Missing Letterbox's

This seems to be a growing problem, or perhaps its just us. We were out boxing on saturday and couldn't find two box's although we were clearly in the correct spot, where they had been was obvious. Contacting the owners we found that they had been stolen by person or persons unknown. Last month someone sent us a WOM walk and within a week before we had chance to do it, they e mailed us to say that the first 6 out of 10 box's had already disapeared! ! The problem with box's in the book is of course that anyone can buy the book and then if they wish remove box's, but with a WOM its more than likely someone on the mailing list. As newcomers to boxing having now put out our first few we know how much time, effort and money is involved. Its really annoying that people probably within the boxing community, or ostensibly so are so warped as to want to remove them, spoiling the pleasure and enjoyment for everyone else. Its also something thats difficult to detect, because if you come across someone with a box in their hands you will naturally assume they are logging it or perhaps putting it out. But I really would love to catch someone.

I think everyone on this forum will agree to that,i just cant understand what they would do with them,i can imagine a room with loads of other peoples stamps in,its sick.

Last Tuesday checked on 4 of my boxes - 1 new box missing, 1 old box (been on the site 14 years - re released clue ) now missing!
Today checked on a box that has been out 15 years - reported on site just over a year ago after clue re released. Now missing!

I can spend as much as 5 to 10 hours to cut a stamp - at present day rates of minimum wage that represents £ 40 plus. You can get a ready made A4 sheet for something like half that price! To lose a stamp is expensive - but that has to be acceptable in the long run or no stamps would be sited.

Little wonder that there are only a few of us 'carvers' left.

You give your clue to those you trust and no doubt they pass on to those they trust. (with or without your consent)But the others trust is not to you - hence the clue becomes widespread.If You could go back to the 'old days' of 4 or 6 digit map ref - no point though as someone 'in the line' will convert to GPS and pass on!

Sorry to say it but the resposibility lies with the boxer who passes on clues indiscriminately either to be 'popular' and / or to gain others trust and clues!

On a personal note: to the LBT (or whoever it is) - taking my boxes has no effect on me at all, if that is your intention. I derive pleasure in the cutting and seeing the end result. You are only depriving fellow boxers / others of stamps, that is all.

TWA

devon steamer wrote:I think everyone on this forum will agree to that,i just cant understand what they would do with them,i can imagine a room with loads of other peoples stamps in,its sick.

In my opinion, I do not think that there is a letterbox thief. I think there are many of them.
I reckon there are those that don't understand what letterboxes are and take off with them. Those that own the land and do not appreciate boxes on or near what they own. Those that disagree with letterboxes being on the moor and remove them. And those that are just purely malicious, and they must include the taking of WOM boxes.
The trouble is, as TWA has already stated, it is only too easy to find them now with GPS.

But what really baffles me more than anything ... is why waste so much time in trying to sabotage somebody else's hobby.
At least we letterboxers outnumber them !!

I sadly have to agree with about the GPS, but, I also think the curse of the commercially available stamps, the actions of a few "established" letterboxers and some of the local farmers are are all having detrimental effect on a once popular hobby. Then on top of that there is the dartmoor letterbox thieves note the plural!

Back when I started there were not very many commercial stamps and the few that were around were deemed as rubbish, but left onsite. When Dartmoor became swamped with the commercial boxes boxes started to go missing on a much more regular basis, now this loss seems to have stepped up yet another gear.
From the farmer aspect, I can understand why the want to get boxes off the moor as it can affect the livestock on the moor. This was the reason why all the stamps around Yellowmead disappeared.
I don't know what the solution is, perhaps using 6 figure references might go towards a solution. But I do know a lot of the WOM boxers no longer send out the clues to me anymore, as they no longer trust anyone which I can understand and sympathise with.
Because of the increasing amount of missing boxes I think the clue book will eventually disappear, and clues will only be available online via email or printed sheets

I think with WOM box's if you send them to people you trust ( and obviously you do or why send them out) you now have to insist that they are not passed on to anyone else. I'm afraid I don't agree about commercial stamps increase being part of the problem, thats not because we use them, because we don't, but some people derive pleasure ( often, but not exclusively children) from putting them out, thats to be encouraged as the more kids who realise that letterboxing is fun ,the less potential future LBT's there will be. We also don't think that GPS is the problem, OK it does make box's easier to find ( thank GOD), but often the missing ones are not on GPS co-ordinates. As for farmers, I can't see why they would wish to remove box's, animals can't usually get at them, but then you would also have to ask why they would remove signposts, and close paths? Some of them, I agree a minority, have a lot to answer for, as do some walkers who don't control their dogs etc.

