Tb Hijacker

November 8, 2004

Back in May, 2004, I took a trip out to Minnesota from NJ. While there, I placed two travel bugs (Verona PD Car #1 and Verona PD Car #2.) There were Matchbox replicas of Verona New Jersey police cars. Both had explicit instructions, stating that they were racing back to Verona, NJ to one of my caches (Live Rust #1) located in the Hilltop Reservation. Early on, Car #2 took a commanding lead, as it went to several caches in MN, then on to Wisconsin and finally to Virginia. There were several posts indicating that it could be into NJ by Thanksgiving. But then what happened, was this A-hole from Ohio picks up the TB in Virginia and decides that he wants to do something different. So what does Mr. Jackass do? He drops the TB off in a cache in CUBA.

Hey, I wouldn't mind a slight detour. In fact I kind of liked the idea that the TB had even taken a slight detour South the VA. But CUBA??? How in the hell can any normal person get to Cuba from the USA? I do understand that you can get there from Puerto Rico or Mexico, but I'm not going chasing after TB's that shouldn't have been taken out of the country in the first place. Now you might say "that's just sour grapes" (on my part.) But it's really not. In the true spirit of Geocaching, I won't take a TB from a cache if the instructions are to send it somewhere that I'm not going. I realize too, that the culprit (I'll just refer to him as Mr. Butthead) is now not likely to ever retrieve it or cooperate in the least. I know how upset some people have gotten when their caches have been muggled or even worse (pirated by other cachers.) Isn't this the same thing? Again, I wouldn't mind a slight detour, but bringing it into a communist country that most people can't travel to? I checked the log for the cache where it was placed, and there are only two entries. One by the guy who placed it, and the other by Mr. Butthead. I guess you have figured out by now, that I'm pretty pissed off.

2.6k · November 8, 2004

You know, I totally understand. And I realize most people are fussier about bug missions than I am.

But -- CUBA! That is so cool!

I mean, Cuba isn't cool, and I can't wait until it goes back to being the giant American satellite nightclub it was before the revolution. But, dude -- Cuba! Read over the posts here and all the people who had their bugs nicked on the first day out and think...Cuba! Whoa.

November 8, 2004

Ya my frist bug didnt make it to the next cacha and I dont know who has it.

22k · November 8, 2004

Hey Mr Rotten.

Contact the cacher owner to see if they, or someone they know, can retrieve the bug for you.

Good Luck

November 16, 2004

:huh: My TB fell into the hands of a guy who has over 100 bugs. Apparently he gets a kick out of collecting them. My bug clearly states, "PLEASE KEEP ME ON THE MOVE", but now it's probably sitting on this guys desk with no chance of moving.

What can you do? That's life. Some people play by the rules and have regard for others, and some people only care about themselves.

1.5k · November 16, 2004

The bright side is that the race is still on, that one just took a really cool side trip on the way to the finish line. It sounds like it would be a good story if the one in Cuba still wins the race. Stay positive, all races have pitfalls. At least you know where the bug is... albeit a communist country. :lol: Know anyone in Guantanamo? :huh:

November 16, 2004

My TB fell into the hands of a guy who has over 100 bugs. Apparently he gets a kick out of collecting them. My bug clearly states, "PLEASE KEEP ME ON THE MOVE", but now it's probably sitting on this guys desk with no chance of moving.

What can you do? That's life. Some people play by the rules and have regard for others, and some people only care about themselves.

sheesh thats like 500 dollars just in TAGS alone.

November 16, 2004

My TB fell into the hands of a guy who has over 100 bugs. Apparently he gets a kick out of collecting them. My bug clearly states, "PLEASE KEEP ME ON THE MOVE", but now it's probably sitting on this guys desk with no chance of moving.

What can you do? That's life. Some people play by the rules and have regard for others, and some people only care about themselves.

