Rash of cache thefts

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:57 pm

Two more of my caches disappeared this past week...that makes three in the past month plus another muggled this spring. And it's not a case of someone stumbling across them...they were all well hidden and in low muggle areas. I think someone's going around stealing them! I hope I'm not being singled out. Has anyone else been having any issues this summer? I've only had one of my caches muggled in the five years that I've been placing them Sad

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:12 pm

In the past, I have had issues with ammo cans. To the best of my knowledge, no one has messed with my newer ones. But then again, who would want a preform.

I have often wondered if there are people out there that create an account so that they can steal from us.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:36 pm

It appears as if I was a victim earlier this summer. Ammo can gone, contents left and covered.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:54 pm

Happened to me a while ago. The "perp" took the ammo can and left everything else in a black plastic bag.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-02-03 Posts: 2182

Rod, I think you are making this all up just to try and discourage us from coming to spend the weekend in Oconto in 3 weeks.

This has happenned to us twice with ammo cans. One was near a heavily used hiking trail and I'm sure they discovered it by accident. They took the can and left all of the contents in a white plastic bag that they must have had with them. The other one also had the contents left behind. Sad to say that this well hidden cache was probably taken by another geocacher.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:01 pm

@#$%&* I just got a notification of a DNF on another of my caches...went out and checked and it's gone too. Someone is definitely targeting my caches. This is getting ridiculous Mad

But Bill, the series you're interested in is still intact...so far.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:30 pm

I'm sorry to hear that....we learned when buying an ammo can from a small army surplus shop that the price has gone up quite a bit on them because of demand for stockpiling. That's the story we were told, anyway, and why we got the can much cheaper when he heard what we wanted to do with it. He also had a limit on how many you could buy. So I suppose it's possible that someone who wants them finds them and helps themselves. We did have one go a few years back, a silver ammo can for someone's 1000th find. It was fairly far off trail up a bit of a steep hill, well inside a huge beacon. Not an area of heavy use compared to some around here.

It's a shame that there are people out there who seem to have little regard for the concept of personal property. Major bummer.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:37 pm

I've seen lots of ammo cans for sale at garage sales, flee markets, etc. There is definately a market for these. My guess is the thiefs figure it's an easy score for $10 (give or take) for each one they steal.

I've never had one disappear, but then again they've all been puzzle finals or multi's in remote locations that see very few visitors. I also publish all my caches as Premium only now which seems to help keep them in place a little better (i.e. another barrier to the "cheap" thief").

Anyone ever attempt inscribing a small little symbol on them to see if they show up a local garage sale? I'm thinking a full name they would easily block out some how, but possibly just a well placed dent or some long scratch mark in a specific spot to make it recognizable to cachers in your normal group?

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:26 pm

I can understand the two ammo cans....but a pill bottle and a 35 mm film cannister???

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:35 pm

When on 'the Lonely trail', we are no longer surprised to find the remains of numerous ammo can 'nests' that have been torn apart and raided. At this point, we've come to appreciate the token gesture of the 'thoughtful thieves', that bag up and leave the contents behind. The sad thing is that some of these are 'legacy' caches in beautiful spots, that no longer have an active CO or 'trailman' to rebuild them.

Very sorry to see your caches being hit, bartrod. Creepy, for sure. You might want to consider swapping out any remaining cans with Lock 'n Locks, or the like......steal them yourself. Perhaps leave one as bait under the watchful eye of a motion-activated video camera, and post the video on YouTube.......

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:20 pm

Rod,

it really sucks to see this happening, I have a few your way, but not ammo boxes, nothing missing in the northern part of Oconto County yet.

Will watch for ammo cans at local garage sales for any smileys on them.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:27 pm

I am also seeing an increase in cache thefts, and some of them would take looking at GC.com to find. Really a sorry situation, and probably related to the issues you mention, increased resale value of ammo cans. The other big factor is that anybody with a smart phone can sign on now. That is why all my caches for now on are going to be premium member only.

On a second related note, I noticed several of Bobcam's micros on sign posts have gone missing in the Prescott area. These are valueless 5mm tubes, and the assumption has to be that someone really does not like micros on sign posts and is making some kind of statement or vigilante action on mircos along the road.

z

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:41 pm

Ralph, Seriously? Though not our favorite kind of cache, they are very popular and in this miserable heat we've had this summer, probably a godsend for many who want to get out, explore a country road and get a mess of smileys.

Now that I think of it, we think a gold ammo can in an area that isn't easy to reach, or visited by many, might have gone missing, too. I think Huffin Puffin tried to find it for lonely points this past year. Kind of makes us sad, since we had a little bit of a vested interest in it. Honestly, you practically needed an oxygen tank up there. Go figure.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-03-13 Posts: 152

We have been having this conversation also. With many caches in the Wisc. Dells we get a lot of first time and casual cachers. While we are happy to see people engaged in an activity that doesn't involve tourist traps, we also get a lot of maintenance issues. We were replacing one of our caches one day and a young man came running up loudly saying "did you find it". When we informed him we owned the cache he was very excited to meet us and proudly showed us the phone app that got him to the cache. We explained we were having to replace it because someone had taken the cache and stealth was needed when caching. Don't think it registered. We are also thinking that our caches need to be premium to stop the casual vacationer from causing us maintenance problems.

We are also thinking it is time for the sport to go back underground a bit and be a little more off the radar. While we have done a class at the library we don't feel it did any thing other than give desperate parents something to occupy their preteenagers for an evening.

We have lost ammo cans in DNR land and are sure people are restocking their storage needs at our expense. In every case we have replaced the ammo can with a worthless peanut butter jar and have had no more trouble.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:44 am

Quote:

We are also thinking it is time for the sport to go back underground a bit and be a little more off the radar.

I would agree with this. While we need to educate people about what the game is, it would be nice if everyone coming in would understand the ethics of the game before jumping in.