To add to the list of "letter box thief's" there is the person who removes from the moor a box that is broken and no longer watertight with a sodden to pulp log book and damaged beyond printing stamp.

After a hard winter That could apply to quite a lot of boxes.

If an area is cleared by a farmer, the average boxer will soon get the message that there are no boxes in the area and move on elsewhere, not only does this action make the area less trampled, it reduces the amount of litter that has to be picked up.
Since the two legged animal is by far and away the messiest creature on the planet, with a lot of city/town dwellers in particular having been brought up with the 'someone is paid to clear this up' attitude.
When I, personally, go out on the moor I will pick up some bit of rubbish and file it in the correct container, yet some of the stuff I have found on the moor completely baffles me for example a caravans septic tank over a mile from any road - someone had to carry it there in the first place to dump it!
The worst stuff for litter is plastic especially those filled with dog mess and sweet wrappers.
I am not tarring every letterboxers with this brush, but the one I will do that with is local wear and tear, if a box is in a hole (which it usually is) 90% of the time I can find it by the amount of worn out ground next to it.
The day after the last foot and mouth outbreak occurred I went out on the moor and it was wonderful, all the grass had grown back and it felt like I was walking and boxing on virgin territory, yet I still found the odd plastic bag

Nik - KOTM wrote:I sadly have to agree with about the GPS, but, I also think the curse of the commercially available stamps, the actions of a few "established" letterboxers and some of the local farmers are are all having detrimental effect on a once popular hobby. Then on top of that there is the dartmoor letterbox thieves note the plural!

Back when I started there were not very many commercial stamps and the few that were around were deemed as rubbish, but left onsite. When Dartmoor became swamped with the commercial boxes boxes started to go missing on a much more regular basis, now this loss seems to have stepped up yet another gear.
From the farmer aspect, I can understand why the want to get boxes off the moor as it can affect the livestock on the moor. This was the reason why all the stamps around Yellowmead disappeared.
I don't know what the solution is, perhaps using 6 figure references might go towards a solution. But I do know a lot of the WOM boxers no longer send out the clues to me anymore, as they no longer trust anyone which I can understand and sympathise with.
Because of the increasing amount of missing boxes I think the clue book will eventually disappear, and clues will only be available online via email or printed sheets

One wonders if Geocaches go "missing" as often. After all they are all available online and published with GPS's co-ordinates.

Unfortunately they will always be folk that derive pleasure in spoiling others.

A few geocaches do go missing but they don’t seem to get the problems of letterboxing, that’s probably because they can use smaller containers as they don’t have a stamp, also no geocache is allowed within 526ft of another, so people are not going to trip over them like letterboxes in certain areas

Re Brinnie`s post:
It was interesting to read and have raised some points:
1. Why do geothingmys have to be over 526 feet minimum apart from another?
2. Do All 'Goethingmyists' have All clues available to them at all times then, if not. then how do they know their 'geowhatsit' is too close to another when they site it?
3. If someone places a 'thingmy' too close to another and others realise this from having the clues to the 'another' - what happens?
Do they inform the owner (s), just mark down the 'error', or maybe remove the offending 'thingmy'.

TWA (letterboxer!)

Geocaches can be found on their website geocaching.com, when someone places a cache they fill out all the details with the co-ordinates on the website then submit it to be approved by a reviewer, the reviewer looks on his geocaching map to check is isn’t in a banned area or too close to another cache. This doesn’t matter quite so much in an area like Dartmoor, but it does matter if caches are being placed in a city park, they don’t want the parks to be littered with them.
A cache too close to another will be rejected then it is up to the owner to remove it.

