tb-rescue.com Geocaching Travel Bug Rescue

tb-rescue.com in general

Which Travel Bug® ID do I have to use on tb-rescue.com
You can not use the one ombossed on the dog tag. You have to use the public Travel Bug® ID.
Each TB has two identifications: The "secret" ID, that is impressed to the dog tag and a public ID that everybody can view on geocaching.com.
For tb-rescue.com you have to use the latter, public ID.

Is it also possible to submit rescue requests for Geocoins, Cacher Tags, Travel Slugs or Travel Express?
Yes. Tracking of Geocoins, Cacher Tags, Travel Slugs, Travel Express and Travel Bugs® on geocaching.com works identically.
You can submit rescue requests for any of those items.

Is it possible to submit a rescue request for GeoKrety's or GeoLutins?
No. On tb-rescue.com all "trackable items" that can be tracked via geocaching.com can be submitted. Other tracking systems are not supported at the moment.

Is the site also offered in other languages?
tb-rescue.com is a project with its roots in Germany. So German is the "mother" language. In the meantime we have translated as much as possible to English as well. If you would like to volunteer to translate it to another language please contact us at webmaster@tb-rescue.com.

Question concerning my rescue request

My Travel Bug® does not appear on the map on tb-rescue.com. Why?
There can be several reasons for this:
- You have just submitted your rescue request. Please allow us 30-60 minutes to retrieve the position from geocaching.com.
- Your TB is currently located in a geocacher that has been archived. In this case geocaching.com does not provide position data for this cache. - Your TB is located in a "Premium Members only Cache". Unfortunately we cannot get the position data for this type of geocache.

I wanted to rescue the TB from the cache but the TB was not in the container. What should I do?
Please access the Travel Bug® information on tb-rescue.com. You can find it navigating via the map or you can use the search box.
You find a link called 'I HAVE COMPLETED MY RESCUE MISSION' under you rescue confirmation. Click this link and you will see a selection box.

- Choose 'I was at the cache but the TB was not there' and confirm this.
- Please log a note for this TB at geocaching.com. Describe briefly what happened and that the TB was not in the container (In order to log a 'NOTE' you do not need to enter a TB tracking code).
- tb-rescue.com will send an email to the TB owner, asking him to either grab the TB or log it with 'mark item missing'.
- As soon as tb-rescue.com recognizes both logs (your note and the note from the TB owner) we will assign the rescue points to your account and close the rescue activity.

I am the TB owner, it seems that my TB is missing. What should I do?
We recommend that you check the logs of your TB and those of the geocache. In many cases other geocachers do report if a TB is not in a cache.
Please also verify on tb-rescue.com if other cachers have confirmed your rescue request. Mayby another rescue team has already retrieved your TB and just not logged it.
If you believe that your TB is really lost and a rescue team has logged this we recommend the following:
Retrieve your TB from the cache. You can either log a 'grab' note or use the 'mark item missing' feature at geocaching.com.
In case your TB is found later you can certainly log it back into a geocache.
Here is how to log a 'mark item missing':
Navigate to your TB information on geocaching.com, select 'Mark Item missing' from the drop-down menu on the right side and confirm with 'Go' (see screenshot):

Geocaching.com will ask for confirmation. Confirm by clicking 'Yes' (see screenshot):

Your Travel Bug® will no longer be listed as content of the geocacher.
tb-rescue.com will recognize this during the next update, close your rescue request and inform you and others via email.
In addition, the rescue team that has reported the TB missing will get assigned the rescue points.

Why is it possible that a TB owner submits a rescue request even though the TB is in the cache since a few days?
You are right - after the beta phase we will have a limitation, so that owners can only submit rescue request for TBs that are stuck for a few weeks. But during the test phase we do not like to limit the usage - to get as much feedback as possible.

Is it possible to submit a rescue request for a TB that is stuck at a geocacher - and not in a cache?
Hmm.. no! This is not planned.
Yes, we could do this, but we have some concerns doing this. You can find details about this topic in our blog.

'Chance of successful Rescue'

What does the Gauge 'Chance of successful Rescue' mean?
A brand new idea which is currently in test phase is the new display 'Chance of successful Rescue. Here we use a highly sophisticated *g* and top secret :-) procedure to estimate how good the chances are that your TB can be rescued.

"Excellent" for example means that the chances for a successful rescue of that TB are pretty good - "bad" means that the TB is probably not in the container any more.
Certainly, we do not know this for sure. It is just a try using mathematical analysis.
Also a TB with a "bad" chance has still a chance to be rescued.

The whole thing is currently in test phase and we have no idea if it works as designed - or if it is even useful.
So please give us feedback in our Blog on how it worked for you - and how you like the idea.

Questions about my Travel Bugs®

There is no photo of my Travel Bug® shown why is that?
You have to make a photo on geocaching.com the "Default Image" for your Travel Bug®.
If you need details on how to do this please look here.

Your username on tb-rescue.com

Do I have to use the same Nickname I use at geocaching.com?
Yes. This is necessary to identify in which races your Travel Bugs® are participating.

How do you make sure that I really use the same nickname I use at geocaching.com?
First of all, we can be 100% sure if this is the case. Theoretically somebody could use somebody else's gc.com nickname, register at tb-rescue.com and send somebody else's TB to a race. This would be not authorized and sooner or later this behavior come out - e.g. if the user who owns the gc.com nickname would try to register at tb-rescue.com

What happens if somebody else registers my geocaching.com nickname at tb-rescue.com?
Very simple: Please send us a mail to webmaster@tb-rescue.com. We will contact the nickname via "contact" form on geocaching.com. This mail will reach you and we will know that you are the legal owner of this nickname. Subsequently we will contact the "illegal" tb-rescue.com user and delete his account.

What happens, if I use somebody else's geocaching.com nickname??
See the question above: We will have to delete your tb-rescue.com account. We can very easily validate if you are the real geocaching.com account owner by sending you an email via gc.com

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