What do you mean, a guy who has over 100 bugs? I checked your stats and the only guy that has a list of 100 found bugs has almost all those bugs as listed in other caches or with other users. That 100 count doesn't mean he has them, those are the ones he has logged as grabbed by him. Besides, he only picked it up a couple of weeks ago, he may be waiting/looking for the right cache to place it in or maybe hasn't had a chance to get out caching lately, illness, work, family etc., 2 weeks is nothing.

I have one I have had over two weeks as I plan to take it directly to the cache it wants to end up in, in San Francisco and I haven't had the chancce to head up yet but plan to this month.

Edited November 16, 2004 by geobrowns

8.8k · November 16, 2004

My TB fell into the hands of a guy who has over 100 bugs. Apparently he gets a kick out of collecting them. My bug clearly states, "PLEASE KEEP ME ON THE MOVE", but now it's probably sitting on this guys desk with no chance of moving.

What can you do? That's life. Some people play by the rules and have regard for others, and some people only care about themselves.

Your travel bug is in the hands of bayonets4u, a prolific cacher if you look at his profile page. He is not hoarding these bugs. If you would check the stats, you would see he places them It wasn't picked up that long ago. Please be patient, and check the facts before you insinuate things about other cachers. Obivously with a record of 109 travel bugs, he knows what he's doing. It's pretty safe to say he does not have 109 travel bugs sitting on his desk.

8.8k · November 16, 2004

But then what happened, was this A-hole from Ohio picks up the TB in Virginia and decides that he wants to do something different. So what does Mr. Jackass do? He drops the TB off in a cache in CUBA.
How in the hell can any normal person get to Cuba from the USA? I do understand that you can get there from Puerto Rico or Mexico

No need for name calling.

Maybe Americans can't travel to Cuba, but others can and there are cachers all over the world.

This cache is at Guantanamo, placed by an American soldier. Perhaps you should ask the cache owner to contact the friends who are maintaining the cache, to have them remove it and perhaps mail it back or move it along.

Edited November 16, 2004 by Eartha

November 16, 2004

Dear Eartha;

I have no proclivity for name calling, but I do have a question. Did you contact the inconsiderate person who hijacked my TB? I attached a laminated note to the TB asking for people to only take it if they could move it East. A little detour one or two states South would not rankle me, but taking the TB out of the country and to a communist country at that? Come on, let's be real. If someone started pirating caches and then went online and professed the deed to rub everyone's nose in it, how fast would you expel him from the board? I don't see any difference in doing that and what this "person" did with my TB. I just had another TB make it to Aruba and back, which I thought was very cool. The difference being, it wasn't in a race with another TB. Plus this guy sticks my TB in a cache that only has two hits since it was planted how many months ago. And to answer your suggestion, I already contacted the cache owner and he is no longer in Cuba. He will attempt to have one of his friends retrieve it, but there is no guarentee. I'll gladly take my medicine for name calling, after reading how you reamed this guy's butt for being so inconsiderate.

2.6k · November 16, 2004

I'll gladly take my medicine for name calling, after reading how you reamed this guy's butt for being so inconsiderate.

You sure you got the temperament for this TB game? You don't seem to handle it well when things go out of your control.

That's what releasing a TB is all about, no matter how many laminated tags you attach to it. You hope people play your game the way you want them to, but most of them probably won't.

November 17, 2004

No need for name calling.

Yeah, really Johnny, there's no need. I think you are a EDIT and a giant EDIT as well for name-calling in the forums. Your behavior only proves the fact that you are a colossal EDIT.

Moderator note: Edited for cleanliness.

Edited November 17, 2004 by Eartha

November 17, 2004

And it starts.

November 17, 2004

And it ends. Now.

1.9k · November 17, 2004

fair, maybe not... can you reasonably expect your TB to make it to it's goal?!? no, not really.

Maybe the cacher in question didn't realize what they did, at least you know where your bug is.

November 17, 2004

That 100 count doesn't mean he has them, those are the ones he has logged as grabbed by him.

I stand corrected!