Brinnie

Many thanks for your post, and information.

TWA

Brinnie wrote:A few geocaches do go missing but they don’t seem to get the problems of letterboxing, that’s probably because they can use smaller containers as they don’t have a stamp, also no geocache is allowed within 526ft of another, so people are not going to trip over them like letterboxes in certain areas

Not sure the .1 mile rule makes any difference to the "stolen" ratio. If the DMT is not happy with containers on the Moor then I would guess he/she/they would target them also. As the info is readily available on line then I guess that Geocaches are ann easy target. Perhaps I am just missing the point (not so unusal)

I must admit I wasn't aware of the 526 foot rule, because I found three geocache boxes on Staple Tor within 100 yards of each other - I don't know if they are still there all I know was that due to their size and how they were sited they weren't letterboxes, yet all the established boxes had disappeared from that area. I do remember coming away feeling somewhat frustrated at not finding any stamps.

There are 4 caches in the Staple Tor area, the nearest two are 0.2 mile apart.
While letterboxing I have found 2 caches in different areas of Dartmoor that were placed but not on the website, on making enquires about these caches one was placed in a cairn and refused by the reviewer and the other was placed too close to another cache and also refused. It is up to the cache owner to remove them.

Brinnie wrote:There are 4 caches in the Staple Tor area, the nearest two are 0.2 mile apart.
While letterboxing I have found 2 caches in different areas of Dartmoor that were placed but not on the website, on making enquires about these caches one was placed in a cairn and refused by the reviewer and the other was placed too close to another cache and also refused. It is up to the cache owner to remove them.

Guess it will be awhile before they have gone then.!!

From Nik ''.. I found three geocache boxes on Staple Tor within 100 yards of each other - I don't know if they are still there all I know was that due to their size and how they were sited they weren't letterboxes, yet all the established boxes had disappeared from that area.

Well, it seems these are very similar to ones I have found - larger than pill pots for stams since they contain most of the trinket junk sold off by Woolworths I reckon.

Seems strange that letterboxes have gone missing in the same area and close to Geo 'whatsits'.

Maybe Brinnie can explain

TWA (just me - no aka!)

It is pretty obvious why geocache don't go missing - it is not a letterbox so the Dartmoor letterbox thief isn't interested as it is not a letterbox - nor is it published on a dartmoor letterbox clue format

I think we all know Staple Tors has problems with the LBT as it is so close to the road, there are many more letterboxes in that area than the 4 caches I have mentioned, so chances are if someone goes up there to clear the area, they will find boxes rather than caches.

I do both boxing & caching. There also seems to be a second caching type activity called opencaching which is especially prevalent on Dartmoor. I think it is set up by people not liking the fact geocaching has a members-only section and they have started their own.

That said, I have found 1500 caches, and about 350 boxes (I usually only scavenge as I can't be bothered with clues only to find the box missing so most of those found are WOM boxes). You may not like the kids rubbish (I don't either), but the quality of the Dartmoor geocaches is FAR superior to the letterbox ones. The number of broken pillpots, unusable or absent logbooks or damaged/disintegrated stamps is over 50% of my finds (perhaps that is because I only scavenge, I seem to find a lot of old boxes and ones that haven't been found for years when I am able to read through the logbooks as well). I sometimes wonder if any box owners ever go back to check up on them.

Geocaches do go missing or take in water, but this is reported through the website and unlike Gemmas suggestion, cache owners normally look after their boxes quite well and any problems are usually quickly fixed.

Tamerton Chocolates wrote:I do both boxing & caching. There also seems to be a second caching type activity called opencaching which is especially prevalent on Dartmoor. I think it is set up by people not liking the fact geocaching has a members-only section and they have started their own.

That said, I have found 1500 caches, and about 350 boxes (I usually only scavenge as I can't be bothered with clues only to find the box missing so most of those found are WOM boxes). You may not like the kids rubbish (I don't either), but the quality of the Dartmoor geocaches is FAR superior to the letterbox ones. The number of broken pillpots, unusable or absent logbooks or damaged/disintegrated stamps is over 50% of my finds (perhaps that is because I only scavenge, I seem to find a lot of old boxes and ones that haven't been found for years when I am able to read through the logbooks as well). I sometimes wonder if any box owners ever go back to check up on them.

