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The Official Travel Bug Obituary....

Go JayBee

By Go JayBee
in Trackables

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muddler6

muddler6

Posted
Posted

I guess I am not the only one to lose a TB. Mine has been MIA for several months, I tried e-mailing the last person who could have picked it up, he was a first time cacher and probably thought it was a cool prize and kept it. He has not cached since, or at least has not logged anything and hasn't replied to an e-mail I sent. I guess it happens, and who knows maybe he will cache again and it will show up somewhere. :P

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Bay Area refugee

Bay Area refugee

Posted
Posted

Sooo, on the same topic, but from the other side...I had a TB a couple of years ago and fully intended to move it along. ;) But nature interfered and we had the Lake Tahoe Angora Fire 2 years ago :) ...for some reason, the TB was not among the very few possessions I chose to rescue in the 20 minutes I had. The pets, the computer, pictures and camera equipment, yes, but not even the GPS receiver made the cut (yes, the whole house is but a memory)!! :D I e-mailed the owner to log it as lost, but he never did so and has now become inactive. Is there a way to get the #$%#&( thing off my inventory? The TB graveyard seems to be locked down and is not accepting more lost/ dead TBs. Any ideas??

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BlueDeuce

+BlueDeuce

Posted
Posted

Sooo, on the same topic, but from the other side...I had a TB a couple of years ago and fully intended to move it along. ;) But nature interfered and we had the Lake Tahoe Angora Fire 2 years ago :) ...for some reason, the TB was not among the very few possessions I chose to rescue in the 20 minutes I had. The pets, the computer, pictures and camera equipment, yes, but not even the GPS receiver made the cut (yes, the whole house is but a memory)!! :D I e-mailed the owner to log it as lost, but he never did so and has now become inactive. Is there a way to get the #$%#&( thing off my inventory? The TB graveyard seems to be locked down and is not accepting more lost/ dead TBs. Any ideas??

 

Yep. Send an email to the TB forum Mod Eartha and she'll move it out of your inventory for you.

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catchapig

+catchapig

Posted
Posted

Remember, not every Trackable that is being held on to for a long period of time is stolen.

Lost.

Misplaced, not quite lost.

Muggled cache.

Newbie who doesn't know how to log it.

Forgot.

Keep forgetting.

Doesn't cache that often, but still wants to enjoy Travel Bugs.

Didn't fit in any caches around, and not getting your emails.

They died.

They got sick.

They got hurt.

Bad communicator, doesn't have time to let you know, but they'll get around to it when they do.

There are a lot of other reasons for missing trackables. Sometimes people hold them for months. You can't have grand expectations for your trackables, you can only hope. Some have come back after years.

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catchapig

+catchapig

Posted
Posted

Remember, not every Trackable that is being held on to for a long period of time is stolen.

Lost.

Misplaced, not quite lost.

Muggled cache.

Newbie who doesn't know how to log it.

Forgot.

Keep forgetting.

Doesn't cache that often, but still wants to enjoy Travel Bugs.

Didn't fit in any caches around, and not getting your emails.

They died.

They got sick.

They got hurt.

Bad communicator, doesn't have time to let you know, but they'll get around to it when they do.

There are a lot of other reasons for missing trackables. Sometimes people hold them for months. You can't have grand expectations for your trackables, you can only hope. Some have come back after years.

 

We love trackables. We love the art of the geocoin and the imagination of the travel bug. We love moving them along, but we are very picky about where we place them---not in caches that are too remote for them to get out of for a long time, and not in caches that are moldy, rusty and smelly, and not in caches that seem to have a high muggle factor. So sometimes it may take awhile for them to find a new home---maybe even as much as a month. But I doubt if we will ever own any, because it's just too heartbreaking when they go missing so very frequently!! It's truly alarming!!

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saylorj

+saylorj

Posted
Posted (edited)

3 months ago, I released my first TB in honor of a friend that passed. It sat in my cache for about 2 weeks then disappeared. I emailed everyone that had visited and no one has seen it. I've even tried to do some research and go to the nearby caches that some of the folks visited after mine but I have not found it. When should I release the copy? The copy is just a reminder of a lost bug dedicated to a lost friend. The bug still is logged into my cache "Traditional Cash" the name is "Prospectin Jones -Wild West Adventure". It never moved other than me logging it from the cache that is the closest to my house and then placing it it my cache outside my work.

