Caches going missing

[GAZ]

Just wondered if anyone else has had a cache go missing.....I set one a couple of weeks ago, has been found three times, and the last cachers DNF'd. Ok, it was next to the road, but on a road miles from anywhere, except a village a mile away, and not on a busy road either. There was absolutely no chance of it being accidentally found, or been disturbed by animals. I can only think it has been stolen

Anyway, rant over

Cache in question is GC1T87V

[Bill D (wwh)]

There have been a number of threads on Groundspeak in the last month or so about caches being stolen, and some at least appear to have been deliberately targeted by people using gc.com to get the co-ords.

Some cachers have responded by making their caches members' only, but as anyone can become a premium member by signing up to pay monthly by PayPal, make one payment of around two quid, get all the info they want and then cancel the payments, I don't really see the point of that.

Premium member only caches allow the owner to see which accounts have visited the cache page and allow them to see patterns emerging.

One cache despoiler in the the North West has recently had an nice chat with the boys in blue and has been banned from GC.com .

There may be more on the way, so if the cache spoilers are reading this, take note the police in some areas are taking it seriously and eventually you will get caught.

[Bill D (wwh)]

Premium member only caches allow the owner to see which accounts have visited the cache page and allow them to see patterns emerging.

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten that aspect of it...!

[GAZ]

I suppose being a Premium Member won't stop it, though it might reduce the odds. Ah well, I have replaced it now with only a logbook in.....we'll see if this one lasts!

Failing that, there is Terracaching.............

Gaz

[The Hornet]

......

Failing that, there is Terracaching.............

Gaz

Don't mention that word "over there" or you might end up in serious trouble h34r:

[GAZ]

Don't mention that word "over there" or you might end up in serious trouble h34r:

Heh-heh......I thought about starting the thread "over there", but I want to use these forums more and keep it fresh. I think a ban would have taken place if the "T" word was mentioned "over there"

Talking of TC, I am looking around my local area to put a TC out, but I don't want it to be next to a road. I have a couple of places in mind, so will explore these locations first. I don't really want to make it a "virtual", I want a proper box to be found. Caching like the "old" days!

[The Hornet]

In case anyone wonders about my flippant comment, I was feeling a little irritated at the summary archiving of all my caches by Groundspeak for providing links to the new versions of them on Terracaching. No warning, no chance to change them - just "bam!"

Disappointed? Yes
Surprised? No
Bovvered? Not really

No big deal really, c'est la vie.

[Family_Moose]

Having only just started this sport, I have no real idea about this problem between different websites/forums.

However, back on topic. We have not set any caches yet as we still trying to work out the criteria for the best location.

We've only had a couple of DNFs so far, and the one that annoyed us the most was one that we emailed the owner, with still no reply!

Does anyone else ever have the feeling of worry or guilt that the cache will be muggled due to being not-stealthy-enough when retrieving,relocating???

Family_Moose

[GAZ]

In case anyone wonders about my flippant comment, I was feeling a little irritated at the summary archiving of all my caches by Groundspeak for providing links to the new versions of them on Terracaching. No warning, no chance to change them - just "bam!"

Disappointed? Yes
Surprised? No
Bovvered? Not really

No big deal really, c'est la vie.

Flippin Nora.......I didn't realise that had happened! I only quickly look at the GC forums, and tend to post more over here.

Family Moose......I don't really enjoy caches that are in muggle ridden areas, I passed one by last week.....10 ft away from it.....but on the way back, I was driving down a lovely B road with lots of hiding places, and excellent views over the Lakeland hills and the Solway, only a mile away from the town centre.

[Family_Moose]

Flippin Nora.......I didn't realise that had happened! I only quickly look at the GC forums, and tend to post more over here.

Family Moose......I don't really enjoy caches that are in muggle ridden areas, I passed one by last week.....10 ft away from it.....but on the way back, I was driving down a lovely B road with lots of hiding places, and excellent views over the Lakeland hills and the Solway, only a mile away from the town centre.

We are almost at the point of not doing obvious ones.

Last week we tried for one in the middle of our local town.

It turned out that it was right opposite a busy hairdresers, and a cafe, and a town CCTV post, that obviously had an inquisitive operator, and therefore there was no point in doing it in daylight hours, and even then, the CCTV problem would continue!

[ivanidea]

In case anyone wonders about my flippant comment, I was feeling a little irritated at the summary archiving of all my caches by Groundspeak for providing links to the new versions of them on Terracaching. No warning, no chance to change them - just "bam!"

That would explain why I couldn't see any of your caches when I looked on GC!

