I Really Hate To Mention This But I've Gotta Get

[+Team HHD1]

VERY well hidden... It was a nice 35mm canister hidden in a great place. This is a HIGH muggle area and it is important for this to be placed back into the place I put it originally. The 4th person to find it left it 5 feet from where I hid it and it was in site of ANYONE who entered the area. It really made me feel disrespected. If I spend the time to search, find and hide a cache for someone to search for, they should at least put it back where they got it from. I actually met the people who found it! They were 20 miles from it at another cache that I was searching for. They were there before I was. They were nice folks, but it was their 1st day geocaching. I new as soon as they said they found my cache, I had to check it...

 

Has this ever happened to you? Why don't other cache-ers treat caches as their own...

 

ARGGGG!!!!

 

(for those who do, on behalf of ever cacher: Thanks! )

[+briansnat]

It happens all too often. Sometimes its ignorance. I've read of people who moved a cache "closer" to the coordinates as shown on their GPS (as if theirs simply has to be right). Sometimes it just laziness. In a few cases I think people might have simply forgotten exactly where it was supposed to be, or maybe the wife found it and the husband replaced it - in the wrong spot.

 

Don't take it personally. It happens to everyone who owns a cache eventually. I've actually DNFed several of my own caches because they were moved so far.

Edited May 22, 2005 by briansnat

[+Team Cotati]

True, true. There are dozens of excuses for people being forgetful, self-centered and lazy. Pick the one that suits your mood. If it happens again, pick another. People, go figure.

Edited May 22, 2005 by Team cotati697

[CoyoteRed]

...but it was their 1st day geocaching.

That explains it right there.

 

Not everyone is an expert on day one. It might take a little time for folks to get all the steps in the right order and not forget any. Maybe they were excited they actually found one and were focused on getting another.

 

It happens and this is part of being a cache owner.

 

How about the next one make it an easy beginner's cache and place several copies of The Creed in it.

 

Ya gotta work with the n00bs to bring'em up to speed.

[+NightPilot]

A film canister in a high-muggle area, and a great place? Seems rather oxymoronic to me, but maybe so. Remember, it's just caching, not life and death. If a cache gets put 5 feet from its original location, nobody dies, nobody even loses any money (which seems to have more importance to some people than the former). Chill, dude.

[The Junkyard Dogs]

Some caches move more then other. I noticed on our caches the ones that are more difficult to get get placed incorrectly most often. So we started to teather them down.

[+sept1c_tank]

Maybe the cache was just to difficult to replace...you know, moving that picnic table and all.

 

This doesn't sound like a serious problem, in your case, but I've actually found two caches that were duplicates; each had been misplaced, then assumed lost, then replaced with new logbooks. In both cases, other cachers with me found the replacement caches (at the same time) only a few feet apart.

 

This really happened, in two different countries.

 

So don't sweat it until you can't find it.

[+WeightMan]

Maybe the cache was just to difficult to replace...you know, moving that picnic table and all.

 

This doesn't sound like a serious problem, in your case, but I've actually found two caches that were duplicates; each had been misplaced, then assumed lost, then replaced with new logbooks. In both cases, other cachers with me found the replacement caches (at the same time) only a few feet apart.

 

This really happened, in two different countries.

 

So don't sweat it until you can't find it.

In fact one of those two, Tank was part of a group and most of them had not found it before. All found the same one, the original that had been moved. After they pulled it out, I went and got the replacement from where the original should have been. I knew they had the wrong spot by the way they got it out. The two caches were literally six inches apart, but on the opposites sides of an I beam.

[+sept1c_tank]

Ah, the memories! The other one was (also at night) in Vancouver, about a week later.

 

It's funny, because last winter I went to do maintenance on one of my caches and it was missing. I immediately prepared another identical cache, and went back to replace the lost one.

 

Well guess what, much to my chagrin, I discovered the original, about 20" away.

 

Obladi, oblada.

[+sTeamTraen]

Ah, the memories!    The other one was (also at night) in Vancouver, about a week later.

 

It's funny, because last winter I went to do maintenance on one of my caches and it was missing.  I immediately prepared another identical cache, and went back to replace the lost one.

 

Well guess what, much to my chagrin, I discovered the original, about 20" away. 

 

Obladi, oblada.   

Something like that happened to me here:

 

- No finds in the first month

- Someone called me to say they had searched but not found

- I went along with a new cache, couldn't find the old one (it's in a hollow tree trunk; I assumed it had fallen too far down to retrieve), placed the new one

- Then (after the snow had gone), someone found both!

 

Only problem now is, I need to plan another trip to remove one of them!

Edited May 22, 2005 by sTeamTraen

[+tands]

How about this one? CRAZY HORSE

Darn thing almost never gets re-hid in the same place.

