Found Unpublished Geocache

[+trailhound1]

Found a geocache container while off work today. I immediatedly searched GC.com for any near geocaches. The only ones that came up were ones 0.11 miles or greater away from my location. It had a logbook, pen, and some swag. The logbook was dated three months ago with what i presume was the name of the owner. I checked the name but no results were found. What should I do?

[+MartyBartfast]

Leave the container where it is, the owner might have plans for it even if it never gets listed so you shouldn't be tempted remove it.

 

Keep an eye on the area, and if it does get listed then as long as you signed the log then you can log it as found - if you do log it then write the story on the log for some added interest & back story; some will say you can claim to be FTF, others will argue otherwise, but that's up to you to decide.

[+lee737]

I'd take note of the coords, and sign the logbook, then if it is published claim FTF.....

It may have been hidden and not published for a proximity or other problem too, it could also be the final of a multi or mystery??

[+dprovan]

Keep an eye on the area, and if it does get listed then as long as you signed the log then you can log it as found - if you do log it then write the story on the log for some added interest & back story; some will say you can claim to be FTF, others will argue otherwise, but that's up to you to decide.

Great advice all around. I'd go so far as to encourage you to claim the find, not merely mention you are allowed to claim the find, but the bottom line is, as MartBartfast says, that you should do whichever you want.

 

The possibilty of an FTF fight is also, of course, exactly true, but if I were in that situation, I'd dodge the problem by saying I found it first -- since I did -- while wording it such that someone else could claim the "official FTF" without contradicting me if they recognize some other interpretation that justifies that view. (Me, I'd rib someone for pretending to be FTF after me...while at the same time, if the shoe was on the other foot and I was the post-publish FTF, I'd still claim the FTF and rib the pre-publish FTF claimer. I think the FTF game is fun, but that doesn't mean I think anyone should take it seriously.)

[+Team DEMP]

You didn't mention if you signed the log? If you were the 1st person to sign the log in the cache, that seems pretty concrete to me on on who found the cache first.

[Pup Patrol]

Found a geocache container while off work today. I immediatedly searched GC.com for any near geocaches. The only ones that came up were ones 0.11 miles or greater away from my location. It had a logbook, pen, and some swag. The logbook was dated three months ago with what i presume was the name of the owner. I checked the name but no results were found. What should I do?

 

What was the name? Are you sure it was the owner's name? Might have been the name of the cache.

 

How did you come to find it? Were you looking for a cache in that area? What were the coordinates of the cache you found?

 

It could be a cache that was not published, or it could be a cache that hasn't been submitted for publication as yet.

 

B.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Pup Patrol

[+redsox_mark]

Like dprovan, I would sign the log, and when the cache is published (assuming it is eventually), I'd log it as found, but be clear I found it before publication, and not use any words to claim I was "First to Find".

 

This has only happened to me once, and in my case it was never published. I was looking for the final of a mystery cache. I found what I thought was the cache. I signed the log, and put it back, and started to walk away. But something was bugging me.. this cache had only 1 signature on it (I was second, not first); while the cache I was looking for was old with many finds. The size was different; the hint not quite right. The cache could have been replaced (and the listing not updated); but somehow I had this feeling that what I found wasn't the cache. So I looked more, and just a few feet away I found the cache I was looking for.

 

The "new" cache clashed with the mystery cache. The CO didn't know that, so they hid it, and tried to publish, which of course failed. They just had not picked up the cache yet.

[+J Grouchy]

Found a geocache container while off work today. I immediatedly searched GC.com for any near geocaches. The only ones that came up were ones 0.11 miles or greater away from my location. It had a logbook, pen, and some swag. The logbook was dated three months ago with what i presume was the name of the owner. I checked the name but no results were found. What should I do?

 

What was the name? Are you sure it was the owner's name? Might have been the name of the cache.

 

 

Or it COULD be the name of a previous finder. Maybe the log was replaced and that was just the first name on the new log sheet. Like someone else said, it could be a mystery or the final stage of a multicache, so you may have found a published cache that just hadn't been found in three months.

[+kopfsalat2000]

It might also be a cache listed on some alternative geocaching platform. At least over here, there's more than just one.

[+Joe_L]

I suggest contacting your local reviewer. I have stumbled on two caches that were identified as Groundspeak caches. One had no signatures in the log and the other had one. I couldn't find either on the website. So I contacted the local reviewer and provided the coordinates to him. In both case, the caches were never activated because one was too close to another cache and the other did not meet the land management notification requirements. And in both cases, the CO took no action. (One sat unfound for nearly 4 years.)

