Comments on: Travel Bugs Are Missing In Action!?

By: Ken_and_Stacy

Ken_and_Stacy — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:17:08 +0000

How about this for weird? The first TB we released was in an out of the way cache…..not soemthien that anyone is going to stumble onto. 2 groups of people went through there and no one can find the bug!!! It didn’t even get to GO anywhere! WE have 3 more out now, I am hoping I can watch some of them move around.

By: GoldenGateCacher

GoldenGateCacher — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:17:21 +0000

Sadly I have had a 100% loss rate of travel bugs. I still have a few more TB tags in pairs that are unused/never been released, as well as the single tags that have the same TB number as the ones lost in the field.

??Has anyone who has lost a TB in the field, used that second TB tag (with a new toy) to get it back out on the road? I figure this is ok since we own both tags, but I haven’t tried it yet. I am interested to hear what others have or have not done.

If geocachers keep getting burnt in the field as well as stories of TBs gone missing, in the future the sales of TB tags might drop considerably. I guess we have to take into consideration how much happiness we got while our TB was traveling before it went MIA and decide is it worth it to buy more tags?

GGC

By: englandndak

englandndak — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:59:32 +0000

i love to find TB and move them on But i find their is not many caches big enougth to take them so that is one reason i have to hold on to one longer than i like . That may be why others are taking so long to move the Tb bugs along.We need more biger caches in most areas.

By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:19:45 +0000

I know exactly what you mean….over the last 8 years or so, we’ve lost about 6 travel bugs including the new ‘cachekinz’ TB’s that we just purchased and set out on their journey a month ago. The sad part about it is, our children (3, 9 and 11 years old) really look forward to keeping track of their journeys. We have a huge map and we mark off the progress of our TB’s and it ends up being a little of a geography lesson along the way.
I have emailed the last people to pick them up numerous times, and they can’t even respond back. Some of the people are cachers with over 1000 caches under their belt. You would think that someone with that many obviously takes it seriously, and would understand that these are items to keep.
Does anyone have any thoughts on ways to keep this from happening?

By: Richelle

Richelle — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:12:46 +0000

Oh Dear. I have lost both my travel bugs in the last 6 months. One hasnt been seen since July 2008 last year, and the other one missing since October (2008) now. Its awful. I emailed all the people that visited the cache between then and when it was reported missing. Both were cute bugs, one was a lightning mcqueen pixar car, and the other was a cuddle australian soft stuffed Koala. I dont think i will be releasing any more travel bugs, or picking up any either What a shame.

By: cricket5_24

cricket5_24 — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:37:38 +0000

I’m so glad I found this site. I’ll know not to start an “emotional” bug traveling as I was planning for a little dog I lost. Maybe I will still buy some travelbugs, but with this knowledge, at least I’ll be prepared.

By: Cottage Man

Cottage Man — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:53:42 +0000

Coins go missing all the time! I started a coin in Cole Harbour and it made it’s way across the world only to be dropped in a cache in Bagdad. Great now let someone move it from there I thought, but yes it was reported missing. It was reported the cache was muggled by some kids in the area, O Well. Hope the kid takes good care of it, one of the Nova Scotia 1st coins.

Two weeks ago some kids from the Cole Harbour area decided to break into cars in the area. They managed to do several on our street, my SUV was one. They took all the loose change and a couple of Geocoins that I had grabbed from caches as well. Good thing was that in all the cars they only took small change and placed any items like GPS’s, cell phones, and Palms on the seats to let you know they were there.

Hope those kids from also enjoy there finds.

By: i brive a dus

i brive a dus — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:05:33 +0000

I am watching 15 TBs that I have moved along….only 2 have been active in the last six months. Most of the others have been reported missing from the cache where last placed. And surprisingly, not all of them were “cute” or in anyway attractive. But people collect anything.
My own releases vanished quickly without a trace. One was placed in a highly complex puzzle cache where it languished for months before being grabbed and since has been MIA. No more TBs from this player.

By: northernpenguin

northernpenguin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:49:39 +0000

While reading this article I had to chuckle. That last update – Pasha&Kralice brought the bug from Nova Scotia to Ontario and dropped it off during an event cache I was hosting, and I’m just reading this article now.

On the more serious note, I’m running at 75% bug theft from the ones I’ve released as well.

By: Princess Mother

Princess Mother — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:59:16 +0000

I think that the website should host a lost TB section. We have sadly lost a few TBs and it is very disheartening to watch them go for a bit then disappear into thin air. It would be nice to find out why they go missing? Is it because lack of knowledge on the “finder”? Is it dark human nature to gleefully find and then “toss” TBs? I choose to believe that the “finder” didn’t know what to do with it. We lost Princess Bear many years ago and there isn’t a day that passes that I wonder if Princess got tossed, got taken to a good home and loved or what? We decided that Princess Bear was too cute. Purple care bear. She did give some people some good wishes as one geocacher reported that she took it home to her grandkids to admire and share stories of when she was a girl and played with care bears. I am always hopeful that she will appear to continue her journey and bring happiness to “finders”. Her tag was 7BK510. LaPine Nuts missing travel bugs are TBK5GG and TBK9BY. Any news of any of these travel bugs is appreciated by SkipperMike.