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Thread: Need Advice- Please Help

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Lower Arkansas
    Posts
    828

    Need Advice- Please Help

    Help. I am having a problem here in L.A. (Lower Arkansas). There is a person(s) who has made it their mission to steal (not muggle) many of my caches. NANO's and Baby Cokes appear to be their favorite but they leave the film cans undisturbed (so far). Of course those are the only ones that I can get free from Walgreens. I have replaced and replaced and they continue to come up missing. My initial reaction out of anger was to make all the caches premium members only. I however think back to my start and realize I would have never paid $30.00 for something I wasn't even sure I would like (in addition to a GPSr etc.). My next reaction is just to archive them all, but then he/she/it wins. I hate when someone DNF's a cache and feel compelled to go look to make sure it is there, whether I post such or not. It is meant to be fun. There are times when I am hunting I'm relatively sure a cache owner(s) knows that a cache is missing, but they do not replace it. This effectively compels me to no longer search actively for their caches and this is not what I want for those who chose to hunt mine. I spoke to a geocacher in Shreveport who frequents LA and told me he is having an issue with stolen caches as well in his area along with geocoins. I realize that inevitably there will be caches that come up "muggled". I don't have a problem with that. It is the NANO that is 6 miles from the closest house that has come up missing twice or the isolated area that has had a multi-cache destroyed and the dog tag ripped from the trackable that I am referring to among others. Do I keep replacing? Do I not even acknowledge the behavior? Do I set a game camera up and set him/her/it up? The cacher from Shreveport told me he is relatively sure who is stealing theirs down there. He has purchased a game camera, set up an alternate account and is "watching". He did tell me he has contacted Groundspeak with the information and they are unwilling to assist in getting the person banned from the website under that account. I realize he could set up another, but I would want to inconvenience him like he has us. Chuck Walla, or anyone else, do you have any ideas about that or what we could do?

  2. #2
    Dentful1 Guest
    I would do the members only caches. That would hopefully narrow down the possibiblities of who it could be. Find out who in the area caches. Somebody knows what is going on other than who is doing it. There might be some new caches come up in the future that are your caches. I would mark the caches with a scratch in a specific area. Even if they painted the cache the scratch will still be there.

  3. #3
    scoutfrog Guest
    I was going to suggest a game camera until i finished reading the post. My Idea was to "bait" the offender with new caches and catch him on camera. Print the picture and then take a 2 fold action,

    (1). Make yourself a flyer including the pic. Go to a copy place(kinko's cost .10 a copy) and make yourself about $3.00 worth of them. Then post them around your area near caches(your's and other caCHERS TOO) for other cachers to see. Also post them in high profile locations around town.

    "Have you seen this person? He/she has been stealing other people's stuff!"

    (2). List a new cache with the picture " No Honor Among Thieves" That way ALL geocachers in the area, not just the ones on here, will know what kind of person he is or isn't.

    Just my .02 worth.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Lower Arkansas
    Posts
    828
    Thank you both for the suggestions. I have had several discussions via email with the N.W. Louisiana cacher who is relatively sure he knows who it is based on certain otherwise unexplainable events. He didn't tell me the cachers name so I don't know, furthermore I shouldn't let it bother me. If I wasn't trying to go to school full time and work full time and raise a family it probably wouldn't be so bad. The free time I have I really don't want to play his silly little game of "steal and replace". Thanks again for the replies.

  5. #5
    Dentful1 Guest
    I like the term "steal and bash his head in" much better.

  6. #6
    HikerRon Guest
    Myself and 3 other cachers had this happen to us when i was in Colorado. The 'cache pirate' was even leaving us notes at the cache sites saying ' i stole your cache'. !!! After the anger passed, we just decided to replace every cache they stole with 2 more. Apparently they grew bored with stealing the caches after that. the problems eventually stopped on their own.
    BTW- making all our caches Premium Member Caches did not even slow them down. In the end, i made my caches available to everyone again.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Morrilton
    Posts
    545
    Scoutfrog wrote
    (1). Make yourself a flyer including the pic. Go to a copy place(kinko's cost .10 a copy) and make yourself about $3.00 worth of them. Then post them around your area near caches(your's and other caCHERS TOO) for other cachers to see. Also post them in high profile locations around town.