Certainly didn't mean to offend anyone. Of course I know that I could always notify the person if I thought he was hoarding my TB, but as you state, he only has it for a few weeks. What I was mistaken about was the 100 TB's on his stats which led to my assumption.

Like I said, it's no big deal. That's life. I don't take this that seriously. It's for fun.

Sometimes this forum gets a little too intense.

22k · November 17, 2004

...saving it for another day

Edited November 17, 2004 by 11 After

8.8k · November 17, 2004

Dear Eartha;

I have no proclivity for name calling, but I do have a question. Did you contact the inconsiderate person who hijacked my TB? I attached a laminated note to the TB asking for people to only take it if they could move it East. A little detour one or two states South would not rankle me, but taking the TB out of the country and to a communist country at that? Come on, let's be real. If someone started pirating caches and then went online and professed the deed to rub everyone's nose in it, how fast would you expel him from the board? I don't see any difference in doing that and what this "person" did with my TB. I just had another TB make it to Aruba and back, which I thought was very cool. The difference being, it wasn't in a race with another TB. Plus this guy sticks my TB in a cache that only has two hits since it was planted how many months ago. And to answer your suggestion, I already contacted the cache owner and he is no longer in Cuba. He will attempt to have one of his friends retrieve it, but there is no guarentee. I'll gladly take my medicine for name calling, after reading how you reamed this guy's butt for being so inconsiderate.

A lot of people don't read the bug goals before moving them along. It is not up to me to contact each and every person who moves a bug the wrong way. I do have a life beyond geocaching. I work, I have family, and if I were to e-mail every one who didn't follow a bug's goal, I would need 10 volunteer assistants, at least. Polite communication between cachers works. Without the name calling. That gets you no where. In this case I will send the cacher an e-mail on your behalf, but if that cacher is no longer in Cuba, then it won't do much good. Furthermore, the cache lid was chewed off by Banana Rats, so I don't know if it's even still a viable cache.

BLUEHOOK: If you can't play nice, don't play at all. That kind of talk is uncalled for. And I don't think you're funny.

8.8k · November 17, 2004

Johnny,

An e-mail has been sent to the cacher who took your travel bug to Cuba. He lives in Ohio, but he's a pilot and travels. He has 16 finds, and they are all over the map. Last time he visited the site was Oct 24th. If I get a response I will let you know, but I don't know what the chances are that he'd get to Cuba again. The hider claims to have friends there that are going to maintain the cache for them, but nothing has been done since the mention of the banana rats. I know it's frustrating to have a bug go haywire, but we cannot base all our hopes and dreams on a matchbox car. It's a gamepiece, after all.

Edited November 17, 2004 by Eartha

November 17, 2004

Let me set the record straight. First and formost, yes this is only a game and I realize that. I also realize that once you place a TB it is totally out of your control. Secondly, I too have a life outside of geocaching. I'm not losing sleep over a TB, but realize this: the guy certainly knew that he was taking this TB in a totally wrong direction, his own words "I don't think I'll be helping this car win the race," makes it pretty clear that he read the directions. Thirdly, I tried emailing this guy on three different dates prior to posting anything about it. In fact in my 3rd email I told him that I would criticize him publicly in the forums if I did not receive a reply. Lastly, this is only a game. I have to liken the hijacker to someone you would call a poor sport. If this was football or hockey, he would be the type of guy to take the cheap shots or hit you after the whistle, and do it just for fun. I harbor no ill will towards him, but I do believe in Karma.

November 17, 2004

i cna understand the anger. i dropped off two travel bugs ona recent trip to southern virginia (newport news). one was heading to orlando fl and one was headed to a base in NC. After I dropped off the NC one, the owner wrote to me, thanking me for dropping it so close to it's destination.

fast forward a few weeks, when a cacher picks up both of the travel bugs. a few days later, he drops them both off in PA!!

maybe i would'nt be so mad if I hadn't moved them south from NY. or if the guy who did was new to the game (like myself). but he has over 1,000 caches!

my guess is he does it to raise his travel bugs found count.

