NorthWest Arkansas Cachers

Has anyone else noticed the alarming rate that trackables are becoming missing in our part of the state? I own/owned eighteen trackables, six
have become missing, or about 34%. It's not about the money, which by the way is about $8.00 per pop with shipping,it's about watching their travels and getting to live vicariously through them and seeing the picture that have been posted. I have a six year old grandson that has decided on most of the missions of our trackables, and he enjoys watching them and learing about the different parts of the country they have seen.Most people will tell me to get over it, that it happens,but try telling a six year old some grown up with no morals is stealing from him. Maybe some people do not know any better,but I doubt it,maybe some think they are collectables. From now on I will not drop any trackables unless the cache
has a three star rating or higher. I have been chastised for dropping coins and such in caches that are rarely visited but those are the ones I prefer to do,and if the trackables have no specific mission I will drop them there
because I believe they will be taken care of. I've had to email people about our trackables being lost or held on to for an extended period of time, here are the top three answers I get: Retrieved from the depths of my car seat, retrieved from the depths of my backpack, or somebody must have grabbed it off the display table.It makes no difference if you agree or disagree, bottom line is we have thieves that are ruining this game or hobby for more than just some of us.I know some of these words have been harsh,but I do not apologize for it,if you do not want to reply to this thread and state your opinion you can PM me.
RED INK

That is sad. We live on a really tight budget and can't really afford trackables. I did purchase one and we were very excited to release it. It was attached to a rather uniquely shaped piece of wood that I had discovered at a wonderful cache location. I kept it on my desk until we finally got a TB tag and then released our Brushy Creek Leaf into the geo-unknown. It moved a couple of times locally and then we were excited to see some cachers pick it up and move it around one thousand miles along with them. At the first event it ever went to...yeah, it's gone. I mean really, who in their right mind would keep something like that?

I think part of the problem is that people just don't take the time to learn about what trackables are. I can't count the number of times that I've seen logs that read "Took-xx, Left TB." There are also numerous TB Hotels, Motels, Brothels (Ok maybe not but there should be!), that have "rules and requirements." That coupled with cachers who are careless and those that outright steal TB's and coins really make you wonder why you bother with it at all.

I have a few ideas though. Hopefully they'll help alleviate some of the aggravation that too often accompanies the loss of our precious TB's:

1. TB's are tracked through their unique tracking number. Each tag also has a "copy." If a TB goes MIA then it could be released again with the copy tag.

2.Another option when a TB is MIA is to release a copy of the originals info page. Just laminate it (if you don't have a laminator, which I don't, you can use clear duct tape) with the tracking number on it and and release it again. You could even attach one of those "Hitch-Hiker Companion" tags with it. You can get those at the The Caching Place for around $1.55 each. Or you could just attach any object to the sheet with a chain without being out more money.

I really like the first part of the second option. I have a series of "TB Geo-Professor" bugs I want to release. Each one explaining how to log TB's and such. I plan on getting the companion tags and attaching them to an info page so if they go missing they are back in action in no time. I also have some "voodoo curse" TB's in mind. All in good time.

I hope those options helped. I would hate to see other cachers stop releasing trackables. We really enjoy moving them and taking part in their journeys. I do agree with dropping TB's in seldom visited caches. Sadly, it does keep them safer and when the next cacher comes along they are much more apt to move it as it was intended.

I sure feel your pain and frustration. The same thing hs happened to our TBs. It makes you not want to waste your money. That said, we do have a couple that are still out there running around.

I think the biggest problem is new cachers not knowing what a TB is and what to do with one when the find it. If they could all read the tutorial I've posted to this site Logging a TB it would help.

The other problem is events. I hate going to events and seeing bunches of them on a table. If everyone kept them in a bag like jaygill does, it would greatly alleviate that problem. I don't know why experienced cachers don't know what to do with, but since its the experienced cachers that normally pick them up at events, they must be part of the problem to.

All that said, oenavigators solution does work. Keep the "copy" tag for your records and if the original does go missing, make a laminated paper tag with the TB number on it and let another go. It's been my experience that smaller TBs tend to travel better than big ones for some reason.

With the proliferation of small to micro caches these days, its harder and harder to find a place to drop a TB off. Probably the reason TBs survive better if placed in difficult caches is that these aren't normally attempted by newbie cachers who don't know what to do with what they've found.

Ive released 4 TBs and actually they have all traveled quite far.
One made it all the way to California and the cache it was in burned up in last years fires.
One landed in a cache that was archived, Im still waiting to hear about it.
The other 2 are moving, but I must say they are very slow.
Im not sure the answer, but when I put these out a year or so ago, they moved around pretty quickly, but in the last 6 months or so the 2 still move but do so slowly. Cachers will keep them for months.