----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 11:33
AM
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Cache
Pirate on the loose: Here is how I will protect my caches
To Arizona Geocachers,
It's sad to see that there apparently is a
cache
pirate on the loose. I thought his entries were a joke,
because he stated that he was at two caches on Saturday that I visited
in the morning (neither one was plundered at that time), but when I
checked the log for
Pushing
Tin near Sky Harbor International Airport, I read that
Azcachmeister
had visited the cache this morning and reported that it indeed had
been plundered.
I am heading out to the Diamondbacks game in a short time, so on
the way there I will stop at a cache that I visit frequently,
Have
Bug, Will Travel. I stopped there Saturday morning to get
the only travel bug in it and I moved the travel bug to another cache
in Pinal County later that day. Fortunately, if the pirate did
clean out this cache, there were no travel bugs in it.
In order to protect my traditional caches, I have made them all
Members Only. This is to protect my own caches
from plundering, as it appears the Cache Pirate is not a
Geocaching.com Premium Member. I recommend that all cachers make
your caches Members Only (and become a
Premium Member if you are not a member) now to
protect them from plundering. (Virtual caches cannot be
plundered, so those are open to all).
Since there are some new cachers who perhaps aren't sure if they
want to pay the $30 annual fee to become a Premium Member,
here is what I will do for you. If you want to find one of my
Members Only caches, and you are not yet a Premium Member and have
been an active geocacher for less than three months with
fewer than 50 cache findings, then you could find one of my
caches without becoming a Premium Member. To do this, send me an
e-mail explaining what cache you would like to find, and I will
respond with an e-mail listing the coordinates and a brief
description. You could find the cache and sign the logbook in
the cache, but you won't be able to log your finding on Geocaching.com
until you become a Premium Member.
This is available to new geocachers only (and obviously does
not apply to the Cache Pirate). I hope this new personal policy
is agreeable to all, and in my opinion will encourage Geocachers to
become Premium Members without restricting access to geocaching by
newcomers.
Ken Akerman (a.k.a.
Highpointer)