 

Joe

[+briansnat]

Do you have the approximate coordinates?

[+redsox_mark]

Like dprovan, I would sign the log, and when the cache is published (assuming it is eventually), I'd log it as found, but be clear I found it before publication, and not use any words to claim I was "First to Find".

 

This has only happened to me once, and in my case it was never published. I was looking for the final of a mystery cache. I found what I thought was the cache. I signed the log, and put it back, and started to walk away. But something was bugging me.. this cache had only 1 signature on it (I was second, not first); while the cache I was looking for was old with many finds. The size was different; the hint not quite right. The cache could have been replaced (and the listing not updated); but somehow I had this feeling that what I found wasn't the cache. So I looked more, and just a few feet away I found the cache I was looking for.

 

The "new" cache clashed with the mystery cache. The CO didn't know that, so they hid it, and tried to publish, which of course failed. They just had not picked up the cache yet.

 

Quoting myself as this has now happened to me on Sunday.

 

I was finding some puzzle caches which I had previously solved. There was an additional puzzle cache by the same owner which I had not been able to solve, but I had a hunch roughly where it might be (as there was a gap between 2 other puzzle caches by the same CO large enough to fit a cache). Call this Puzzle X. So after finding the solved caches, I kept an eye out for likely looking spots while walking back to the car, in case I could get lucky and find "Puzzle X".

 

Well, I found a cache! But it had a blank log, and there was no history of "Puzzle X" having its log replaced. And nothing on the log or cache to identify it. So I messaged the owner of "Puzzle X" (and the others I found), sending her my coordinates. Turns out the cache I found is out for review, not yet published.

 

I signed the log, and my plan is to log a find as soon as I see it published. The reason I want to do it quickly is so possible FTF hunters will know why the log is signed and dated prior to publication. I'll make no mention of FTF; I'll let the finders decide (or perhaps the CO will get involved in any FTF debate).

[+SeattleWayne]

Found a geocache container while off work today. I immediatedly searched GC.com for any near geocaches. The only ones that came up were ones 0.11 miles or greater away from my location. It had a logbook, pen, and some swag. The logbook was dated three months ago with what i presume was the name of the owner. I checked the name but no results were found. What should I do?

 

What about any nearby Mystery Caches or Multicaches? It could be one of those.

[+baloo&bd]

Like dprovan, I would sign the log, and when the cache is published (assuming it is eventually), I'd log it as found, but be clear I found it before publication, and not use any words to claim I was "First to Find".

 

Not sure why? They were first to find. FtF is binary, either you were or you weren't, and not dependant on publication. Many give coords to caches out before they are published. Gsrmin did this with cache series in the past as has GC.

Edited December 23, 2016 by baloo&bd

[+redsox_mark]

Like dprovan, I would sign the log, and when the cache is published (assuming it is eventually), I'd log it as found, but be clear I found it before publication, and not use any words to claim I was "First to Find".

 

Not sure why? They were first to find. FtF is binary, either you were or you weren't, and not dependant on publication. Many give coords to caches out before they are published. Gsrmin did this with cache series in the past as has GC.

 

I did it that way because not everyone takes that definition of FTF. As it turned out, a friend of mine was first to solve the puzzle and find it "properly" after publication. If he wants to count it as FTF for him, I have no issue with it. I thought it best to avoid any bad feelings for me to quietly mark at as FTF on my stats but not make any "claims".

[+lee737]

Like dprovan, I would sign the log, and when the cache is published (assuming it is eventually), I'd log it as found, but be clear I found it before publication, and not use any words to claim I was "First to Find".

 

Not sure why? They were first to find. FtF is binary, either you were or you weren't, and not dependant on publication. Many give coords to caches out before they are published. Gsrmin did this with cache series in the past as has GC.

 

I agree - first to find is first to find.....

Like this cache - https://coord.info/GC692MY

Lets face it - this happens so uncommonly, especially if you see where the one above was hidden, that it is just a cool anomaly I think.....

 

 

[+dprovan]

Like dprovan, I would sign the log, and when the cache is published (assuming it is eventually), I'd log it as found, but be clear I found it before publication, and not use any words to claim I was "First to Find".

Not sure why?

The question is, "Why not?" redsox_mark can feel great about his first-to-find-before-publication, and it doesn't cost him anything to let the person that gets the first-to-find-after-publication feel equally great about his FTF.