Was this clean up a good idea?

[The Happy Hodag!]

This afternoon, I went out in search of a cache that had been bugging me in West De Pere. As I made my approach, I saw an empty Ziplock baggie laying on the ground about 20 feet away from GZ, and I was thinking, “This can’t be good.” About 10 feet closer, I noticed a camoed container laying on the ground right out in the open. Noticing the markings on said container, I realized it was indeed the cache container, and I opened it to find just a single solitary pencil inside. Upon searching the area within about 30 feet, I found nothing else that could have been in the cache, not even the log book. My spur of the moment decision was to take the container, pencil, and Ziplock bag home with me. I then notified the owner of the cache. I have every intent to return these items. Now with the items with me at home, my question is this, was this the right decision?

-The Happy Hodag!

The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.

Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.

[Miata]

Judging from another thread started minutes ago….no.
http://wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9930

If it was a cache owner that I knew well, I might consider removing and contacting them.

[The Happy Hodag!]

I believe the other thread is in reference to this incident. I didn’t see that until after I had posted this one. I realize now that I shouldn’t have removed the container, just left it there for the cache owner to do with what he thought was best..

-The Happy Hodag!

The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.

Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.

[Mister Greenthumb]

You were way out of line in removing the cache container. Even if you knew the cache owner the proper proceedure would be to notify the owner or place a “needs maintenance” both of which you did. I don’t know why you would still remove the container after doing both things. I would be very upset if you did this to a cache of mine. Most cache owners do maintain their hides and expect finders to respect the cache when finding it. Sign the log, return all contents and rehide the cache as well as or better than when found.

[Buy_The_Tie]

Chill out… Jeez….

Remember, hindsight is 20/20.

If it was spread out all over the lawn, it was more geo-trash than geocache.

Plus, if the finder didn’t know where it was supposed to be, how could he have put it back?

If you are a local, and you don’t know where to put it back, it might be best to take it with you then get it back to the owner.

Conversely, he could have just walked away and let the park maintainence people throw everything away when they found it.

[cheezehead]

I agree with Tie. What’s the difffrfenece if a cacher or a mugglr took the cache container? This happend with the very 1st cache I ever found and one of the oldest ones in the Hayward area. The owner is not from the area. the hiding spot became compromised and the ammo can was damaged with swag everywhere, what was left of it. The owner hadn’t not signed in for months. So, I took it upon myself remove the cache, go buy a replacement cache and refill it with swag. After many email, I got a reply and eventually adpoted the cache.

There is a cache up north where the ammo can came up on the losing end of a fight with a log procceser. Never thought a can could get that flat. Wasn’t real sure where the hidding spot was, but happened to have a container ready to go. So I found a spot that best fit and put both containers there. The cache location was in the middle of nowhere and just off the highway and the owner lived 30+ miles away.

Common sense. Sometimes you just have to use it.
Uses some common sense people.

[-cheeto-]

@Buy_The_Tie wrote:

Chill out… Jeez….

Remember, hindsight is 20/20.

If it was spread out all over the lawn, it was more geo-trash than geocache.

Plus, if the finder didn’t know where it was supposed to be, how could he have put it back?

If you are a local, and you don’t know where to put it back, it might be best to take it with you then get it back to the owner.

Conversely, he could have just walked away and let the park maintainence people throw everything away when they found it.

For once I agree with you 😉

I have not read any other thread on the topic but if the container was not unique in anyway what difference does it make? If I was hunting a cache away from my home area I would probably attempt to hide it close to “my ground zero” and safely out of view of others. If I was by home as it sounds like this was, you made an appropriate on the spot decision.

-cheeto-

[The Happy Hodag!]

@Buy_The_Tie wrote:

Chill out… Jeez….

Remember, hindsight is 20/20.

If it was spread out all over the lawn, it was more geo-trash than geocache.

Plus, if the finder didn’t know where it was supposed to be, how could he have put it back?

If you are a local, and you don’t know where to put it back, it might be best to take it with you then get it back to the owner.

Conversely, he could have just walked away and let the park maintainence people throw everything away when they found it.

There was a small amount of geo trash laying around, and the fact that the container was laying in the open with a missing log book led me to believe that the cache had already been compramised to a degree. When I was making my approach, I saw two high school aged kids riding their bikes past the cache sight, so I have no doubt they had to have at least seen something on the ground, so I figured it was best for now to keep the container in the hands of a cacher until the safe placement can be guaranteed.

Conversly, I could have just lied, posted a found it note, saying TFTC TNLN SL, then let the next cacher log a DNF.

-The Happy Hodag!

The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.

Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.

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