    "Have you seen this person? He/she has been stealing other people's stuff!"

    (2). List a new cache with the picture " No Honor Among Thieves" That way ALL geocachers in the area, not just the ones on here, will know what kind of person he is or isn't.
    That is a good idea and I might also add that I would have it in a frame at all events that I attended. The shame might stop them, but it might make them mad and you might lose all your caches.

    Another idea would be to confront them with evidence and ask them to stop or I would spread it all around the Caching community.
    The other ideas that I have would not be very nice and might include booby traps, explosive devices, inkpacks and/or a shotgun with remote control via webcam????

    I hate a thief more than a crappy log writer.
    I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
    Thomas A. Edison

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Lower Arkansas
    Posts
    828
    I hate a thief more than a crappy log writer.
    I know that's right. Thanks for your input. I guess now I'll have to sweet talk you into firing up that old dusty cache lab for a replica. I won't beg unless you want me to!

  9. #9
    chadbishop Guest
    i guess you guys have been caching a while so ill tell my my perspective since im pretty new to caching. even though this other guy might have proof of who was messing with his caches, that still doesnt prove anything about yours. its like saying the guy they caught breaking into your neighbors house 2 months after yours was broke into is probably the same guy. it probably is, but today, theres lots of people who will fit the bill. im actually surprised we can keep any caches out. what i think should be a feature is that you can force ignore a certain person from your caches and also retrieve a list of accounts who have viewed your cache. i think you should contact groundspeak. even though the other guy said he did, he may not have asked the right way. maybe they will take you serious and look into it. you should send them all the info you have, dates when you first noticed the caches muggled. try to connect all the dots for them. i know a guy around camden who sent me a friend request when my username was still "chadbishop" on geocaching.com. he said, are you the chadbishop from conway, accept my friend request. i was very surprised to see him on there as he sounds like one of the people you are describing. also, jason, if you happen to read this someday, yes im talking about you.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Lower Arkansas
    Posts
    828
    Quote Originally Posted by chadbishop
    i guess you guys have been caching a while so ill tell my my perspective since im pretty new to caching. even though this other guy might have proof of who was messing with his caches, that still doesnt prove anything about yours. its like saying the guy they caught breaking into your neighbors house 2 months after yours was broke into is probably the same guy. it probably is, but today, theres lots of people who will fit the bill. im actually surprised we can keep any caches out. what i think should be a feature is that you can force ignore a certain person from your caches and also retrieve a list of accounts who have viewed your cache. i think you should contact groundspeak. even though the other guy said he did, he may not have asked the right way. maybe they will take you serious and look into it. you should send them all the info you have, dates when you first noticed the caches muggled. try to connect all the dots for them. i know a guy around camden who sent me a friend request when my username was still "chadbishop" on geocaching.com. he said, are you the chadbishop from conway, accept my friend request. i was very surprised to see him on there as he sounds like one of the people you are describing. also, jason, if you happen to read this someday, yes im talking about you.
    Trust me I understand the whole concept you are describing. I have worked in law enforcement for 10 years in addition to being a fire medic. I appreciate your response. I love your idea about ignoring people- similar to Facebook. Yes, for your information I AM ignoring someone in Facebook It is highly suspicious, but I don't have near the proof the NW Louisiana cacher does. He has LOTS of proof, and he offered it as a suggestion and only to alert me to the fact that even if I did "get the goods" there was nothing I could do about it. It was mentioned by Groundspeak to call the police. What would you say? Uhh... Yes I uhh got this little "thingy" call a umm a NANO and it is about the size of pencil eraser and uhh I have seen them cost any were from about $1 to about $6 and uhh I left it on a stop sign and uhh I think (insert prime suspects name here) got it TWICE! I'm less than 30 minutes from Camden, but I don't know who you are talking about from that area. Thanks again for your reply.

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