Geocacher collecting trackables and not moving them

[+CasperandHappy]

We have a few trackables out.

But we see there is one geocacher who seems to collect the trackables and that is it.

We looked at his profile and he has 15 finds and 15 trackables and or travel bugs, Including one of ours. We have sent them messages and emails and no response, is there anything we can do about this person as they are a premium member but not playing by geocaching guidelines?

Edited July 15 by CasperandHappy
Changing *I* to *We*

[+Max and 99]

6 hours ago, CasperandHappy said:

We have a few trackables out.

But we see there is one geocacher who seems to collect the trackables and that is it.

We looked at his profile and he has 15 finds and 15 trackables and or travel bugs, Including one of ours. We have sent them messages and emails and no response, is there anything we can do about this person as they are a premium member but not playing by geocaching guidelines?

I know it's very very frustrating, but once the TB leaves your hands it's out of your control. 

I've had several go missing before they even got 1 mile on them, and two taken by someone who I knew. 

 

I think the best you can do is send a polite email, but after that you can just hope they  move along eventually. 

 

[+avtnnut]

Reach out, if you dont hear from them within a couple weeks (keep in mind theres no rule that says you have to wait) you can mark it as missing or grab it from them. You'll have to find a way to reuse that TB code (i,e print it on a piece of paper, laminate, attached to a keychain, and rerelease) and that'll let you keep the miles that are already on it.

 

Sadly TBs go missing a lot. Out of all of mine, I only have 1 that seems to have not gone missing, and its only been grabbed by 1 person besides me they just keep moving it around lol.

 

 

Thats why you can't be like me and invest emotionally into them. I'm beating myself up for falling in love with this cat TB i made, and now Im unable to release it haha.

[+Goldenwattle]

8 hours ago, avtnnut said:

Reach out, if you dont hear from them within a couple weeks (keep in mind theres no rule that says you have to wait) you can mark it as missing or grab it from them. You'll have to find a way to reuse that TB code (i,e print it on a piece of paper, laminate, attached to a keychain, and rerelease) and that'll let you keep the miles that are already on it.

 

Sadly TBs go missing a lot. Out of all of mine, I only have 1 that seems to have not gone missing, and its only been grabbed by 1 person besides me they just keep moving it around lol.

 

 

Thats why you can't be like me and invest emotionally into them. I'm beating myself up for falling in love with this cat TB i made, and now Im unable to release it haha.

Having found a number TBs that had been missing for years (the longest ten years) I would NEVER reuse the code, as you could end up with two trackables for that code. But if you must, I would say wait three years before reusing it, as that reduces the odds of that happening.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

Having found a number TBs that had been missing for years (the longest ten years) I would NEVER reuse the code, as you could end up with two trackables for that code. But if you must, I would say wait three years before reusing it, as that reduces the odds of that happening.

 

+1

 

When one of mine turns up, it's been about 18 months after I'm sure it's gone.  And then it vanishes again.

 

But I do Grab all of mine back (after a while), and revive them as new Trackables with custom engraved tags and very fancy attachments.  The codes belong to me, I take them back.  But I haven't placed any of my revived items to travel, may never do so.  

[+kunarion]

21 hours ago, CasperandHappy said:

We have a few trackables out.

But we see there is one geocacher who seems to collect the trackables and that is it.

We looked at his profile and he has 15 finds and 15 trackables and or travel bugs, Including one of ours. We have sent them messages and emails and no response, is there anything we can do about this person as they are a premium member but not playing by geocaching guidelines?

 

Did you plainly state your expectations on your Trackables' page, something like,
"Please do a Discover log and leave this item in the cache unless you're willing to properly move it.  In which case, Log the retrieval, then place it into a Geocache and log the Drop so it can move on"?

 

Not saying that it helps a lot, just that people will know your expectations.

 

Many Geocachers do whatever they want with other people's property unless there's physical pain delivered to them to make them stop.  They only take.  They have no Honor System, nor honor, no moral principles, and have never been told "No" their whole life.  I hope I'm there when they die their lonely, torturous death as Justice is done to them at last.  I'd enjoy pointing and laughing while it happens.

 

But often a newbie cacher has already placed the Trackable into a Geocache just fine (they just couldn't manage to log it nor reply when you write or anything), and it's simply waiting for someone to come along and fix the logs.

 

 

Edited July 16 by kunarion

[+CasperandHappy]

Everyone of our trackables and not collectibles. 

[+NanCycle]

On 7/15/2024 at 12:25 AM, CasperandHappy said:

We have a few trackables out.

But we see there is one geocacher who seems to collect the trackables and that is it.

We looked at his profile and he has 15 finds and 15 trackables and or travel bugs, Including one of ours. We have sent them messages and emails and no response, is there anything we can do about this person as they are a premium member but not playing by geocaching guidelines?

If you have tried the polite method of contacting them personally, you might want to call them out by name here in the forum.  Of course, this may backfire, but it just MAY have a positive result.

[+kunarion]

7 hours ago, NanCycle said:

If you have tried the polite method of contacting them personally, you might want to call them out by name here in the forum.  Of course, this may backfire, but it just MAY have a positive result.

 

I'd say don't do that.  Maybe post the Reference Number of the item in question (people can put two and two together from that).  But as for the other 14 Trackables, we don't know how the other Owners feel about it.  Maybe they're cool with it, or they're in communication with the guy.  We don't know.

 

But he did make the logs, so at least everyone knows who has it.  Usually this deal is a five-finger-discount.  When cachers figure out they can steal it and not make a log, there's no paper trail.  The item vanishes into the ether.  The perfect crime.