I agree with you on that one, Brian.

Some people tell me I have a twisted sense of humor, so it should come as no
surprise that I actually chuckled when I read the Cache Pirate's post and
bio. I would have been upset if he/she had taken the cache and logbooks as
well, since those are the real "gold" to be found, in my opinion. But
because I find caches only for the experience of the visit and the adventure
of the find, not for the goodies within, I wasn't too bothered that someone
plundered the trinkets from these caches. Besides, it seems like this
particular pirate has a plan to create a cache somewhere and store all the
stolen stuff -- a creative new idea on the geocaching game. Whether he/she
actually does create this cache remains to be seen, but I'm intrigued by the
idea.

For those of you who feel "violated" that your caches were plundered, I
guess I can understand that as well. Some of the items may have been special
to you, while others would view them as junk. I hope y'all aren't too hurt
by it. Like I said, it seems that the pirate only took the trinkets. If they
had been really malicious, they would have removed the whole cache, thus
leaving fellow searchers frustrated throughout the valley (and my view of
them would change for the worse). I will certainly chip in to help re-stock
these caches with various dollar store items (not of the McJunk variety
either). So let's not start a big lynch mob over the whole thing.

But I can tell you that I am disgusted when I find so much junk in a cache
that the container can barely be closed. I have only done some "spring
cleaning" on one occasion such as this, and it was for a cache in Hawaii
that was no longer being maintained, since it was placed by a tourist from
the mainland (a whole different issue that I won't get into now).

Anyway, the cache pirate made me laugh, especially with the Disneyland
"Pirates of the Carribbean" song and the skull and crossbones idea. Pretty
clever. Sadistic, yes, but clever as well. Sorry if I offended anyone by
finding humor in this whole thing. (And for any of you would-be detectives
who watch too much TV -- no, I'm not the pirate.) :D

As for the membership/non-membership argument, I notice that you can become
a monthly member for three lousy dollars. Is this the same as the year-long
membership, only in quicker installments? If so, if you're changing your
caches to MEMBER-ONLY to prevent plundering, all the priate has to do is pay
three bucks, and then your caches are once again visible. Likewise, for
those on the fence, this is a cheap way to help support Geocaching.com, a
website that gives us plenty of entertainment. I became an annual member
last month, after enjoying the site for free since May of 2002. Whether you
support it or not is your own choice. I'm not going to judge you either way.
But now there is a three-dollar option, so at least it's more affordable on
a short-term basis.

-FroBro Q-Tip


-----Original Message-----
From: az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com
[mailto:az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com]On Behalf Of Brian
Cluff
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 4:36 PM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] Re: Cache Pirates


With all the talk about the cache pie-rat I though I would point out
that they, whoever they are, are leaving everything of any value behind.
    The stuff they are taking is stuff that I would throw away if I were
spring cleaning.
As long as my log books are intact, I don't think it's a huge loss, and
I might not ever restock it, and let it be a log only cache with the
possibility of leaving stuff if you wanted to.

Brian Cluff
Team Snaptek

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