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How many caches get plundered? (mine did)


Guest greg-o

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Guest greg-o

Well, it looks like my cache has been heisted from Yosemite. I'm pretty bummed.

 

This got me thinking, how many caches do get plundered/stolen, etc? Has yours?

 

I know I should have placed it in a place less-traveled. That would prevent it. But, I had the snow to deal with when placing it, whic presents a whole host of issues. icon_smile.gif

 

Oh well, I guess I'll have to plant a few more to make up for this one.

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Guest 300mag

Me too.Someone found one of my caches.This one was a new cache and in a pretty remote area.They simply threw out the log book and the zip lock bag was found beside it ripped.At least it didn't seem like anything else was missing.Funny after all that trouble they could of been the first to log it.

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Guest jeremy

I don't have exact numbers, mostly because I don't want to dwell on the negative aspect, but most (if not all) of the caches that do get plundered are by non-geocachers.

 

Many times you may think a location is not trafficked, when in fact it's a hangout for teenagers. or lots of traffic happens infrequently. I've been to several where non-geocachers have found a cache, logged it, then put it back without messing with anything.

 

My wife had one of hers plundered. In that case we suspect someone was watching a geocacher hide the caches and came afterward to loot them. The reason why we suspect it wasn't a geocacher was the fact that it was a multicache and the first location was untouched.

 

Jeremy

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Guest wtmrn

I've noticed caches in the urban areas seem to be plundered on a frequent basis, these caches are generally in heavily traveled areas. I have never(knock on wood) had one of mine plundered. But of course the old saying is location, location, location.

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Guest cache_ninja

a couple of my urban ones have been plundered...besides them being in a high traffic area, the other variable is season. 2 of them were well hidden in winter, things looked very different come springtime. but its really no big deal..i just put them out there and whatever happens does..they are fun to hide, if someone finds them, even better...

 

c/n

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Guest makaio

I was thinking the same as wtmrn. If the cache was in Yosemite National Park, it's likely the Nationl Park Service located (easy for them to do with Ed Hall'ss maps) and removed it. Most plundered caches tend to show traces of the cache. Either the cache container remains, but is empty, or certain unwanted items are found strewn about near the location (why are plunderers also litterers?). If no trace was left it's highly likely the NPS removed it. If you're like many of us, you left some form of contact informtion besides www.geocaching.com so that anyone wanting the cache removed can contact you. If not, they still can by contacting Jeremy who can provide your information or act as leaison (sp) between the NPS and you (cache owner).

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Guest Scout

quote:
Originally posted by jeremy:

most (if not all) of the caches that do get plundered are by non-geocachers.


 

I know of a cache that I suspect was plundered by a reader of the geocaching Web site. It was a three-stage cache in which all three stages were wiped out together. It took someone with a GPS working from first stage to last to get to them. It's unlikely that a non-geocacher with a GPS and a bent nature just happened to stumble across the first cache.

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Guest bunkerdave

I only know of two personally, and one of these was bulldozed for a housing development. The other was just cleaned out and strewn about. I tried to put stuff in it and do a little "field dressing," and since then three other people have found it and logged it. Makes me all tingly inside.

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Guest Kluso

Some douche bag absconded with my Pyramid Point cache (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=88).

 

I'll be replacing it soon.

 

I'm pretty sure the cache was hidden well enough that my encrypted clue would have been required to find it. This cache was never logged (I checked the log book every few weeks) and I was never notified of any failed attempts. It disappeared within a week of my adding the hint. Wonder if the hint made it too easy?

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Guest Latrom

I stashed two of my own caches a few weeks ago out in the Michigan state land near my house way the heck out in the woods and I checked on them a week later to find that one had been stolen. What ticks me off the most is that I spent $5 on the ammo case I used for my stash container :( It was in a somewhat conspicuous place however so I guess it was my fault. I'm replacing it soon in a slightly different spot. At least I still have one good cache remaining.

http://k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us/~salesj/geocache.html

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Guest leaper64

i too had one raided by some dingdongs, the 2-o'clock sharp in utah. a friend of mine reported that she visited the site and found nothing but the log and stash note on the ground. she was kind enough to place the log, stash note, and a small item in a film canister to fix things up for me. i had stashed it at the very top of a small mountain under a small pile of rocks. i am told that the location is visited by scouts occasionally and i didn't realize it at the time. last weekend my son and i hiked to it and officially "removed" it. all was not lost, we added the remaining contents to a new one we placed in the same general area "quarter past 2". the new location will not likely be stumbled onto by non-geocachers.