I was planning on doing some enroute / return to South Wales this weekend.

[The Hornet]

That would explain why I couldn't see any of your caches when I looked on GC!

I was planning on doing some enroute / return to South Wales this weekend.

They're all there as Terracaches just waiting to be found, there's no reason you can't still go for them (see https://www.terracaching.com/tdl.cgi?C=UO652) . If you search on my profile on GC they should still show up as archived caches and you can still log them (I think) to get your GC smileys.

BTW - you now have at least one sponsor on TC

[Bill D (wwh)]

Ivanidea, I was also going to sponsor you on TC, but I see that you've already got two sponsors so you're a fully fledged member.

[markandlynn]

Re caches going missing.

I can understand the whole why would anyone other than a geo cacher of found it.

Dont forget we are not the only people who search for stuff in the country side.

Photographers, wild food, mushroom hunters, birdwatchers, dog walkers etc etc all have very legitimate reasons to be in the same place as geo cachers and may regards an abondened lunchbox as rubbish or just discovered treasure.

Add to this that a badger can quite easily root an ammobox out of hiding in its search for foods and there are numerous non conspiracy theories for caches going missing.

Still does not stop it being annoying though.

As a though have you checked at the local police station for lost property being handed in ? one of our caches was handed in once and i am reliably informed that many lost property offices are full of ammo boxes ? in fact we are trying to get in to have a look at about 20 in local office at present the main issue is proving they might be ours and not someone elses !

[Bill D (wwh)]

Re caches going missing.

<snip>Dont forget we are not the only people who search for stuff in the country side.

<snip>As a though have you checked at the local police station for lost property being handed in ? one of our caches was handed in once and i am reliably informed that many lost property offices are full of ammo boxes ? in fact we are trying to get in to have a look at about 20 in local office at present the main issue is proving they might be ours and not someone elses !

Nope, we're certainly not the only people who search for stuff in the countryside, and a lot of them are not at all legitimate... h34r:

Checking with your local police station is certainly a good idea though - there are a lot of honest people out there, believe it or not. One cache of mine disappeared under a felled plantation - a muggle couple who'd sussed it was there waded through the cut-down trees and retrieved it and returned it to me!

[Lost in Space]

Surely ALL caches contain a cache note telling "finders", (Police?), how to contact the owner, via GC.com?

[markandlynn]

Surely ALL caches contain a cache note telling "finders", (Police?), how to contact the owner, via GC.com?

yes they do but that means opening your private property apparently and most caches just contain the usual contact details not the owners.

All our caches have an email adress in them after we were told this.

[t.a.folk]

Surely ALL caches contain a cache note telling "finders", (Police?), how to contact the owner, via GC.com?

Is there a way of contacting owner via GC.com without creating an account first ?

All our caches have our own email address in them because we don't think there is a way .

[Bill D (wwh)]

Is there a way of contacting owner via GC.com without creating an account first ?

All our caches have our own email address in them because we don't think there is a way .

As far as I know you're right that it's not possible to contact the cache owner directly through gc.com without creating an account, but it is of course possible for someone to send the cache details to contact@geocaching.com. I think you're right to include your own contact details, though, as that's probably the best way of establishing contact.

Just as an aside, anyone who doesn't want to include personal information in a cache can use the GAGB contact phone number in a cache - details here.

[markandlynn]

Is there a way of contacting owner via GC.com without creating an account first ?

All our caches have our own email address in them because we don't think there is a way .

Correct we found out after someone had to create an account to contact us (2003 if i remember correctly)

We are currently in discussion with a local lost property manager about 20ish ammo boxes they have in storage. Hopefully at some point this year we will be allowed to examine them.

Nb
We cant examine them now because we will need to say where it was found to prove we have knowledge of them kind of a catch 22!

[Watford Wobble]

Slightly off topic but whilst watching the birds feed in my garden a grey squirrel appeared and took great interest in a plastic, tubular birdfeeder. Think old style Fairy washing up liquid bottle size.

I wasn’t too worried about him feeding but got a bit angry when he proceeded to unhook and run off with the feeder only dropping it after I chased him.

Got me thinking how many caches have gone missing due to ‘squirrelage’

:wacko:

[Bear and Ragged]

Got me thinking how many caches have gone missing due to ‘squirrelage’
:wacko:

Hence the "nothing edible/smelly" in a cache, to stop wildlife foraging.
I'd like to see a squirrel try to run off with a large ammo can! :lol:

[Watford Wobble]

I believe for ammo cans family and friend squirrels are enlisted.