 

- T

[+Prying Pandora]

In defense of those poor maligned noobs, you can't say for sure that they were the ones who misplaced your cache. When a careless cacher moves a container, all subsequent finders are obliged to but it back where they found it. Unless you check the container between each find, you'll never know for sure.

[+Marcie/Eric]

I must say that i'm a noob, and I may not have put a cache back in it's exact spot.

 

It was due to the fact that it was in a muggle area and I had to walk away from the hiding spot in order to sign the log. It's since been found, so I must have put it back pretty close.

 

BTW> It was one of those fake pine cones hung up on a branch.

 

I try and always take a mental picture of the cache before I take the container out to hide.

[+Mudfrog]

A film canister in a high-muggle area, and a great place? Seems rather oxymoronic to me, but maybe so. Remember, it's just caching, not life and death. If a cache gets put 5 feet from its original location, nobody dies, nobody even loses any money (which seems to have more importance to some people than the former). Chill, dude.

Rehiding a cache like you found it is an easy concept to grasp for most of us. But we all should know by now that there are people out there who, either dont think (have any common sense), who dont give a rat's hiney about how their actions affect others, or who do screwy things because they are big bumholes and/or just want attention. Unfortunately, these same things happen in just about every activity we participate in and it's something we all have to put up with.

 

Agreed, it's not life or death, but it sure can be annoying as all get out!

[+TeamK-9]

Is it possible that it wasn't the cachers fault?

 

So many times, I've heard of micros and even larger caches being dislodged from their hiding places by angry members of the animal comunity (ie. squirrels, chipmunks, racoons)

[CoyoteRed]

Is it possible that it wasn't the cachers fault?

 

So many times, I've heard of micros and even larger caches being dislodged from their hiding places by angry members of the animal comunity (ie. squirrels, chipmunks, racoons)

That's no lie!

 

We tried putting out a multi using film cannisters as stages. We put the cans in the spots we wanted and took readings. A few days later when we returned to place the coords in the cans, some of them were missing!. We found one, which had been 15' up in a tree, on the ground several feet away and it had curious holes in it. The best we were about to figure out a curious bird had tried to see what this strange object was all about.

 

We switched to plastic tags for the stages.

[+cudlecub]

I think caches, especially micros, have a tendency to want to move around a little bit. Imagine the embarassment of having multiple dnf's on a cache from 1 particular cacher and going with them to find it and you (the hider) can't even locate it. After a 45 min search of the area you locate it 20' away. Unfortunately it happens.

 

I'm guilty of taking a micro and checking out a nearby site and forgetting exactly where it was hidden. The coords had me off 40' so I replaced it as close to the original coords as I could. It was hidden on a gaurd rail on the side of a bank and you could see a beautiful waterfall just down the way. I don't think other cachers would have problems locating it nor do I think it will be muggled.

[+Logscaler and Red]

Cachers can not be help to fault if they replace the cache the way they found it.

 

It only takes one to screw it up even if the rest do replace it as found.

 

The one thing that burns my buns is when "they" move the cache to a "better" place.

 

If I had wanted it there, I would have placed it there. Sometimes putting a cache in the not so obvious of a spot makes it last longer; At the bottom of the rock outcropping instead of on top where the trail leads, fifteeen feet from the bridge under a shrub instead of on/under the bridge, hanging from a limb at the top of the hanging wire, etc.

 

And after all, it is my cache, not yours. Replace it as I placed it and we will get along fine. Also, if I left a cripple for you to use, replace it where and as you found it as well.

 

Logscaler.

[MagicMeeko]

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...b4-0ea3a43fa99a

 

This was my first find. I found it with out a GPS, and about three or so days after I found out about Geocaching for the first time.

 

I went to the site, and found it easily enough. I put it back where I found it, in the exact same spot, facing the same direction.

 

I didn't know it was a rule to not move it. But to me I didnt think about moving it. I mean I knew for the most part, it wasnt mine. I had no reason to move it.

 

A month later or so, it got muggled. Other people visited it after me, so I can say "Not Me!!".

 

I found out later that the cache had been moved. It was more or less in plain sight... but I saw the White bottom of the 5 gallon laundry soap bucket along natural cover. And this was in the dead of night too might I add.

 

I hit a small cache once that was also found with out a GPS. I found this one because of the lid again. I left it more covered than I found it, (but it was obvious that something was under there). I contacted the cache placer, and she asked me why I didnt turn it back upside-down. -- She had camaflauged the bottom, but not the top.

 

Lastly, I found one micro once that had velcro on the side... it was in a place that the velcro was needed... so you couldnt not put it back wrong.