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Guest cleenjeep

Recently I was sure one of mine got plundered, but alas, I found it a short distance from where I placed it. I had buried it in a sandy creekbed, just past where I thought the water would rise to. Then came the flash floods. I am lucky it didnt just wash out to the river! It had gotten crushed by the shifting sand though, and filled with it as well. So I re-thought out my strategy for this cache and an improptu multi-stage was started from a cache that nobody could find. It looks to be a good one...

Michael

 

------------------

Webmaster and List Admin for Southern Michigan Rockcrawlers

Personal Site is Cleenjeep's Site

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Guest leaper64

today i noticed a link on buxley's geocache maps for "lost caches" - very interesting. however it would be cool if it were sorted by country/state. there is also a button leading you to "statistics". very nice work, it's fun to see this sort of thing.

http://www.brillig.com/geocaching/

there is a link to this on geocaching.com "links" page, check it out.

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Guest bunkerdave

good hint which will only help a person in that area (tree stump, hollow log, etc.) and post it on the website than to have to replace or rescue a cache. I usually try to get at least 50 yards from areas frequented by non-cachers, and then I will cover the cache with rocks or hide it in a tree or log. Then I just mention that in the cache report so that seekers know to look a little harder and don't get too frustrated.

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Guest metro

An animal, most likely a raccoon tore up one of my caches. No food or candy was included in the orginal cache or placed later by any of the finders. Some kind geocachers put the cache back as well as they could and we just ignore the chew marks. Has anyone else had an adventure with the the animal kingdom (excluding the human thug kind)?

 

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metro

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Guest Nemesis

quote:
Originally posted by metro:

An animal, most likely a raccoon tore up one of my caches. No food or candy was included in the orginal cache or placed later by any of the finders. Some kind geocachers put the cache back as well as they could and we just ignore the chew marks. Has anyone else had an adventure with the the animal kingdom (excluding the human thug kind)?


 

Yep, a had problems a few months ago. A possim (a small marsupial and an introduced pest in New Zealand) tore open on of my stashes and scattered it about. It was OK because a local geocacher (hunter1nz) was kind enough to put the stash back together again.

 

I was surprised that this happened because everything was in snap lock bags and the stash didn't contain any food (except a tin of preserved mustard leaf).

 

Hunter1nz has also had problems. Last month, some of the local cattle took an unhealthy interest in one if their stashes. It was scattered about and most of the contents were inacessable in the thick scrub (and the lid was missing).

 

It seems that in our efforts to avoid human interference, we are placing our stashes deeper into areas that are frequented by curious animals. Maybe we could simply bury our stashes, but Jeremy won't like this (for ecological reasons). Instead, I have started using snap lock containers (heavier containers might be better), these should be harder for animals to open. But more simply, we could just place a large rock on top of our stashes to prevent them being moved.

 

Cheers,

Donovan Govan.

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Guest Exocet

A cache that my friends and I placed in downtown Portland, OR was found after a half-dozen visits or so. We basically suspected that it eventually would - or had a high probability, seeing as it was buried in "the middle of the road" (between two lanes going in each direction) on one of the busiest streets in Portland.

 

Still, it was fun placing it. icon_smile.gif

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Guest Cape Cod Cache

A cache I was going to look for got zapped before I got to it, probably because it was National Seashore area. I too had a messed up cache, perhaps animals, and a kind cacher fixed it. Aren't there some scents so vehement to animals that would keep them away? I thought perfume/cologne, but so heavily dosed with pheremones<?> to drive people wild that are extracted from animals, no dice. Isn't there an 'anti-animal' scent such as used to keep dogs/cats off of furniture out there?