Geocaches do go missing or take in water, but this is reported through the website and unlike Gemmas suggestion, cache owners normally look after their boxes quite well and any problems are usually quickly fixed.

If only!!!!
I agree that there are a number of abandoned boxes but DO NOT agree that caches are FAR superior. There are a number of abandoned caches also. If the owner does not respond to the report the reviewer archives the cache, cache still on site. No difference there then!!
There are far more boxes on the Moor so in the scheme of things there will be more abandoned boxes, unless I am missing something.
If you can't be bothered with the clues why be bothered to scavenge??

Tamerton Chocolates wrote:I do both boxing & caching. There also seems to be a second caching type activity called opencaching which is especially prevalent on Dartmoor. I think it is set up by people not liking the fact geocaching has a members-only section and they have started their own.

That said, I have found 1500 caches, and about 350 boxes (I usually only scavenge as I can't be bothered with clues only to find the box missing so most of those found are WOM boxes). You may not like the kids rubbish (I don't either), but the quality of the Dartmoor geocaches is FAR superior to the letterbox ones. The number of broken pillpots, unusable or absent logbooks or damaged/disintegrated stamps is over 50% of my finds (perhaps that is because I only scavenge, I seem to find a lot of old boxes and ones that haven't been found for years when I am able to read through the logbooks as well). I sometimes wonder if any box owners ever go back to check up on them.

Geocaches do go missing or take in water, but this is reported through the website and unlike Gemmas suggestion, cache owners normally look after their boxes quite well and any problems are usually quickly fixed.

My goodness you are brave coming on here and saying that! LOL

Sorry, I have to disagree. I know almost all the geocaches on Dartmoor. I have visited most of them - I keep an eye on the logs of the ones I have not yet. And there is currently only one that has been archived by the reviewer but is still on site that I know off and there is one that got lost while the trees where cut down at Burrator that was never found again so I presume that is in bits somewhere. Incidentally, the first one was a combined letterbox/geocache and it was sited in a wall (and it still is).

I don't want to stir up anything but I find that the system of a website to quickly report broken or waterlogged caches works very well. I can only speak from personal experience and I am not a seasoned letterboxer but as I said there are a lot of boxes that I find that are damaged. And it is very rare that they have contact details in them.

As for your last question, I am simply not much into fannying around in a general area with a compass (how do you guys box when it is foggy anyway?). It also takes a lot of time and I rather use the little time I do have to do some miles. But I like collecting stamps, so just keeping my eyes open while I am out seems a good compromise

I thought the Letterbox code of conduct states that Letterboxes should not be placed in walls. So could you check that and correct the placing of the joint geocache/letterbox.
ML

Tamerton Chocolates wrote:Sorry, I have to disagree. I know almost all the geocaches on Dartmoor. I have visited most of them - I keep an eye on the logs of the ones I have not yet. And there is currently only one that has been archived by the reviewer but is still on site that I know off and there is one that got lost while the trees where cut down at Burrator that was never found again so I presume that is in bits somewhere. Incidentally, the first one was a combined letterbox/geocache and it was sited in a wall (and it still is).

I don't want to stir up anything but I find that the system of a website to quickly report broken or waterlogged caches works very well. I can only speak from personal experience and I am not a seasoned letterboxer but as I said there are a lot of boxes that I find that are damaged. And it is very rare that they have contact details in them.

As for your last question, I am simply not much into fannying around in a general area with a compass (how do you guys box when it is foggy anyway?). It also takes a lot of time and I rather use the little time I do have to do some miles. But I like collecting stamps, so just keeping my eyes open while I am out seems a good compromise

Are you talking about "Our Friend Fern"?

No, there were some comments about that letterbox/cache but apparently the cache owner was a long time letterboxer and the dry wall he/she placed it in was his/her own.

I was referring to a box called "holey cache" which was sited on the bridlepath near the ruins of Middleworth farm.