Edited by saylorj
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peelster

+peelster

Posted
Posted

Tragically, my travel bug - The Big Blue Chip - appears to be the victim of a whole cache gone missing. And I should have known not to put it there. It was the second stage of a multi, with the first stage several miles away. It just didn't get that many finds in the first place, never moved on (though I did - out of state - and didn't get a chance to rescue the guy before we had to go), and vanished. So it goes -- the most irritating part is that when the cache owner went out and replaced his cache and kicked my TB out of his inventory, did he bother to drop me a note saying "Hey, sorry, my whole cache went missing and your TB with it," which would be a nice thing to do? NOPE - I found out when I checked my modest inventory of TBs and I see it one day with UNKNOWN posted as its current location. That totally stinks.

 

RIP - The Big Blue Chip

Caches Visited - 1

Miles Traveled - 0

*sigh* I hope you are up playing that big poker table in the sky.

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Ttepee

+Ttepee

Posted
Posted

I got an email today that WOWED me big time. Almost 8 years later....

"Given to me by someone who can no longer take hikes. I think Biker Bob has been out of circulation for about 7-8 years, but he's back, along with his Trusty Bike Gecko!" I've got a couple others I'd love to see this happen with but I'm thrilled. Not in a cache yet but he I Got Word from one of my first! Like a long lost child...heheh.

 

Tragically, my travel bug - The Big Blue Chip - appears to be the victim of a whole cache gone missing. And I should have known not to put it there. It was the second stage of a multi, with the first stage several miles away. It just didn't get that many finds in the first place, never moved on (though I did - out of state - and didn't get a chance to rescue the guy before we had to go), and vanished. So it goes -- the most irritating part is that when the cache owner went out and replaced his cache and kicked my TB out of his inventory, did he bother to drop me a note saying "Hey, sorry, my whole cache went missing and your TB with it," which would be a nice thing to do? NOPE - I found out when I checked my modest inventory of TBs and I see it one day with UNKNOWN posted as its current location. That totally stinks.

 

RIP - The Big Blue Chip

Caches Visited - 1

Miles Traveled - 0

*sigh* I hope you are up playing that big poker table in the sky.

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BlueDeuce

+BlueDeuce

Posted
Posted (edited)

Do you ever get the bug back after it's travels? If so, how? Is that even a goal / the point?

 

Most bugs are not meant to reach a final destination and then stop. The ones that do might be mailed back to the owner and retired. Normally the owner just changes the goal and the bug continues on.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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goodhorsehymn

+goodhorsehymn

Posted
Posted

I'll post this on behalf of J.J.'s & Knit-Wit, whose TB I just lost in a rather pathetic manner.

 

I am terribly sorry, but I have some bad news regarding this TB. I went to place a new cache today, with this inside it. As I was placing it in a tree however, the perfectly healthy tree I had selected was found to be rotten, and as I realised this, the middle section began to give way. Before I knew it, my new cache & this TB had disappeared from sight, into the trunk. Despite much arm stretching, wood removing and general panicking, I was unable to find or retrieve it. The tree, clearly on it's way out, has eaten the cache as a last ditch attempt to survive.

 

Please accept my apologies for bringing a premature end to this TB's life.

 

Could anyone please tell me how to remove this TB from my profile? Naturally I can't drop it off anywhere, as it's as the bottom of a tree... :D

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bartrod

+bartrod

Posted
Posted

I guess I am not the only one to lose a TB. Mine has been MIA for several months, I tried e-mailing the last person who could have picked it up, he was a first time cacher and probably thought it was a cool prize and kept it. He has not cached since, or at least has not logged anything and hasn't replied to an e-mail I sent. I guess it happens, and who knows maybe he will cache again and it will show up somewhere. :drama:

 

I made mention of this in another thread, but I think it bears repeating here. "I realize that a lot of trackables go missing through honest mistakes...but there are also geothieves out there. And there's a market for them...generally coins. But I'm thinking there should be a way to wake up cachers who've honestly logged trackables and have simply forgotten to move them, have gotten out of caching while still in possession, just lost interest, etc. I've tried e-mailing a cacher that has one of my coins several times for over a year with no results...not even a response. What if we started a thread here someplace for all of us in this predicament. We could list the cachers that are remiss in their duties and send out mass e-mails to them...daily. You help me out and I'll help you out...I'd bet we start seeing results. What are your thoughts on this?"

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Bay Area refugee

Bay Area refugee

Posted
Posted (edited)

Ask the owner if they could grab it from you.

 

If they don't respond talk to the Forum Mod Eartha.