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Guest chipper

I guess what I find depressing is when you go to a cache and the person before you takes about half the stuff out and replaces it with garbage. This just happened to me today. I know the cost of the item isn't really what matters. But somehow it seems wrong to take a $20 item and replace it with a set of false teeth. I'm not kidding this happend on a cache I went to today! I also try to trade for something or equal value or that is unique in some way. I feel bad when a cache gets "junked-out". In the future I will remember to take items that will refortify my caches.

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Guest Nemesis

quote:
Originally posted by chipper:

I guess what I find depressing is when you go to a cache and the person before you takes about half the stuff out and replaces it with garbage....the cost of the item isn't really what matters....it seems wrong to take a $20 item and replace it with a set of false teeth...


 

Chipper, I agree!

 

Taking more items than you put in really is a form of plundering (even if you think you are justified because you think that your item is really valuable). If you don't see anything you like, you don't have to swap, just record your visit in the log book.

 

If anything, it's better to add an item of higher value if possible (this keeps the stash interesting; by value I don't just mean $, but instead I would include historical interest, wit, personal value, etc.) or simply add an item (if there is room in the stash) and take none.

 

Additionally, it is bad form to swap more than one item per hunting party per visit. This way, the items in the stash will reflect a greater crossection of its visitors.

 

Cheers,

Donovan Govan.

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Guest chipper

I guess we could call it "caching manners". Kind of like saying, "please and thank you." I haven't had anyone plunder my caches but it bothers me just as much to see other peoples caches plundered. I don't want anyone to be discouraged from placing new caches.

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Guest nhouse1

usly 99.9% of the caches have nothing of REAL value in them. The real value is seeing the honesty of others "when nobody else is looking".

 

When I put out my first cache, I'll put some nice things in it, but nothing expensive. The real treasure is the honesty and good nature that this pastime allows us to share.

 

Nathan

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Guest Markwell

What a bummer. I have hidden two caches so far - one a multi-stage microcache (so there's really nothing to plunder) and the other which took me a good twenty minutes of woodland hiking to get to (I did find an easier path on the way out though).

 

Wouldn't you know it...the woodland one was just plundered yesterday. I kindly Geocacher added some minor trinkets and took their photo with the camera left in the box. Hmmm - maybe the villians took their own photo.

 

I guess my predicament is now - do I try to reinstate the cache, knowing that some unscrupulous person knows the location and contents or do I move the cache? If I move the cache to another location in the same park, I'm not sure whether I want to archive the first cache and setup a new one (and thus lose all of the logs) or just update the coordinates on the existing.

 

Any suggestions?

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Guest ttaylor181

I've been fortunate enough to not have a cache plundered (yet.) Very soon I'm going to be planting a cache in an outdoor classroom area for the school district in which I'm employed. This area has the occasional vandal wander through, so I know that an unprotected cache would be plundered very quickly. We are planning to place the the cache in a box locked with a combination lock, and the combination will be posted on the geocache website along with the info about the cache itself. This may be drastic, but it will insure that those who at least KNOW about Geocaching will be the ones to get to the contents of the cache.

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Guest bob_renner

If the cache is located where it is visible and it has a lock on it, it WILL be vandalized. It's only a matter of time before someone breaks in to it. It happened here in Phoenix (GC95). In order to make it vandal proof, you need to place it where it won't be found by anyone unless they are specifically looking for it. Then you should be able to do without the lock.

 

Bob

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Guest MadGPS

quote:
Originally posted by Markwell:

What a bummer. I have hidden two caches so far - one a multi-stage microcache (so there's really nothing to plunder) and the other which took me a good twenty minutes of woodland hiking to get to (I did find an easier path on the way out though).

 

Wouldn't you know it...the woodland one was just plundered yesterday. I kindly Geocacher added some minor trinkets and took their photo with the camera left in the box. Hmmm - maybe the villians took their own photo.

 

I guess my predicament is now - do I try to reinstate the cache, knowing that some unscrupulous person knows the location and contents or do I move the cache? If I move the cache to another location in the same park, I'm not sure whether I want to archive the first cache and setup a new one (and thus lose all of the logs) or just update the coordinates on the existing.

 

Any suggestions?


