Are People Who Steal Caches

[+jeffrey12000]

Are people who steal caches mainly come across them by accident or do they purposly go out and steal them? Any one have any knowledge or thoughts on this?

[+nancois]

Probably by accident mostly. Because you need to invest a lot of time/$$ in software and equipment to find them on purpose, which defeats the point of stealing.

 

Gotta admit when I was a kid, if I would have found an ammo can with a bunch of toys in it with no owner nearby, even if it had the word "GEOCACHE" on it ("Huh? Whats that?"), I probably would have taken it and ignored the boring notes and logbook until I got home. And then I would be too lazy or distracted to bring it back

 

However, if the can had "DO NOT MOVE" in big scary letters right on its lid (a lot of them don't), I don't think I would have taken it.

[+Bull Moose]

Are people who steal caches mainly come across them by accident or do they purposly go out and steal them? Any one have any knowledge or thoughts on this?

One or the other, yes.

 

Actually, I think the vast majority come across them by accident.

[+travisl]

Speaking from personal experience, back when I was a young boy scout, we took a hike out to Scott Creek (near La Push). Our second day out there, we found a closed 5-gallon bucket about 100 feet off the trail, on the banks of the creek. The bucket contained gloves, juice, and snack food, and nearby were a shovel, rake, and large clippers. My buddies and I hauled them out of the woods and a few hundred yards down the beach to our campsite, our naive selves thinking that this was some cool loot that someone had abandoned. It didn't occur to us that this was probably some ranger's trail maintenance stash until one of our assistant scoutmasters asked what we were up to and made us put it back.

 

I still hope we put it back in the right spot. As heavy as the foliage was back there, if we were 20 feet off, the ranger probably never found it.

 

But to answer your question, there wasn't any malicious intent on our part. Just dumb kids who didn't know any better.

[+WARedBear]

I had one cache down by the Wenatchee river and several boaters found it and signed the log. Some even stated it sounded like a neat adventure and would check out the web site. They did put it back. I had another one at the town of Blewett that was stolen. It was at the top of a rock wall in a little cubbie hole. I had it camoed to blend in with the other wood piled around it. Someone had to climb up there with a flashlight, dig around in the pieces of wood to find it. I am inclined to think someone knew it was there. I also talked to a local cacher (I moved away from the area) and she stated that several caches in the area were plundered.

Edited February 24, 2005 by WARedBear

[+Renegade Knight]

There are peole who find the cache on accident and take it, and others who seek it out and take it. Both are thieves. The latter is worse due to the forthought and malice behind the act.

 

A lot of people can (and do) find a cache check it out, read the stash note and sign the log. Not everyone who stumbles on the cache is a theif. Just some.

[+GeoRoo]

I was in Burnaby BC several weeks ago and 2 caches that I tried to find were stolen and a note was left stating the fact. The note was even left in a ziplock bag, so not sure of a person with the mind set like that. That has to be the most evil kind. There was a cache find on both caches that day, so I must have just missed the thief.

[+Patudles]

The one in Wenatchee area was a ammo can thief. Whoever it was only took the ammo cans. But enough publicity on this issue. I think it is a issue best to be ignored. Some people like the publicity and others get ideas from it.

[+OccidentalErrant]

Deletion of Post by OccidentalErrant. Answer from PM. No need to post here.

Edited March 4, 2005 by OccidentalErrant

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

Jefferey in your area it was a plunderer that went through and ripped off about 100 caches. The good news is that there are a lot of new caches around your valley now.

[MarcusArelius]

What is a surprise to me is that anyone surfing the internet can access the cache pages without signing up on the web site. If that person also has a GPSr, any one of the caches listed on the page could be stolen. If the cache pages were hidden behind a login password, then at least you would know that if the cache was stolen there would only be one of four ways that it could happen.

 

Either the cache was stumbled upon, or somebody within the geocaching community did it, or possibly told someone outside the community where it was, or it was muggled.

 

Addendum edit: This goes to site and cache security. Anybody have any thoughts on this subject? Moun10Bike??

Since you are a premium member you already have the ability to make your caches only visible to other premium members (that must log on first).

 

Most people choose to share with everyone and simply accept the risk that the might be a few bad apples amoung the thousands of users.

[+planetrobert]

Are people who steal caches mainly come across them by accident or do they purposly go out and steal them? Any one have any knowledge or thoughts on this?

Considering the local situation that happened, which we shall not discuss so as to not give anybody any joy for the actions which they took, I would say that it was an act of intent, nearly a hundred caches came up mia. Fortunately it seems to have blown over. The part that bothers me here is that a MOC went missing, but then again it had had problems in the past.

 

When you see this happen, quietly discuss it with friends and don't post here to draw attention to it. Also don't tell cache owners that their caches are missing or you might get fingered as the theif

[+NBJPoppa]

ralann wrote:

 

Also don't tell cache owners that their caches are missing or you might get fingered as the theif 

 

I'll attest to that truth!

[+Morock & Miss C]

That whole situation stunk down here. I don't think ralann had anything to do with our cache problem.

 

The scouting and feed back we got from him, was very valuable in getting a picture of the scope of this incident.

 

Now we have scores of new caches and more people involved in the game than 5 months ago.

 

May have been a good thing.

 

It's only a game folks.