2.6k · November 17, 2004

I'm not losing sleep over a TB, but realize this: the guy certainly knew that he was taking this TB in a totally wrong direction, his own words "I don't think I'll be helping this car win the race," makes it pretty clear that he read the directions.

Yes, but that doesn't mean he knew he was doing something that would hack you off. There are people whose pleasure in TB's are the randomness and strangeness of what happens to them.

Both the TB's in the race are yours, right? So it's not a competition so much as a "let these two things loose and see what happens" thing. My guess would be, if somebody picked them up out of the caches you left them in and drove them straight to their goal in one hop, you'd be pretty disappointed. That wouldn't be any fun at all.

I once went out of my way to take a bug that was headed West in a race as far West as my caching territory would go. I was very annoyed when the next person picked it up and dropped it about 40 miles East (without doing anything interesting with it or taking pictures or anything). I do consider that poor sportsmanship -- pumping up your TB count in a pointless and inconsiderate way. It's...tacky.

But...Cuba. It may be in the wrong direction, but it's interesting. I'd be tickled pink if it were a bug of mine, and I'm guessing the guy who did it assumed you'd feel that way, too.

Anyhow, the bottom line is, any bug that's still in play is a success.

1.7k · November 17, 2004

Johnny, how about e-mailing the owner of this cache or some of the recent finders. Maybe they can help.

Another cache at Guantanamo

10.1k · November 18, 2004

Johnny, I said I try to get the other Verona Police Car to Verona this weekend!

Some bugs I work hard on trying to get them to their goals. I took Arnold Zeffle to the Statue of Liberty. I picked up There and Back Again from a cache on the AT in Pennsylvania (shortly before it was stolen), and moved him as close as I could to his goal of the Cobbles at Tyringham, Mass. Bayonets4u picked him up there, and moved him 142 miles in the wrong direction. The poor bug is now on its way to the Netherlands, of all places! Zuurtje seems to pick up any bug he comes close to. Dang! I had him 30 miles from his goal.

I can't say that I've been as kind to all TBs that I've snatched. But I've never moved one that far from his goal.

I hope that my bugs (one out, more on the way) get treated more kindly. But, it's only a game, isn't it?

Sometimes I trade Bugs with my sister in Maine.

(Don't any body look at what I did with Geo-Ranger Warrior/Barbie Parts - Right Leg) Hee hee hee. Sometimes I'm just evil.

1.1k · November 18, 2004

After the flaming, Don't be surprised when your bug(s) "dissappers" from a cache and ends up in Montana on a Mountain top just before snow fall.

logscaler.

November 24, 2004

Just reding this forum makes me laugh, you people act like children and quess what? I'm only 16 and I know the differnce!

22k · November 24, 2004

Just reding this forum makes me laugh, you people act like children and quess what? I'm only 16 and I know the differnce!

Looks like you're off to a good start for your first forum posting. You'll fit right in

2k · November 24, 2004

i cna understand the anger. i dropped off two travel bugs ona recent trip to southern virginia (newport news). one was heading to orlando fl and one was headed to a base in NC. After I dropped off the NC one, the owner wrote to me, thanking me for dropping it so close to it's destination.

fast forward a few weeks, when a cacher picks up both of the travel bugs. a few days later, he drops them both off in PA!!

maybe i would'nt be so mad if I hadn't moved them south from NY. or if the guy who did was new to the game (like myself). but he has over 1,000 caches!

my guess is he does it to raise his travel bugs found count.

It could be possible that he was planning on releasing them in a certain area but didn't get to do caching during that time.

That sometimes happens to me as I travel quite a bit. I may take a bug to a certain area I'm in for 3 or 4 days but due to weather or not getting a chance etc. I may not be able to drop it in the area I thought I was going to be able to.