[+Miragee]

On an out-of-town trip back in March, I was having trouble finding a micro. I stopped my search to take a picture of the Joshua tree in the doorway of the building ruins. At the time, I didn't realize the micro was actually in the picture when I zoomed in on the detail.

 

 

After taking the picture, I walked around the other side, looked down, and there was the cache, on the ground. I had no idea where it was supposed to be hidden, so I put it close by where its coloring matched best.

 

I was relieved to see that before I got home to log my find, another cacher found it. Even though I emailed the cache owner, I never did learn where the cache was actually supposed to be . . .

 

If that kept happening, I can only imagine how far that cache could migrate . . .

[uber_bike_geek]

The first thing I thought of after reading the post by the OP Interesting concept, actually... I've gotta go down and find it some one of these days

 

Happy caching

Jeff

[+sept1c_tank]

Now, that's unique.

[+Shop99er]

It's funny, because last winter I went to do maintenance on one of my caches and it was missing. I immediately prepared another identical cache, and went back to replace the lost one.

 

Well guess what, much to my chagrin, I discovered the original, about 20" away.

 

Obladi, oblada.

Oh Crap!! I did exactly the same thing!!

 

I have a cache just .1 mile from my house. I went to it to do a little upkeep, and SOAB, it's gone!! So, I zoom home, get the spare ready. (Yes, I keep spares for my caches ready to go), and go back and set it.

 

Two days later, it gets found. The original, not the new one. Great, now I have to pull the new one out, and figure out where the original is. Of course, I get there, and can't find the new one.

 

So, I take the wife down to it, she promptly finds them both, and I slink away.

 

It turns out that when a earlir finder found it, the container got put in a slightly different location. It was only a matter of 4 feet. But, the most recent finder says that it's present location is only about 2 feet from the solved-for coords, according to his gizmo.

[+AtoZ]

People just dont pay attention to where they find and then rehide a cache. Micros are the worst. Also if each finder was off by a foot then when you got there that would account for 5 feet. Also trying to put a cache back is as hard as retrieveing it in a high traffic area. Maybe you should make it easier.

cheers

[+Jessex]

Yes, this happens all the time. That is why you must maintain your caches. Instead of getting angry, just go fix it or replace it if needs be. The brains of geocaching have already anticipated this problem, hence the need to be close to the caches you place.

 

But their notions about virtual caches are less well thought out. They should let virtaul caches be placed in National Parks, landmarks or any place real caches are not allowed or where real caches can not be placed. This only encourages caching and helps spread caching world-wide.

[+Miragee]

. . .

 

But their notions about virtual caches are less well thought out.  They should let virtaul caches be placed in National Parks, landmarks or any place real caches are not allowed or where real caches can not be placed.  This only encourages caching and helps spread caching world-wide.

 

Edit to add appropriate quote.

Edited May 23, 2005 by idiosyncratic

[+hubbken]

It's just common sense to replace the cache EXACTLY where u found it. Some people are just plain dumb.

[+Colorado Cacher]

Some people just simply do not know how to respect other people. I have heard of a certain cacher in my area that will set caches out in the open so they are easier for people to find. Possible thier gps is off and they think they have the right numbers where they stand-who knows. I still say put it back exactly or better than you found it.

[+treasure_hunter]

Once I named my cache due to its location and used the name as the hint, and you know what someone moved the cache like 15-20 ft away. It really made me mad.

[WH]

I once had a cache that someone was nice enough to place a mini american flag near to aid future finders.

[+fly46]

This all depends on the hiding spot, too... I put a cache in an arm's length back under a bush. Well, if you approached it from the wrong side (the other side of the fence or through the flower bed), it was reachable, but also very easy to see how it could migrate any given distance.

 

Once I put it back and it rolled five feet away.

[+flgAZ]

I have a cache placed in a park. A teacher at a nearby school thought that would be a good outing for her 5th grade class to go find as a group. They did not have a light touch

The thing that bugged me the most was where they rehide it had no relation to the hint (which you 95% need to find it, if your don't use brute force) Would have thought the teacher would at least look at the printout before leaving.

[+Robespierre]

My first thought was...... s'pose they found it where they left it....

[+Bjorn74]

but I've actually found two caches that were duplicates; each had been misplaced, then assumed lost, then replaced with new logbooks.

I found myself reading logs once with complaints that the container was horrible. Someone went out to find it and another of mine, so I sent them out with a replacement for both. It turned out that someone had replaced one of them with a Tic Tac container and placed it right on top of the old one. The original was under a rock and the "replacement" was hidden on top of the same rock.

 

Go figure.

[+glowstick]

when a cache of mine is re-hidden they usually put it back in the same place but cover it differently.

[+halffast]

Is it possible that it wasn't the cachers fault?