 

Good idea...I inadvertently destroyed a TB (house fire) and when I couldn't get any response after several months from the owner, I had Eartha list it as lost and remove it from my inventory list. Thanks Eartha!! :drama:

(If you're not sure how to get to her, go to her profile and click on send message...or you can look in the forum posts for one of her posts and click on her name)

Edited by Bay Area refugee
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Scubasonic

+Scubasonic

Posted
Posted (edited)

Even stolen bugs can sometimes get rescued. Got 60 back from a geo-thief last week after applying a little "leverage". Owners have all been notified now and the bugs/coins are being redistributed through various portals to get them back into the game. :wub:

 

ad45aeca-9fb3-4974-8330-145bd221de20.jpg

 

I have some personal background with this as SSO JOAT and I had talked when I was in Alaska Caching when this all was going down, well part of it anyway. So I told him If he liked he could send some to me here in Washington State, and I would get them back in circulation and he sent me I believe 10 of them, some went on a trip to OHIO with me and were dropped off there.

 

SSO JOAT needs to be commended on this one he went "ABOVE AND BEYOND" the call of duty to rescue these bugs from a guy that was taking them just to be spiteful since he was banned from the Geocachings online site..... SSO JOAT gets "MAJOR POSSITIVE KARMA PONTS FOR THIS" thanks for all your hard work, and say hi to the TheGeoGeoes for me, next time you talk to them.

 

ScubaSonic

Edited by Scubasonic
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BlunoMars

+BlunoMars

Posted
Posted

Over the years.. I have a total of 8 TB and all were taken from cache sites... some of then were able to travel few times... but the rest just went AWOL. :lol: I contacted each of the last person who took it and they never responded. It seems that some people just doesn't understand how a TB purpose. They just kept them. :) One or two actually moved it but somebody else took them out but never reported. :lol:

 

So I still have many TB tags that I kept on hand and still thinking if I should use them or not. :anibad:

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TottyAndFatbloke

+TottyAndFatbloke

Posted
Posted

Someone who should know better called Yellow Jacket picked up Dobbin (http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1660331) in April 2009. Sadly he seems to cache every single day, has confirmed he still has Dobbin, but still has to move him on after just 6 months.

 

Don't pick them up if you're not going to move them. Yellow Jacket has only done 3338 caches so maybe he's still learning or hasn't yet come across the right cache yet.

 

The only other reason I can think of is maybe he's starting a TB and Coin collection at someone elses expense.

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Gitchee-Gummee

+Gitchee-Gummee

Posted
Posted

Even stolen bugs can sometimes get rescued. Got 60 back from a geo-thief last week after applying a little "leverage". Owners have all been notified now and the bugs/coins are being redistributed through various portals to get them back into the game. :D

 

ad45aeca-9fb3-4974-8330-145bd221de20.jpg

 

Not knowing any more of how you went about it......... I hope your "leverage" means the thief got a least one broken arm! :D

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JETSchmidt

+JETSchmidt

Posted
Posted (edited)

Ask the owner if they could grab it from you.

 

If they don't respond talk to the Forum Mod Eartha.

 

I had a travel bug in one of my caches when it was muggled. On the cache listing, I clicked the travel bug, and on the travel bug page, there is a "mark bug missing" link. When I did that, the bug was removed from the cache's inventory.

 

JETSchmidt :)

Edited by JETSchmidt
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KT1I

+KT1I

Posted
Posted

I have one that made one move and disappeared. The cacher shows one cache logged (that one) and won't answer my e-mails. Anyhow it was just an old id badge off a GMC truck. However the TB tag cost $5.00. Just venting, I have had aome long lost ones pop up so there's always hope. I just mark them "location unknown" and let them ride. :D

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Beege49

+Beege49

Posted
Posted

Just wanted to vent: visited the Original Cache and picked up 2 TBs, but the 4 I left (including my own first TB) disappeared the next day. I emailed the cache loggers of that time, but they had not seen them; I imagine that people who take TBs are not the ones who log on!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to say I feel worse about losing other people's TBs/coin than my own. I knew it was somewhat of a risk, but I should have only taken it with my own TB :) I'm hoping that having TBs/coin disappear at the Original is somehow a better ending...

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De Bergjes

+De Bergjes

Posted
Posted

So I am not the only one to lose a TB. Our TUITJE has been travelling from The Netherlands to Kansas USA. But for more than a year in the hands of SOONERCARY, I tried e-mailing him, but he has not cached since last march, or at least has not logged anything and hasn't replied to an e-mail I sent. Is there someone who knows this cacher, he is/was a student in Kansas ??? please let me know.

LUITJE:

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1252213

thanks

ingrid

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Hiram

Hiram

Posted
Posted

 

I'm thinking about getting another rusty spike and sending out the copy tag.

 

Can you do that? Send out the copy tag?