5.9k · November 24, 2004

Were the instructions with the bug, or only on the bug page? I often move a bug without ever looking at the page.

If your have such specific instructions, it's best to print them on a laminated card and attach it to the bug. That way a finder knows right there in the field what the bug's goals are. Of course, sometimes evan that doesn't matter.

2k · November 27, 2004

CUBA!

ROFL

Sorry man, that's just so dadgum funny......

November 27, 2004

A little detour one or two states South would not rankle me, but taking the TB out of the country and to a communist country at that?

what's wrong with it being communist?

by the way, i'm 12, and i think you're going a little to far too.

November 27, 2004

Funny ....... all the sensible replies are from people who are under 18.

I think CUBA is way cool! I'd love for one of my TBs to get sidetracked to some part of the world I never considered.

Who knows - this TB may just win the race, turning up at the finish line, bruised, battered, and shouting (in a really cool accent) "MAN! What a trip!"

Fact is - the TB is in CUBA, you can't get it easily to move it on, so try and relax about it. With all the publicity this particular TB has had on the forum, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets moved from CUBA to ANTARCTICA, just to p**s you off some more - but THAT would even more cool!!!!!

2k · November 27, 2004

I wouldn't be surprised if it gets moved from CUBA to ANTARCTICA, just to p**s you off some more - but THAT would even more cool!!!!!

That would be cool.

I'm going to have to watch this TB now.

November 27, 2004

Hey if you check the Ground Speak Forums, the other Travel Bug (Verona PD Car #1) won the race. Thanks to Harry Dolphin who went out of his way to deliver it home. I think many of you misunderstood my annoyance. I will say again, I understand that once you drop a TB into a cache, YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT. And that's fine. What annoyed me, was that the TB got so close and then this guy on a whim decided to side track it. And again, it's not the distance, but the location. Did you ever ask for travel directions from someone and their reply was "You can't get there from here"? Well putting a TB in a communist country like Cuba is the same thing. What added to it, was I emailed this guy several times before I got mad, and he still to this day has not replied. I have several other TB's out there, one even went to Aruba and made it back to this area. How cool is that? It's like some of these eltist geocachers who find a cache and then decide that it should be "re-hidden" in a better spot close by. It's not their place to take such matters into their hands. Hey if you go to one of my caches and by chance see a better place to hide it close by, email me and if I like it better, I will move it and change the coordinates. I guess it's just so easy to get annoyed at people who think who the hell they are. It's not the TB, it's the attitude and although you may think that I'm still mad, I'm really not.

22k · November 27, 2004

I would have been annoyed too. People here tell me that you can't assume that people will follow basic instructions. Okay fine, I can understand that, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I expect common courtesy in most things and I'm not going to apologize for that position.

1.4k · November 28, 2004

I find it a bit ironic that this thread mentions a TB in a communist country, then talks of retaliation on that TB for expressing one's views...

I've had a cacher e-mail me for permission to send one of my TBs to Iraq, even though its mission is to visit National Parks in the U.S. Didn't happen, but it'd have been a cool detour.

I'll refrain from taking sides or saying any more, for fear of retaliation... <_<

November 29, 2004

This is just about hte funniest forum post I ever read :lol: I live in South Africa and would be so glad if one of my bugs just get picked up, leftalone leave the country. I agree with both parties: one should read the bugsheet and try to achieve goals, but then on the other hand - Cuba is sooooooo cool! I love this game!!

November 29, 2004

I live in South Africa and would be so glad if one of my bugs just get picked up,

I'd be happy if there were some adventurous souls here (also in South Africa!) who'd just go find my caches!!!!!

I have two TB's coming. I'm also considering setting them off on a race to who knows where!

If one went to wherever via Cuba - WOW!!!!!!

Travel Bug (Verona PD Car #1) won the race

I'm glad one managed to reach it's goal - but the other one will have all the stories to tell!!!! Coming 2nd is no disgrace!!!

:lol:

Tb Hijacker

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