That one should have been removed ages ago, I complained to the reviewer about it, it should never have been allowed. From what I gather they put it in a hole in the farm building at Deancombe Farm, then someone moved it to the wall on the opposite side of the road, it was reported missing, the owner when to check it but couldn't find it, as he didn't know it was on the other side of the road. Ages after I found it by chance, posted photos of where the cache was, to give the owner a chance to retrieve his property, if it is still there when I am passing next I will remove it myself.

It was still there last week ....

really, owner must have abandoned it then, I haven't been that way for a while but if it is still there when I am passing next time I will remove it.
Just been reading the cache page which says:

It's on the left of the path, in the wall of the second ruined house, as you head up to the tor.

Makes you wonder what the reviewers are there for!

Excuse me guys and gals, but the last lot of posts on this 'missing letterboxes' thread have all been about missing Geocaches
Please get back to the subject of this thread - thanks

Oooops...

Fom an earlier post (and back to the point): 'In my opinion, I do not think that there is a letterbox thief. I think there are many of them.
I reckon there are those that don't understand what letterboxes are and take off with them. Those that own the land and do not appreciate boxes on or near what they own. Those that disagree with letterboxes being on the moor and remove them. And those that are just purely malicious, and they must include the taking of WOM boxes'.

I think there's a lot in that; also I would add swaling - have found little melted remains in a lot of burned over areas! Also the letterbox clan removing bashed up boxes, as has also been mentioned (and if you had a box on Bonehill Down with a stamp that ended in 'something 14 and something Well', I'm sorry but it fell victim to both of the above!).

Smashed boxes... hmmm... I must admit I am not guilty of breaking a box... yet! But I have over the years found many cracked boxes from irresponsible boxers throwing the cover rocks onto the boxes.
I have also found a fair few molten boxes due to illegal burning, but sadly the majority have just been stolen... someone somewhere has a massive collection of rubber stamps

Hello all,

In posting a comment I am always that (we) are on the edge of the activity (walkers more than boxers) and certainly lacking in the experience held by many who read and post on the site. I just wonder if any/all of the following apply;

1. We often find a number of boxes that seem water sodden and to all purposes not visited by their 'owners' for some time, or indeed since placing. I guess some of these are placed by visitors who infrequently visit the moor, and perhaps live some distance away? In almost all instances to date it has not been possible to find any contact details either which is a pity.

2. Given the number of postings that have been made on the site re lost/damaged boxes it would be interesting to note how many are followed up and if this could suggest a drop off in interest in the activity after some time? I imagine that this would not apply to those boxes that have a recent siting eg as part of a charity walk. When these go missing it does suggest some mischief at play ( I choose my words carefully to maintain politeness!). On one posting here I did also ask if it was the case that boxes may sometimes be removed by the owner, for example over winter, but that this could be seen as a theft unless this was announced on the site - I still think there might be some value in this. Any thoughts ?

3. We have found a number of cracked/broken boxes which, as Nik suggests, could be due to rocks, and also freezing weather I imagine. i always wondered why some boxes were covered in black duct tape - and now know why and followed suit to good effect!

4. Final point; we placed a note in our box should it be found by geocachers. This welcomes them and invites them to stamp and write, but it does remind them that it is a letter box and not a geo site; so not to take anything however well intentioned :So far so good

Enjoy the summer.

K&A

The Thinkers wrote:Hello all,

<snip>
4. Final point; we placed a note in our box should it be found by geocachers. This welcomes them and invites them to stamp and write, but it does remind them that it is a letter box and not a geo site; so not to take anything however well intentioned :So far so good

Enjoy the summer.

K&A

Tut Tut slap wrist must not discuss that on here!! Get told off my a passing Mod.

The Thinkers wrote:Final point; we placed a note in our box should it be found by geocachers. This welcomes them and invites them to stamp and write, but it does remind them that it is a letter box and not a geo site; so not to take anything however well intentioned :So far so good

That is a well made point and a very good idea indeed. I have found a few letterboxes which have similar notes placed by the owners.
I will be doing the same for future boxes I put out too.

