Shawnee National Forest

[captmojo]

For all you Southern Illinois Cachers:

 

It appears the Shawnee National Forest cache thief is on the loose again. I am, of course, not very happy about this. I have a new cache (dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson--no guns or drugs in it, trust me) that I was getting ready to hide in a beautiful, not often hiked area--had permisson and was ready to go.

 

See the link for the first Shawnee theft of the summer ("A Rockey Hideaway"). Sorry Rockey...that was a great cache and could not have been found by accident. Someone had to have seen it on the geocaching.com and intentionally gone after it.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...07-3ec91707ef86

 

In advise from old-school cachers on catching thiefs.....?

 

Sincerely,

captmojo

[+Salvelinus]

Your link dosn't seem to be working.

 

I have had similar problems. I made them MOC's, moved them a bit and the problems stopped. I figure if they want the new coords to steal it, it may cost them something.

 

Salvelinus

 

edit: Maybe your link is fine. Seems I can't see any cache pages. What's up with that?

Edited May 13, 2005 by Salvelinus

[captmojo]

Strange. Link goes to server error screen. Can't access from zipcode search page either.

 

Check back later. The cache is/was called "A Rockey Hideaway."

 

Found on this search page:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?zip=62901

 

captmojo

[+DaveA]

For all you Southern Illinois Cachers:

 

It appears the Shawnee National Forest cache thief is on the loose again. I am, of course, not very happy about this. I have a new cache (dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson--no guns or drugs in it, trust me) that I was getting ready to hide in a beautiful, not often hiked area--had permisson and was ready to go.

 

See the link for the first Shawnee theft of the summer ("A Rockey Hideaway"). Sorry Rockey...that was a great cache and could not have been found by accident. Someone had to have seen it on the geocaching.com and intentionally gone after it.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...07-3ec91707ef86

 

In advise from old-school cachers on catching thiefs.....?

 

Sincerely,

captmojo

I get the same error page as you do.

 

I think threads like this one are counter productive as they give cache thiefs what they want, attention.

 

There is little to nothing that can be done about such folks other than to not feed them what they want, attention.

[+Scoobie10]

That is such a bummer. I've been planning a hiking trip to Garden of the Gods along the River to Tiver Trail, then making a cache run. Seems like that might change now.

 

Based on the history of the Shawnee cache thief, I'm guessing that we're dealing with someone who uses to gc.com to locate caches then takes them in the name of saving the forest from the evils of geocaching. It's really sad.

[captmojo]

Scoobie10:

 

Please don't let this jerk keep you off the R to R or Garden of the Gods. There are lots of caches still OK.

 

And yes, I agree, with the above poster--we should not give him attention. However, I believe I am the first (except for maybe Mytosis?) to post anything about this publicly.

 

Wish there was more I could do.

 

capt mojo

[captmojo]

By the way,

 

wouldn't someone who wanted to "save" the forest from the "evils" of geocaching not leave litter and take the ammo box and all.....(see link).....cptmojo

[captmojo]

the swine will get no attention

Edited May 14, 2005 by captmojo

[+GEO.JOE]

That is such a bummer. I've been planning a hiking trip to Garden of the Gods along the River to Tiver Trail, then making a cache run. Seems like that might change now.

 

Based on the history of the Shawnee cache thief, I'm guessing that we're dealing with someone who uses to gc.com to locate caches then takes them in the name of saving the forest from the evils of geocaching. It's really sad.

Scoobie10 don't cancel the trip the best caches are still there , I know you have been looking . Most of the caches are still available around Garden of the Gods, RayJay indicated he was going to change his over to Members only and Myotis is changing his as they are replaced. I planned on out placing the cache thief but I have just about ran out of time. I have 5 caches in the car ready to replace stolen caches I just need to make the time to check on all of them.

I am not sure how far you are planning on going down the R2R trail but I have a cache in mind for One Horse Gap. If you are going that far let me know when and I will try to get it out before your trip.

GEO.JOE

[+GEO.JOE]

For all you Southern Illinois Cachers:

 

It appears the Shawnee National Forest cache thief is on the loose again. I am, of course, not very happy about this. I have a new cache (dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson--no guns or drugs in it, trust me) that I was getting ready to hide in a beautiful, not often hiked area--had permisson and was ready to go.

 

See the link for the first Shawnee theft of the summer ("A Rockey Hideaway"). Sorry Rockey...that was a great cache and could not have been found by accident. Someone had to have seen it on the geocaching.com and intentionally gone after it.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...07-3ec91707ef86

 

In advise from old-school cachers on catching thiefs.....?

 

Sincerely,

captmojo

Captmojo your best bet is to become a premium member and make the caches Members Only.

 

GEO.JOE

[+Night Stalker]

We have had a professional cache thief working in our area for more than a year now. Making caches premium members only has only helped a little bit. We have just resigned ourselves to replacing our caches every few weeks. We hope he/she gets bored pretty soon, but so far this has not been the case.

[+Scoobie10]

For anyone still watching this thread, how are the Shawnee caches holding up?

 

Scoob

[+GEO.JOE]

For anyone still watching this thread, how are the Shawnee caches holding up?

 

Scoob

The members only caches are still there with exception of Pounds Hollow is questionable.

 

State Park caches are still there.

 

City park caches are still there.

 

Cache o Sophia & Millstone survived the last rash of thefts in March.

 

Inspiration point can be logged as a virtual.

 

Buzzards point and Knights of the Golden circle are log books in zip locs.

 

Auquasleuth did not get all of his caches checked from the November , or January thefts, and he is unavailable at this time to replace them, so he has 9 missing: Wildcat Bluff, Tower Rock, IL Iron Furnace, Stone Face, Buck Ridge, Wagon Wheel, Herrin Lake #1 and #2 and Devil's Kitchen #1.

 

Myotis is missing at least 5 : Bell Smith 3, rim Rock, Hutchins Creek, Inspiration Point and most likely Pounds Hollow. (others that have not been searched for since March, I suspect are missing as well)

 

High point Lookout, Butcher's cache, Treasures of the mind and Cache with a view are also missing but not disabled.

 

There are still plenty of great caches available to keep you busy for a several days, Read the logs to make sure they have been found recently and they should be OK. Many of my Members only caches are very lonely, they have not been searched for in months.

 

I still have replacement caches in the car but I have a hard time replacing a cache that the owner does not want to make it a members only.

 

When are you coming down? I still have a cache for One Horse Gap ready to place, but since none of my other caches are being hunted I have lost my momentum.

 

GEO.JOE

[+hukilaulau]

I disagree with the view that cache thefts should not be discussed in the forums on the theory that the attention is what the theives want. I think it is the hunt and the kill that they are after. Similar to people who hunt animals and then just leave the carcasses where they fall. I am also not an advocate of just waiting for the theives to get bored and go away. I think there are ways of dealing with this situation, and discussing it on the forums is a way for like-minded people to find each other and discuss strategies outside of GC.com or Groundspeak. I do think that when any of these pirates are dealt with in an appropriate manner, it should be made known on the forums (by "reliable sources" who were not party to the action) so that other priate-wannabe's will know that their actions are not without risk.