I placed a large geocache a little over a year ago. In it I placed about $50 of good, new items. I wanted it to be a very pleasant surprise when they found the "Big Store" of geocache swag. After several months I stopped by to check on the cache and to my surprise the cache had been pilfered. No, everything was not taken, but most of the very good, new items was traded for used McD's toys and plastic army men.
So, I did what any geocache owner would do. I restocked the cache with many new items. Several high quality baseball hats were placed in the cache. Now, these were not the cheap hats, but even if they were, they would be worth $5.00 each!
Another few months went by and I checked on the cache again. PILFERED! I just don't understand it. After examining the logs I surmise the following:
Geocachers are not prepared for trading items. They have their GPSr, camera, cellphone, but not much else. When they arrive at the geocache, they see the nice goodies and decide to "just take one". Also, some geocachers cache in groups. Maybe it is their friends, or maybe children and their friends. When the children see all the goodies, they must have one.
Now understand, I don't blame the children. They are just doing what kids do. The adults are the ones who totally miss a teaching experience. BEFORE going geocaching with the children, the parents/adults should explain to the children what it means to trade fairly. The adults should encourage the children to pick a couple of their own toys that they really like. That way, when they trade, they are trading equal or better. If the adults arrive at the cache with the children and the adult was ill prepared, they should explain to the children what fair trading is and since they didn't bring anything nice to trade, they would have to come back another time when prepared.
But, I think, what really happens is that the privacy of the moment just "excuses" the parents/adults from having to exercise parental responsibility. I know it is difficult to tell a child no, but that's part of parenting! Not teaching a child when not to do something is just doing that child a disservice.
The lesson to learn is that if you go geocaching, be prepared to trade or don't take anything from the geocache. Parents should prepare their children in advance so the geocache is not pilfered. If you find the geocache and are not prepared to trade equal or better, then just sign the log and take nothing.
We all need to take care of the geocaches we visit. Be prepared with trade items, blank logs, paper towels to clean out damp caches, etc. Make sure the experience of the next geocacher is better than yours!
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2 comments:
Same thing happened to one of our caches. Placed it full of quality swag. A while later we got a post that the thing was empty. Everything gone but the log book.
I might suspect muggles in that instance???
I'm not a big trader. I rarely do it and when I do, it's usually signature items as I like to collect other people's items.
That being said, it makes for an interesting discussion. What makes for good swag? What should people carry with them to trade? I know some people who have a bag of interesting items -- useful, too. But nothing that would "break the bank." Though I find it great that people still stock caches with quality stuff, I usually just like looking and putting back. With as big as the game is now, it's hard to think that everyone out there will trade evenly or up.
When I put my caches out, I always try to put some decent stuff in it. Nothing to make me go bankrupt, but pending on the size of the cache, I'll add some decent stuff. I know when I do the runs to these caches that they'll be pilfered, but I think that seems to, unfortunately, be part of the game.
That's why I rarely trade. I don't want to be the guy who trades down or "pilfers." I just like finding sig items and going with those.
Good post!
A 'lil HooHaa
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