Comments on: How to Prevent Travel Bugs and Coins from going Missing

By: RDog1200

RDog1200 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:52:43 +0000

When I logged one of the first TBs that I grabbed, I received an email from the owner within about 10 minutes from Germany, thanking me for retrieving the bug and encouraging me to keep it moving. The email was quick, friendly, and motivating and made me commit to myself to keep it moving along as soon as possible. In essence a connection was established with the other geocacher and I did not want to let them down.

I try to do the same thing when I get the email notification that one of my bugs has been grabbed. I send a quick thank you and respond to whatever they say in their log. It seems to work well for those who log it. Some forget to log it until they drop it in another cache.

The type of logs for bugs are confusing to people and they don’t always discern the difference from Discovering and Retrieving (grabbing) and Dipping and Placing, etc.

By: azza-ro

azza-ro — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:31:25 +0000

Although we have never owned any TBs we do retrieve and move along most we come across. When we release them again we always drop them into a well concealed cache which hopefully will at least avoid them being stolen my muggles.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:23:42 +0000

Very clever tip, I know I have held onto a travel bug a little too long when my 5 year old son found it “attached to a truck,” and wanted to play with it.

By: Bogatatracker

Bogatatracker — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:30:50 +0000

All my Travel bugs have something attached to them asking the Geocacher to keep the bug moving. I hope the guilt factor might help. I do have one guy who took a bug after one cache and gave up on the hobby. The bug moved zero miles. Also my bugs are dam ugly. I think that helps. Sort of a love them and leave them factor. Hi from NJ.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:57:08 +0000

I have yet to launch any TB/GC journeys myself, but I finally got a TB sticker for our “cache-mobile”. When I finally do, I’m just going on the default assumption that at some point it’s going to go missing. So I won’t be attaching one to anything with sentimental value. Hot Wheels car maybe, or a key chain, etc. Nothing that I’ll be too upset about, should it come up missing.

No Geocoins though. Any I buy, will be for my own personal collection. I’ll probably take them to events for other cachers to “discover”, as I’ve seen plenty of fellow cachers do. But I’m not going to invest my money on something I don’t want to lose, or has a 50/50 shot of getting taken.

I have “rescued” 2 TB’s from oblivion though. One time a cacher (who I later found out, only found 17 caches & quit the game) saw us at a cache & stopped to say hi. He pulled the TB out of his glove box & said “hey, I forgot I had this, can you move it along”. The TB owner was thrilled to see it back in the game. Another one was off-the-grid for 2 years, then one day showed up in the cache nearest our house, as if by magic.

I can’t think of any tricks to keep ‘em going, that are sure to work. Maybe if you make your TB something that no one would want to keep or muggle, like a toy rat/bat/spider/snake/etc. I found a toy cockroach TB once. I hate those things, so there was NO WAY I was going to keep it (not that I would anyways, LOL). Playing the “bad luck/bad juju” card, could work unless the thief doesn’t believe in that stuff.

By: pjavellana

pjavellana — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:22:01 +0000

Visiting in Alaska from Florida and left 2 TB’s here in a nice cache. One of them is my first TB and another I brought up here with me.

I know my TB will be safe for a few months because it snowed here and not many people will be out geocaching in the winter cold and snow, but hopefully it will move soon and not in the spring or summer.

I have my name all over my TB, but I know that will not help the ones who actually want it. A lot of dishonest people out there.

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=2905591

I put a TB in a cache under a bridge and the next person found the cache thrown all over the woods and didn’t find the TB…they said maybe an animal – yeah right, maybe of the two legged kind. People have no respect at all sometimes.

By: Dog Cacher

Dog Cacher — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 03:37:31 +0000

Good Topic!
- I’ve had every one of my TBs go missing, although some made it across from California to the East Coast and onwards to Europe and one to Serbia before going offline. I have a friend with much more geocaching experience than me who says drilling holes in the geocoins keeps his from being kept. Any geocoin I’ve bought that is special for me, I keep or I buy a second and release that. I might consider putting a laminated copy out there if the original gets stolen, but not because I want to keep one at home safe from traveling.

By: ValleyPirates6

ValleyPirates6 — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:51:04 +0000

I haven’t put any out there yet but they certainly are the treasure that I seek. I like trying to help along the TB’s to their destination but as I am relatively new at this, it was difficult to figure out how to log them at first. Maybe that is part of the problem. I don’t personally know a single cacher other than myself and don’t have anyone to help me learn or motivate me. Everything I have learned I done on my own. I would bet it is a lot of newbies with a lack of experience and drive.
If I get one of your TB’s, know that it will hit the road running for the next cache!

By: Monterey Company

Monterey Company — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:00:17 +0000

This is a fun idea. I wonder if over the course of your time placing more out there, if your success rate will higher then it is now? I think it would be a fun experiment to run and also will add a whole other dimension to the hunt! Imagine getting a trackable that come with a karmic warning? LOL

By: Emily Preece

Emily Preece — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:51:30 +0000

Well, I tend to agree with the “thread” of the conversation here….

No matter what you do, some “newbie” or just plain “jerk” is gonna keep your trackable, if they have a mind to…. It’s a shame; but it’s true. Even trying to just limit their travel to “premium” caches doesn’t work. I have put out about 40 bugs; and only 20 of them are still circulating. One, (like the person’s above) traveled all around the world, only to get taken by some guy named “Sarge” who won’t answer e-mails. Another TB of mine was a treasured coin with a black-lab on it that I had especially purchased from a guy in the Netherlands. When our 15+ year-old lab, “Gina” died, I put it out to travel, because she no longer could. The coin moved 13 miles, and then was taken! Talk about a bummer!…

Nope, nothing works… Not attaching messages, good luck charms, or anything.

The Lesson To This Story Is:
You set your TBs loose putting them at the mercy of the morality of the person who finds it next……