I must add a point here... I do know of a couple of established boxers who rarely, if ever, go back out to their boxes. However, in defence of one of them, the boxes are maintained by others.

Out on the Moor yesterday and we got wet, we gambled the weather would be almost as good ass saturdays ( how wrong can you be). Anyway we did the Mercy Ships Charity walk, and got 19 box's, but one has been stolen and two others have no stamp and the organisers have put in photocopies claiming the stamps have been 'half inched.'.
What a shame.

It is with some disappointment that, having come back to Letterboxing after an enforced break, the old nemesis of missing boxes seems to have gotten worse.
I don't doubt that much of the dislike that some people have of 'boxing' is that there is now so much unlisted 'trash' on the moor, often, but not always, put out by well meaning families with small children who don't hide them very well, don't register them, and never return to maintain them.

That last point has always been a bugbear of mine.
If you're going to put a box out, it is YOUR responsibility to maintain it, or to remove it from the moor if you have lost interest in it's maintainance.
Yes, there are some kindly 'boxers' who volunteer to look after other peoples boxes, but they should not have to.

Given the lack of ability to effectively police this, it's little wonder that some people take exception to our hobby.
In the last two years, I have taken 3 boxes off of the moor, usually because of damage or neglect, but have always written to Angela at the Updates to report that I have them, and will be pleased to return them to their owners if they will call/mail me.

Personally, I would have ALL letterboxes registered, so we know who is responsible for them; and if you don't want them to go missing, make the effort to place them deeper into the moor.
After all, there is little challenge for us in picking up a box from the side of the road; and if the thief had to make more effort themselves, fewer boxes would go missing !

Sorry to go back on a point from May, but the minimum distance for geocaches is not valid. There are at least three popular geocaching websites, and sharing details between them is actively discouraged, so no chance of enforcing a .1 mile ruling. (I dislike the commercialism of gc.com, and some new garmins come with geocaching software running on the GPS which is linked to opencaching.com - and there's another good one too)

I'm coming back into letterboxing partly due to geocaching, and the two can coexist happily from all aspects. If you don't like GPS's, carry on doing what you've always done, nobody's telling you to change...

(BTW, totally agree about maintaining your own box. If you don't (except if you're ill and physically can't), then you're just littering.)

Picking up on an idea about the Letterbox thief mentioned here - it's not /impossible/ technology will soon give us a GPS tagger that will fit inconspicuously inside a letterbox. So if it's stolen, it'll take you to the culprit's house. Then we can surround it and demand our boxes back!

Further to Dartymoor:

Once we`ve got the LBT - we could put it in a box hide it(plugged in a peat bank) on the Moor and all that got the clues could go and 'stamp' on it!
Hoorah for Letterboxing!!

The situation with letterboxes and geocaches in the US is obviously different than dartmoor, but the caches are still better maintained. Here the caches far outnumber the letterboxes, and cachers get a lot of blame for disturbing letterboxes found accidentally. It's pretty obvious when a stamp is missing and a toy is left in its place.

I think the maintenance rules are the key to keeping the caches active and in good shape. Plus the geocaches get much more traffic and problems are reported and fixed quickly. Letterboxers here also tend to place boxes when they are traveling far from home and its impossible to maintain them wihthout help from local boxers. This isn't allowed in geocaching.

This isn't allowed in geocaching.

????

nice try!!!

From Dragonsword:
''Personally, I would have ALL letterboxes registered, so we know who is responsible for them; and if you don't want them to go missing, make the effort to place them deeper into the moor.
After all, there is little challenge for us in picking up a box from the side of the road; and if the thief had to make more effort themselves, fewer boxes would go missing !

Your overall post of the 29th makes interesting reading.

As for the last section as above:
When you say 'ALL' letterboxes I take this to read all WOM and 'micky mouse'(no offence - intended) are included.
Where would 'ALL' letterboxes be registered?

Could be the LBT is getting more selective in the stamps to steal and looking for a better ,single, source of clues - just like the one you are recommending.