 

Don't do a thing.Leave it as is to the current coords.First,you have to think like him.Would you go and plunder it again,or turn tail and run??Just keep closer tabs on it,that alone is a great deterant,especially if he is reading this. icon_wink.gif

 

MadGPS icon_biggrin.gif

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Guest MikeLINY

What about posting on the outside of the cache some kind of warning? Hasn't anyone ever seen a rodent trap? "Caution poison" Or "Federal Survey Device... ...DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW?" I'd think that would discourage SOME people from messing with the cache. Or what about a note posted on the container explaining what it is? (give instructions to sign the log, and visit the website.

 

[This message has been edited by MikeLINY (edited 31 May 2001).]

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Guest jeremy

quote:
Originally posted by MikeLINY:

What about posting on the outside of the cache some kind of warning? Hasn't anyone ever seen a rodent trap? "Caution poison" Or "Federal Survey Device... ...DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW?" I'd think that would discourage SOME people from messing with the cache.


 

That's an interesting idea. I was thinking the same thing. I suppose you could make it innocuous, like "GEOCACHING EXPERIMENT. DO NOT REMOVE. SEE GEOCACHING.COM FOR MORE DETAILS." Sounds pretty official-like. Stencil it and it looks like something you would get in trouble for taking.

 

Jeremy

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Guest bunkerdave

I haven't confirmed this yet, but I believe there is a cache in my area that is about as brilliant as I have heard of. I looked for it yesterday, and never found it, but I am now convinced that the cache is hidden - are you ready for this?- in a coffee can outside a building, and covered with cigarette butts. I looked right at it, and was so repulsed by the thought of digging into a can of butts that I refused to consider looking in there to see if it contained the cache. I have tromped through mud, swamp, snow, cheat grass, cactus, name it - all to get to the cache, and it never crossed my mind that the cache could be lurking in the butt can. As I said, I have not confirmed this; I could be wrong, but whether I am or not, I will be using the idea, original or not.

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Guest Dan Bollinger

I know that vandalized caches are taken personally, I know I would. But, I don't think the solution is to misrepresent the truth and make false statements like "Do not remove under penalty of law."

 

"Caution Poison" is counter-vandalism in a way. It's premptory revenge! How would you feel if you took your kids camping and they came back with a box labeled, "Caution Poison"!? Not only is it a lie, it might be reported to the police or health department. You'd be giving GeoCaching a bad name. Better to hide the caches better and replace vandalized ones.

 

Question: How many vandalized caches are re-vandalized when replaced?

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Guest glcanon

quote:
Originally posted by jeremy:

That's an interesting idea. I was thinking the same thing. I suppose you could make it innocuous, like "GEOCACHING EXPERIMENT. DO NOT REMOVE. SEE GEOCACHING.COM FOR MORE DETAILS." Sounds pretty official-like. Stencil it and it looks like something you would get in trouble for taking.

 

Jeremy


 

Jeremy's idea is the best yet. What are the odds they have internet access in the wild? So they leave it alone and look up geochaching on internet later at home. We win! Of course I'm one who believes in transparent caches for safety. Being able to see in allows a casual finder to realize it's no survey experiment. So, I'll try to incorporate both ideas. I think if you have a color USGS official-looking map encircling the inside of the cache, but leaving enough gap between the lid and the top of the map to see in, it might workfulfill both objectives, looking official, but allowing finders to see there nothing harmfil inside. Guess I'll have to make one and post a photo here. Sure could use a geocaching sticker for the lid though!

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Guest glcanon

Some gripes: doubt NPS is happy to stumble upon caches. Think environmental impact, think bad PR. Leave No Trace. And don't bloody put it next to poison ivy or oak! What cruel sadist does that -- too many!

If you've been plundered, it might hv been by an Earthie or Greenpeacie who doesn't like casual defacement of Gaia. Don't place cache casually, use Jeremy's label idea, and Leave No Trace!

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Guest Team JackQuest

I've been lucky (knock on wood), 8 caches placed and none plundered, vandalized, or consumed by wildlife. I do try and choose areas that I think are of low traffic out of the way but still interesting.

 

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TEAM JackQuest

Jack & Cyber

www.jackquest.com

Base Camp N 40° 20.268' W 75° 37.969' (WGS84)

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