but no sign of it except for fairly fresh stone chips scattered across the large rock platform below the cache. I'm guessing some kids were playing smash-a-rock. Anyway, I found another rock to use as camo, though not as good as the original, and the cache is now back in play.

 

[+TeamRabbitRun]

8 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

 I suspect it's a similar story with my rock. I went back out onto the headland during a break in the rain today and had a good look around, but no sign of it except for fairly fresh stone chips scattered across the large rock platform below the cache. I'm guessing some kids were playing smash-a-rock. Anyway, I found another rock to use as camo, though not as good as the original, and the cache is now back in play.

 

 

And THIS TIME you checked first to make sure it isn't a tortoise?