Food for thought!
Do you also expect 'ALL' letterboxes to be 'published' also.
I have placed boxes 'deeper into the moor' (as you suggested) and well hidden where no one, other than a dedicated boxer with a clue, would go - and still the boxes have been stolen.

I seem to notice from forum updates and other sources that a lot of the 'roadside' charity boxes, etc, are still around.

The Wandering Artist wrote:From Dragonsword:
''Personally, I would have ALL letterboxes registered, so we know who is responsible for them; and if you don't want them to go missing, make the effort to place them deeper into the moor.
After all, there is little challenge for us in picking up a box from the side of the road; and if the thief had to make more effort themselves, fewer boxes would go missing !

Your overall post of the 29th makes interesting reading.

As for the last section as above:
When you say 'ALL' letterboxes I take this to read all WOM and 'micky mouse'(no offence - intended) are included.
Where would 'ALL' letterboxes be registered?

Could be the LBT is getting more selective in the stamps to steal and looking for a better ,single, source of clues - just like the one you are recommending.

Food for thought!
Do you also expect 'ALL' letterboxes to be 'published' also.
I have placed boxes 'deeper into the moor' (as you suggested) and well hidden where no one, other than a dedicated boxer with a clue, would go - and still the boxes have been stolen.

I seem to notice from forum updates and other sources that a lot of the 'roadside' charity boxes, etc, are still around.

Spot on. Totally agree.

I can see the reasoning for having all boxes being registered, but that isn't what it is about. DLT's aside, boxing is freguently a challenge for friends with some quite obscure clues, which later in life make their way into the catalogue.

Sadly many of the boxes are lost or sited in the wrong place which makes them impossible to find.
Personally I like to try to contact the owner and give them some feedback on the state of their box, even if it is good condition.

Charity boxes have been mentioned as not particularly vulnerable. Last week I had a go at the Mercy Ships walk where at least three well hidden boxes appeared to be missing (before rain stopped our play). On Friday we had a go at 'A Birds Eye view of Dartmoor'. The clues led us comfortably off the path - they would not have been found by chance - but the first three were missing at which point we gave up. The charity told us that 7 and 11 had been reported missing the previous weekend, so it rather looks as if someone has been after the lot.
The LBT is prepared to stoop so low as to steal from charities. What a creep.

Duckpool

This is the scary bit, at the letterbox meets the DLT is there purchasing the clues. So those of us who attend the meets actually rub shoulders with him/her. There is a strong possibilty that the DLT is also a member on these boards too.
The only message I have for him/her is I hope you are happy at denying those in need of funds by stealing. From my own point of view, there is nothing more callous and low by doing this. Why? Because people like myself don't do charity walks unless they are very new and stand a chance of being there... a couple of years back I did a walk on the day the clues were released and even then one box was missing - totally spoilt the walk for me.

I do not know who the DLT is but if I do find out ...

Is there still a point of purchasing a catalogue and does any of you actually use it?

I usually only use it as a reference so afterwards I can check if a box I found was registered. However a few times now I have printed some clues from the catalogue to take with me while I was in an area walking or picking up some other boxes and/or geocaches but I never seem to be able to find them. And more often then not I find the exact place as described in the clue with a nice empty hole.

Tamerton Chocolates wrote:Is there still a point of purchasing a catalogue and does any of you actually use it?

And more often then not I find the exact place as described in the clue with a nice empty hole.

I know the feeling, I seldom ever take clues out anymore as most seem to go walkabout, those that are close to a roads/popular areas etc. I just like to wander around seeing what I can find, it's more interesting for me

I have the book, loaded some on the gps and check them off as we go, but our most popular technique is to dive under any and every rock, that way we find wom boxes, unregistered and catalogue boxes without getting angry they are not there.

brinbunny wrote:I have the book, loaded some on the gps and check them off as we go, but our most popular technique is to dive under any and every rock, that way we find wom boxes, unregistered and catalogue boxes without getting angry they are not there.

In our early days we adopted the same technique, but we found you could wear out walking sticks prodding and poking every rock and only cover a few 10's of yards (Still speak English!) in a day
If you are chasing numbers the only way is to study the clues for any given grid (Catalogue or Word of Mouth) and work those clues.