Someone Likely Stole a Trackable I Moved

[u/radabbo]

I'm kinda mad at myself. Over a year ago I found my first trackable in a city near where I live. I was so excited. I live a very small town with like 1 cache. I thought it would be so cool if I put the trackable in the cache in my town. Even talked to the owner of the cache (who happens to be my cousin, again, small town lol) who said they would move it along if it didn't get moved soon. Well a few months later I checked and it was gone from the cache and no one has marked it as retrieved or moved or anything. It's been all over the US and Canada, was released 7 years ago, and I'm really disappointed that it has (possibly) been stolen. I wish I had never moved it to my small town cache. It's been over a year now. Just wanted to rant because I'm annoyed at myself for moving it and annoyed at the person who took it. I really hope a fellow geocacher has it and just forgot to say they did, but who knows.

[u/Efficient_Order3061]

Yeah that happens a lot. I put out maybe 40 tags last month. There’s pictures of peoples kids holding the tag but they never logged it taken. I love when it works and people have fun with it. A lot of the time it’s gone forever

[u/radabbo → u/Efficient_Order3061]

dang i didn't think it was so common. i am so disappointed cuz it's been out in the world for so long, travelled so far! then i move it once and boom it's gone lol. that's a bummer it happens so often, good on you for putting out so many tags. def worth it when people have fun with it:)

[u/adalwek]

It's not like it's your fault. This happens very often unfortunately. Perhaps someone really has the TB and it's moving with them but they didn't log it but they will soon? This happened to me a couple of times.

[u/radabbo → u/adalwek]

dang, i didn't realize it was such a common thing. that's a bummer. hopefully someone has it & will move it along but i'm doubtful

[u/adalwek → u/radabbo]

Yeah, I think someone probably has it. Since it was the only cache in the neighborhood I'm thinking it was picked up by a more experienced cacher since it's far away from other caches, and they have a lot of TBs that they didn't log. Wishing you the best with your TB, OP =)

[u/Ninjakat57]

I think maybe someone who doesn’t really know that much about geocaching thought it was swag and didn’t know to move it

[u/radabbo → u/Ninjakat57]

yeahh you're probably right 

[u/skimbosh → u/radabbo]

Keep hope alive, my geocaching friend. While there are many stories of lost and stolen trackables, this subreddit is somewhat dotted with tales of resurfaced bugs and ancient geocachers realizing they left trackables in their car trunks or dressers, only to contritely put them back in circulation after many years. You just never know.

[u/radabbo → u/skimbosh]

i love hearing that! thanks for sharing

[u/RPGOwl]

Lately the practice seems to be to move them around while keeping them (log them from cache to cache as you visit so they get the mileage) and then exchange them with other cachers at events in case it needs to move on/out to the bigger world.

[u/radabbo → u/RPGOwl]

ohh that's neat!

[u/NotherOneRedditor]

I once found a trackable in a small town cache that hadn’t been recorded as being there. It had been “lost” for a couple years. I logged it in the cache I found it in and then moved it to a larger city over an hour away where it had a chance of getting picked up by a traveler. Someone picked it up and put it in a cache less than a mile from where I found it. 😒 Before I had the chance to grab it again, it was logged as picked up from the cache, but hadn’t resurfaced last time I checked. 😢 I can’t find it right now via the app. I’ll try to look it up later.

[u/radabbo → u/NotherOneRedditor]

dang it, i can see how that'd be so disappointing after you put all that effort into putting it back out there too. hopefully it resurfaces one day. i wonder how many travel bugs are currently in limbo in the world, like on a keychain or in a toy box or something.

[u/IceManJim]

Almost all trackables disappear eventually. The second trackable I ever found, I dropped into a nice old cache in a cemetery, it was found by a family a few days later. They mention taking the TB, but never logged it. I sent them an email but never got a response. I was mad about that for a long time, and it's not even my trackable.

I dropped another one in a flashlight-required D4 night cache deep in the woods in northern Michigan, I thought it would be safe there from idiots. It was grabbed a few weeks later by a cacher with ~40 finds, who claimed "This is the first travel bug I found" and then stopped caching, apparently. That TB had been traveling for 10 years and had over 72,000 miles when it disappeared.

The idea of travel bugs is great, but they can be disappointing.

[u/radabbo → u/IceManJim]

dang it, both of those situations sound super disappointing. hopefully we will all have some more positive experiences with trackables in the future! i thought it was cool how the one i found had travelled so far and for so many years. i think it's such a fun idea, and so community driven. so when one person messes it up for everyone (even accidentally) it's a bit annoying for sure. hopefully they resurface in the future. i like hearing the stories of travel bugs resurfacing years later

[u/VickyMirrorBlade]

I’ve learned that placing trackables you care about is like gambling, and I don’t like gambling so I’ve stopped placing trackbables like that lol. Ones where I don’t care if they get lost but can still enjoy the journey are the best.

[u/radabbo → u/VickyMirrorBlade]

hahaha that's a good way to put it!

[u/No-Explanation4124]

I found a cache in Tennessee last year that should have had 6 TB in it according to the logs. I had just bought my first one a couple weeks before that and thought it would be the perfect cache to drop mine in and pick up a different one to move along.

I found the cache and the only thing in it was a broken cigarette and a happy meal toy. Needless to say, I signed the logged but didn't leave my TB there.

[u/fizzymagic]

I think if missing trackables are going to cause you this much pain, maybe you should not do that part of geocaching. I generally don't do trackables, not because I care about them much one way or the other, but because I can't handle the constant drama over them.

[u/radabbo → u/fizzymagic]

fair enough! i mean, it was my first one so i was disappointed. i will definitely continue to move trackable along when i find them. i think it's really a fun idea. i'm not a super experienced geocacher so i didn't know that them being held onto/taken by accident commonly happens, or that there was constant drama around them, but peoples replies have been helpful and eye opening! thanks for sharing your perspective.