 

So many times, I've heard of micros and even larger caches being dislodged from their hiding places by angry members of the animal comunity (ie. squirrels, chipmunks, racoons)

I just replaced a cache today that the last person to log it found it about a hundred feet from where I placed it.He commentd that a cacher had left it there because they were to lazy to take it back and rehide it.He relocated it 500 feet from its rightfull spot.When I found it I decided from the teeth marks that it was probably a coyote and not a cacher that moved the container.

[wanda texas]

before i started geocaching i was trying my hand at letterboxing...same concept , no gps, nothing to trade, just stamping in and out of logs.....

 

not many of those in my area....so i hid some of my own....one i did as a theme to leave homemade bookmarks and take one of mine...put it in a big plasic container...wired together twigs to use as a covering...hid it in the weeds under a tree covered...well it disappeared but i did find lots of golfballs nearby...so maybe someone from the golf course came across it...

 

then i hid one in a park where i had been hunting a cache..found a great spot behind a short rock wall down a steep hill....made me up a container...put it behind the wall...collected up several large rocks to cover it up and extras...and when i went back to the park to check on it i found it had just been tossed back behind the wall no attempt to cover it....so i covered it back up..but it eventually disappeared too....

 

now i have one left at a rest stop in a pompus plant and i know it gets replaced in different areas under the bush even by myself when ive checked on it...i just tell people to poke their sticks all around till you hear it hit plastic..i was told this one by someone that it was gone so i went to check on it and found it after 2 pokes in the vacinity....6 paces versus 4 paces from the directions...

 

but i always covered up both letterboxes and geocaches better than when i found it ..ive come across plenty just sitting there ..or just covered with one stick whereas it had been covered with all 6 laying nearby...

 

wanda texas

[+Kit Fox]

Here is my theory, caches placed in high visibilty/ high muggles spots are bound to be visited by (get this) muggles. A cacher is trying to be discreet and MR. muggle notices the guy following the strange electronic device. He sees the cacher remove an object and sign the log. When the cacher leaves, Mr. Muggle goes to see what the cacher was doing. He takes the cache, then reads the stash sheet. He goes to put it back in the general area, and goes on his way.

 

Here is a true caching story relayed to me by Ventura Kids.

 

He was hunting a cache with a string of DNFs. A neighbor told him he was "cold". VK was perplexed and kept following his GPS. The guy told VK that he was getting colder. VK asked the guy which way to get "warmer."

 

It turned out the guy watched cachers often, and wanted to move the cache closer to his house. He moved it over 100 feet from ground zero. The guy actually thought the cache was an electronic device that gave off a signal (like an animal collar) and cachers would follow the signal with their "devices."

 

After VK explained geocaching to the guy, he placed the cache back where it belonged.

Edited June 23, 2005 by Kit Fox

[wanda texas]

that is funny kit fox!!!!!...i like that story.....

wanda texas

[+fishfam]

When we find a cache that we think is out of place, we always put it back where we found it (in case we were wrong) but then email the owner and post in the logs that we think it has been moved.

[+ADKcachers]

As with anything else in this world, we have to deal with the "lowest common denominator factor."

 

Just because we have a friendly community here does not mean that some of us are not dolts.

 

It's as simple as that, my friends.

[+tool team]

I very recently put out this cache Jeepers...a 4x4 Cache and started it off with these 3 travel bugs. The FTF is a highly respected cacher who admirably logged the bugs out and back in and left 2 of his own. The next cacher found the ammo box in the middle of the trail (and I hid it about 50ft from the trail in a tree) with the 3 Jeeps missing? and took the two travel bugs remaining, replacing with zero! Only thing I can figure is an out-a-towner got the 3 Jeeps and has still yet to log? I would never be brazen enough to take more than one bug out of a cache! If I didn't have so much money invested...I would retire...

[+One of the Texas Vikings]

VERY well hidden...  It was a nice 35mm canister hidden in a great place.  This is a HIGH muggle area and it is important for this to be placed back into the place I put it originally.  The 4th person to find it left it 5 feet from where I hid it and it was in site of ANYONE who entered the area.

The answer is ammo can and a thick chain or aircraft cable lag bolted to a tree or stump.....

Edited August 6, 2005 by One of the Texas Vikings

[Yankees Win!]

Come on, OP. If you hid the micro cache VERY WELL in a HIGH MUGGLE AREA, you knew, and possibly intended, that the activities of cache seekers would be highly conspicuous ... not unlike the monkeys on display at the zoo. And you felt disrespected?

Edited August 6, 2005 by Yankees Win!

[+Team Cotati]

Lordy how I wish you folk were my supervisor at work. I'd never make a mistake again. Beautiful. Of course my supervisor would not have his job very long but who gives a carp, right? They'd probably give me his job and a raise to boot since I have never made a mistake.

Edited August 6, 2005 by Team Cotati