Absolutely! That is what the copy tag is for. Do overs.

:laughing: You could even LAMINATE a TAG with your number on it, if the "COPY TAG" comes up missing. It's your number, you bought it.

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ThePineMartins

+ThePineMartins

Posted
Posted

Well, I picked up a coin in a cache in Newfoundland this past August. It was missing since August 2008 and last seen in Manitoba. No one logged that they had placed it in the caches. I figure that they forgot they had it and was embarrassed to say so. Anyways, that coin is back in the game! But, on another note, I was a major newbee at the time and had only been caching for days when I picked up the coin. I had logged the coin wrong and the mileage did not go on it. The owner emailed me to thank me for finding the coin and also to explain to me how to properly log it. I did what he asked and the coin recieved the proper mileage. So, if you see a coin not being logged properly just email the person who had it. Maybe they are a newbee like I was! ;)

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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted

Well, I am almost ready to declair my bug dead.

 

After it was moved once, it had dissapeared from the cache. I emailed everyone that online loged the cache since my bug was dropped. Only the first finder remembers seeing it. I am thinking of re-visiting the cache to see if anyone logged it without online logging. If I do, after e-mailing them, I will be ready to officialy declare it dead. I guess maybe it was just too cool to survive. I can't believe that it only made it one move and 16km. :surprise:

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Cloggers

+Cloggers

Posted
Posted (edited)

We dropped of our first (and so far only) TB 'Clever Clog' in California - 5463.5mi from home - in August '09 on our (so far) one and only visit to the USA.

 

It has never moved!

 

There was a log entry five days after we'd dropped it off that read 'Took a keychain that refused to fit back in the cache'. We fear that was our little clog. Noooooo! We have its mate (this one is a red clog) that we might set free in Scotland this Easter but it's looking unlikely that the pair of Clever Clogs will ever meet up again.

Edited by Cloggers
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rjaaf

rjaaf

Posted
Posted

I guess 456 out of the thousands of TB out there is not to bad but when it's your's and your first its BAD.

I just wish we could BAND or FINE ones that don't play fair. :blink: I start feeling bad emailing for them all the time. you know things do happen,death,accidents,hard times. so just keep hope.and just enjoy the EARTH its the people in it that cause all the problems!

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guggie

guggie

Posted
Posted (edited)

My first travel bug was a gift given to me by my daughter. I thought of a great theme, bought some items to attach to it, and hid it. It was picked up in a couple of months and then traded at a multi event. Now, 9 months later, the person who has it has not placed it again. The website says it was placed in a cache that was never published. Several months ago the "keeper" said they still had it and was going to drop it in a cache. My last email went unanswered. Premium members should be fined or banned for doing this type of thing.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1764384

Edited by guggie
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BlueDeuce

+BlueDeuce

Posted
Posted

My first travel bug was a gift given to me by my daughter. I thought of a great theme, bought some items to attach to it, and hid it. It was picked up in a couple of months and then traded at a multi event. Now, 9 months later, the person who has it has not placed it again. The website says it was placed in a cache that was never published. Several months ago the "keeper" said they still had it and was going to drop it in a cache. My last email went unanswered. Premium members should be fined or banned for doing this type of thing.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1764384

 

Talk to the reviewer for that area. (New York Admin)Maybe they know what is up with that cache placement and can remind the owner they should probably retrieve the bug while the approval process is being completed.

 

Banning people will only ensure your bug never returns.

 

By the way, you don't want to show the tracking number of your bug in photos. You can use Microsoft paint to smudge it out in the photo.

 

Good luck!

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guggie

guggie

Posted
Posted

My first travel bug was a gift given to me by my daughter. I thought of a great theme, bought some items to attach to it, and hid it. It was picked up in a couple of months and then traded at a multi event. Now, 9 months later, the person who has it has not placed it again. The website says it was placed in a cache that was never published. Several months ago the "keeper" said they still had it and was going to drop it in a cache. My last email went unanswered. Premium members should be fined or banned for doing this type of thing.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1764384

 

Talk to the reviewer for that area. (New York Admin)Maybe they know what is up with that cache placement and can remind the owner they should probably retrieve the bug while the approval process is being completed.

 

Banning people will only ensure your bug never returns.

 

By the way, you don't want to show the tracking number of your bug in photos. You can use Microsoft paint to smudge it out in the photo.

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the help. I've blurred out the TB tracking number as you advised. I'll contact the NY Admin about that cache, but the person hanging on to the TB (Tha Twinz) never placed it there according to an earlier email from them last year. They still have it in their possession and have never bothered to put it anywhere. That's the frustrating part.

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