Weird

[+Imajika]

The first cache my team ever placed was stolen about a week ago. When we kept getting DNF logs over and over I went to investigate...we thought maybe someone had moved it. 4 of us looked for over an hour in about a 100 foot radius from the original hiding spot with NO LUCK. We scoured the area and it was not there.

 

I archived the cache and hid another one about 30 feet away.

 

Today I got email from another cacher. He went to find our new one and had no problem. He decided to go look for the stolen cache and he found it about 25 feet away from the original coords. He took it home and emailed me. Since he doesn't live in the immediate area, we decided he would mail me the log book and keep everything else to start a new cache in his own neck of the woods.

 

The ONLY thing we can think of is that someone took the cache, not knowing what it was. When they found out what it was, we figure they tried to put it back. I KNOW that my team went over the area with a fine tooth comb and it was NOWHERE out there.

 

Has anyone else had this happen? Caches that disappear and then mysteriously come back?

 

This was our first hide and we really only wanted the logbook to keep as a souvenir. At least the rest of the cache is going to be hidden again by a new team. Now they will have a new cache in their area.

 

I am actually pleased with the replacement cache and I think our hiding spot was more 'out of the way' and a much better hide. So it worked out well for everyone!

[+Milbank]

Wow, that is really weird.

 

The ONLY thing we can think of is that someone took the cache, not knowing what it was. When they found out what it was, we figure they tried to put it back.

 

I think your right. What else could it have been?

 

It's kind of cool it came back.

[dampeoples]

Never seen it happen, although I've read a log where someone took a cache with them, then brought it back so others wouldn't see what they were doing.

[+The Jester]

A couple of years ago there was a cache taken by local boys and then returned a few days later. In the log was an explaination - the parents asked what it was, and where they got it, then told them to put it back. Yes, it does happen.

[+Renegade Knight]

A cache that skunked me about 9 times went missing before I found it. Then again before I found it. Then I emailed someone for a clue. They told me exactly where it was. I went back to look and found it in an EASY spot that I'd looked at several times. So I put it back where it was supposed to go and emailed the owenr. He went and checked it out and found two caches.

[+95_Camaro_Couple]

Maybe, if someone did take it while not realizing what it was, they wrote you a note in the logbook. Mystery may be solved once you get the logbook in the mail! Interesting, indeed.

 

Paula

[+LETaylor]

Alien abduction. How could it be anything else? . . .

[+Phone guy]

This cache had some very interesting logs. Some of which did not get logged on the GC website. The cache was found by several different turkey hunters who actually wrote in the log book, that they took the cache (ammo box) home not knowing what it was then returning it after they read the GC letter. One Hunter actually left shotgun shells as a trade item and took the tape measure to measure the beard on his turkey. I kid you not! Then another took the shells. One guy right after 9/11/01 found it and tried to open it thinking it was a bomb. He said he used a stick with the cache between two rocks and when that didn't work he unlatched it, opened it and threw it denting the can in the process, just in case it blew up. This was the best cache for log's I have found. I see I was the last to log it. It was just before turkey season so I hope it's still there.

Migrating Fish

Edited May 31, 2004 by Phone guy

[+Sparky-Watts]

I was DNF on a cache this winter near here that apparently had been found by one of the farmhands that works for the farmer whose land it was placed on. He picked it up, and didn't open it till he got home. Once he opened it, he read the geocaching letter, and reaized what he had done. He signed the logbook, made a pretty decent trade, and replaced the cache where he found it. I went out a couple weeks later and logged a find on it. I think the fact that he actually logged the "find" and made a nice trade up was really cool! Here's the cache page.

Edited May 31, 2004 by Sparky-Watts

[+Byron & Anne]

Here's the log for an older, now archived cache that had been removed and replaced.

 

Notice who put it back....

[+GPSKitty]

There was a cache I found that turned up missing later.

A cacher was unable to return it to it's hiding place without being seen, so he took it with him, intending to return it in the next day or so. In the meantime, someone logged a DNF. The first guy felt bad that the second cacher hunted for nothing, but it was better than him risking being seen by a muggle.

[+WalruZ]

yes, this exact thing happened to a cacher I know. Her first cache, in a public park, came up missing. She looked for it and archived it. I was in the park some time later scouting hide areas and looked for the cache for the heck of it. It was right where it was supposed to be. She had no explaination either, but took the cache and hid it somewhere else. Yes, it does happen. Aliens is my guess.

[+Torry]

Had an Altoids tin near a cemetary that was nowhere to be found despite a cell phone call to a recent finder for details.

 

Later discovered that the owner lived less than 1/4 mile away and had picked up the cache to replace the container that morning and brought it back that evening.

