TB lost. Should I...?

[+Uncolored]

Over the summer I spent a month backpacking through Europe. I brought two of my own TBs with me to stay in Europe and some other TBs that I had picked up along the way. Anyways, one of my TBs "Home of the Free" is doing perfectly fine now and was picked up by a great cacher in the UK. My other TB, "Home of the Brave" went with me to England, France, and Germany. From Germany it went to Italy, and Belgium. Now my TB is showing that it is sitting in a popular cache in Belgium but I have read the user logs and suspect that it is missing. It has not been discovered at all and it was placed there on 8/11/14. I will be devastated if it was swiped, which I suspect that it was either by mistake or on purpose. I worked so hard to have it travel with me in Europe.

I am really very tempted to message some of the people who visited the cache after it was placed there shortly after the TB was placed. I suspect that one of the new members who found the cache may have swiped it by mistake or on purpose.

What should I do? Should I just forget it?

[+Uncolored]

By the way. I even put a mission tag on the TB that says in bold letters "Do not keep me! I am meant to travel from cache to cache."

[+cerberus1]

A short note, "Hope you can help. Did you happen to notice my TB while finding..." to others may be okay.

Anything accusing will have it sent to the nearest storm drain.

We've seen and heard of long-time members with their own goals in mind using other's property, so not always "the new kid".

 

"By the way. I even put a mission tag on the TB that says in bold letters "Do not keep me! I am meant to travel from cache to cache."

- Think that three year old who just grabbed that cute bear, quickly shoving it in her pocket while Mom's signing some piece a paper, gives two figs about (or even notices there is ) a tag?

[+SucklingSeekers]

We recently released one of ours into a popular GC that had lots of visitors and after a while of hearing nothing I too started to suspect one of the newbies hadn't realised what it was and had mistaken it for swag, but then we had a few discover logs - from people saying they had seen it but couldn't help it with it's mission, and last week someone finally picked it up and it's traveling with them for a few weeks.

 

Also, worth mentioning that sometimes TBs in large GCs also fall to the bottom and get mixed up with the swag. We found a large ammo tin over the summer with two Geocoins in there, but they were mixed in with some plastic 'pirate gold'. We took one to move on and placed the other in the clear baggy that held the log and despite having sat undiscovered for a year, someone picked it up the very same week and moved it on.

[+cerberus1]

Also, worth mentioning that sometimes TBs in large GCs also fall to the bottom and get mixed up with the swag. We found a large ammo tin over the summer with two Geocoins in there, but they were mixed in with some plastic 'pirate gold'. We took one to move on and placed the other in the clear baggy that held the log and despite having sat undiscovered for a year, someone picked it up the very same week and moved it on.

Yep.

A few times when doing maintenance and someone says they didn't spot a trackable, we've found coins either mixed with play coins or stuck to the sides/top (with no-knows-what).

It was there, just not easily found I guess.

If a real log with a protective baggy is in the (larger) cache, we place coins with the log, thinking it's a bit easier to find.

Just pitchin' it in the cache isn't helpful with an item so small (and somewhat valuable).

[+Uncolored]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I am going to wait a few weeks and see if it gets turned up. I like your advice cerberus, I will try the "I hope that you can help me locate my TB" approach when I reach out to try to find my travel bug. In some ways it seems weird to reach out to people about TBs but I have done it to people before (politely) and I have also been messaged before too.

I really think that someone just really liked this TB and took it. It had a few NYC souvenirs on it and I could see how someone could fall in love with it. I really should have Gorilla glued that one.... Anyways, I hope that it turns up.

[+justintim1999]

You can try one of three things. Ask the Cache owner to check if it's in the cache next time they preform a cache maintenance run. You could try travel bug rescue and see if someone will check the cache for you. Mark it as missing. At least this will remove it from the cache and another cacher won't be disappointed when they don't find it. Always a chance it will pop up again somewhere.

 

Good Luck

[+fbingha]

One of those followup low number cachers picked it up and didn't log it.

 

A new cacher rarely passes up the chance to take a travelbug. They miss geocoins but not those travel tags.

 

Oh too often I watched mine get scooped up by someone who played for one day or for one week. I had a lot of travel bugs, gave up on them and sold the numbers off.

Edited November 4, 2014 by fbingha

[+Gumbys4eva]

You could also post a note on the cache page asking if your TB is still in the cache. I've done this and someone usually responds right away. At least you will know whether or not it is there.

[Careholder]

Same thing happened to me with "GEO-LEO", a "Careholder-Travelbug" with a mission in sustanability.

 

When the TB wasn't travelling any further, I sent E-Mails to all the People who showed up afther I was putting it into the Geocache, asking them, if they had seen it.

 

One guy replied, that he had taken it with him, intending to bring it to Portugal during his hollidays. He didn't know that he should have loged out the TB.

 

So I asked him to log out the travelbug and put it back somewhere in Switzerland, because this TB was not ment to leave the country.

 

Afther several weeks, I succeeded and he finaly did what he was promissing me many times!