[+briansnat]

I had one that was found by a local wandering in the swamp behind his house. He took it home, read the letter and replaced it. I know this because when I went to check on the cache, there was a guy watching me closely, so I stood there waiting for him to leave. Instead he came over and asked me if I was looking for that "geo thingy". He told me the story and that he was keeping an eye on it for me. "Anyone who trys to take it has to deal with me" he said. Nice to have a cache guardian.

 

In another case a trail maintainer I know found a cache, took it home and read the note. Discovering what it was, he e-mailed the owner who stopped by his house to pick it up.

[+Logscaler and Red]

When we where at This cache there was anote in the cache from some river rangers who had found the cache and used a tool from the cache to complete their work on the bridge.

 

And one cache I found I took with me. It was in a N.P. and I was the first and last finder. Of course I only took it at the request of the owner.

 

logscaler.

[+Teach2Learn]

Okay, I admit it, I was the cause of a missing/replaced cache on Easter weekend, but I did have a reason.

 

Here's the link--check the April 11, 2004 logs:

Let's Play Ball, Waypoint GCJ4A8

 

edited for link

Edited June 1, 2004 by Teach2Learn

[+Confucius' Cat]

One of mine, my favourite actually, was found by a property manager's wife and was mistaken for something that was left as a donation or memorial (a common thing where it is located).

 

She took it home, read the cache paper and the logs, then logged onto GC.com, established an account, and emailed me to say she was sorry for taking it and would put it back ASAP. She did.

 

She is now on my MSN contact list and we have had several nice conversations relating to the landmark and our common religious interests.

 

God works in mysterious ways.

[+Team Perks]

One of Jeremy's original caches reappeared after more than a year and a half...

[SCP-173]

God works in mysterious ways.

Are you sure this guy didn't have a hand in that?

[+robert]

A cache that skunked me about 9 times went missing before I found it. Then again before I found it. Then I emailed someone for a clue. They told me exactly where it was. I went back to look and found it in an EASY spot that I'd looked at several times. So I put it back where it was supposed to go and emailed the owenr. He went and checked it out and found two caches.

that's what happens when people can't find a cache and put a new one in its "place" (or where they believe it should be).

[+briansnat]

This one was missing for nearly a year and a half. It also has a log from a park ranger who found it in the open and replaced it at one point.

 

But the most interesting part is how it was re-discovered. Hartclimbs happened to be hiking with friends in the park and was pointing out to the kids the type of spots people would hide geocaches in. As he pointed out this one, one of the kids ran up and looked inside and there was the cache. It took some research to find out which cache it was, as it had been archived.

Edited June 3, 2004 by briansnat

[+SixDogTeam]

You can say with certainty that a cache is there, but not that it is NOT there (Unless it's missing from inside a hole in a tree, etc.) You can't prove a negative. So, odds are the cache was there all the time.

[Shoobie & the Sand Crabs]

Alien abduction. How could it be anything else? . . .

this is the truth!

[+Cache Viking]

... The ONLY thing we can think of is that someone took the cache, not knowing what it was. When they found out what it was, we figure they tried to put it back. ...

Wow that is great. Now I wish whomever has my TB would realize what they have and put it back in play

[+The Roving Ravenstones]

... The ONLY thing we can think of is that someone took the cache, not knowing what it was. When they found out what it was, we figure they tried to put it back. ...

We had our very first cache dissapear and then get replaced. In the logbook, an entry was written from a mother; "Sorry my son found this and brought it home, he wanted something out of it so after reading the note(stash note) I had him exchange something for it, and then we went and replaced it back in the same location." Thank goodness for stash notes they really work! Then after that I think he brought his friends back to the location, because everything was taken from it. consequently we moved it.

[+urbo]

i was the cause of a missing cache but only for a few days. got my butt stumped by a cache that required a math whiz. 3 visits of over an hour each and finally lifeline calls to find the blasted thing. by that time we had quite a few folks wondering what we were doing. we found it. pulled it out when coast was clear but that didnt last long. had to take it home and come back another day when people had gone home. i posted a log of what was going on though.

 

urbo

miami fl

[+garri]

In an urban cache i wanted to be the FTF, i had no luck find it and posted a note as "not found", the owner went to see if the cache was there and yes it was there, he went to see the cache the day after and it dissapeared!. Two days after he went to replace it and find the old cache exactly in the same place!!

 

I decided to search the cache and i found it, my trade item was too big and decided to left all coins i had in my pocket 3 $, a weeek after another geocacher went to hunt the cache and the money was missing.

 

We think that a geomuggle is noticed about the cache and thinks that it is a mysterious source of income.

Edited June 5, 2004 by garri

[+Right Wing Wacko]

This actually happened to one of Jeremy's caches!

 

Some one took it and returned it almost TWO YEARS later.

 

Iron Horse