There’s something special about a Trackable at Geocaching.com—it’s actually trackable. You know who owns it. You know where it’s been, and ideally, where it wants to go next.

Now imagine you’re a police detective. You serve a search warrant on a storage locker. You find evidence you believe is stolen. But how do you prove that evidence actually belongs to someone else? Then, you see a glistening Geocoin, with a tracking number.

Heather, aka Craftea, from Washington state in the U.S. was the beneficiary for just such a series of events and some real crafty police work.

She says her story began in November of 2012. “My home was burglarized and I lost a great many items, including a three-ring binder with baseball-card pockets where I kept my geocoin collection, and a bag of geopins along with more standard stuff like laptops and other electronics.”

Her day to day geocaching wasn’t completely interrupted thanks to a lucky break, “Thankfully my GPS was in the car with me when my home was being broken into so I didn’t lose that. The responding cop didn’t give me much hope that any of my things will ever be recovered but it still took me several months before I finally went online to mark each of my coins as missing, feeling that made it more final, like I was giving up hope.”

Months passed, life continued. And Heather began to move on. “I did, really, give up hope, and while I feel the loss of my things just about every day, I am slowly replacing things as I can afford to.”

The whole experience came back to her after it was nearly forgotten. “It was with a bit of a shock when I got an e-mail from a detective from Seattle’s West Precinct with front-and-back pictures of one of my geocoins with a note saying that it and ‘several others’ were recovered during a search warrant issued on a storage unit. He said he recognized it as a Geocoin and logged on Geocaching.com and did a search with the coin’s code and saw my profile and that I had marked it missing and wanted to know why.”

It was an email she quickly responded to, “I contacted him and was able to either describe the coins or give him the code after he described them to me. He had “4 or 5″ of them and he was satisfied they were mine. After more search warrants were issued on a different storage unit and a house associated with the same people as were for the original unit where my coins were found, the detective contacted me again and invited me to his office to pick up my coins and look at the pictures of the suspects as well as go through photos of evidence they’d recovered.”

“When I got to his office, he handed me 5 coins…” But for Heather the Geocoins are more than pieces of metal imprinted with a custom tracking code. They were reminders of adventures past and friends who offered the Geocoins as presents, “Two were gifts from FrodoB, one was a gift from Rey del Roble, one I earned at The Dalles Dash geocoin challenge and the 5th was an unactivated geoachievement coin given to me by my friend, MacCrew, from New York. Precious memories!” Check out the Trackable Details page from one of the lost and recovered Geocoins.

Heather also received a few of the other items that were lost to the thieves who broke into her home. Among them, she has recovered a sense of justice, “There is still a great deal of loss but it was exciting to get back a few pieces, and knowing that a handful of geocoins connected the burglars to their crime against me (and many other homes…) and was instrumental in their arrest.”

A lot of geocachers will pull over between point A and point B to find a geocache. For Make-A-Wish® recipient, Jared, he and his family would often pick up geocache finds between home and the hospital. His early teenage years were often spent in hospitals from Aberdeen, South Dakota to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He logged smileys all around the three medical centers.

He says, “When I was in the hospital I would look on the website. I would look for trackables and take them to geocaches back home with me.”  Jared123, as he’s known in the geocaching community, endured three major surgeries for a life-altering digestive issue. Through traveling to treatment, he and his family logged hundreds of miles. They tapped into geocaching to break the tension between medical procedures.

Jared discovered he had been chosen for  Make-A-Wish. Make-A-Wish grants the wish of a child diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition in the United States and its territories. Jared thought about where he could go and what he could do. Many children decide to take a trip to Disneyland or spend time with their family on a vacation to Hawaii.

Jared was born in the Seattle area, and when he learned that Geocaching HQ was located in Seattle, he made his choice.

Make-A-Wish organized the visit and contacted local geocachers. An event called Jared From SD Wishes for your Presence was planned to welcome him to the Northwest. And Jared wanted to meet, and geocache with, one of the most creative geocache hiders on the West Coast of the U.S: goblindust.

Geocachers from several counties away showed up to greet their fellow geocacher. Jared says, “I couldn’t’ really believe how many people came there. There were 85-90 people who attended. There were a whole bunch of volunteers and businesses who donated for the event.”

Jared then took to the geocaching trail, claiming, The SUPER Pages as his favorite geocache of the trip and perhaps of all time. He says, “I found some of the most unique geocaches ever, or even in the world.” To offer you some proof, geocacher goblindust has a creative geocache found in this video (we just won’t tell you which one).

Jared then visited Geocaching HQ, meeting with the founders of Geocaching.com and having lunch with the people who power the experience. He also led his dad to log his first geocache—the giant treasure chest in the lobby of Geocaching HQ.

You can watch Jared’s tour of Geocaching HQ in this 6 second Vine video. Jared did what any geocache might do when they leave Geocaching HQ, he went geocaching some more.

Geocachers who logged the event say, “Thanks to all who put this together, the vendors who donated, and to Jared for inviting us to help make his wish!!! It was a pleasure meeting you and your parents! Enjoy your visit, and hope you enjoy all the fun caches we have to offer! Goblindust…you’re a rockstar! TFTE!”

Jared says the trip was a wish come true, “I guess I couldn’t really believe it. I’ll remember this day forever.”

Practice Proper Care and “Feeding” of Geocaches

Good geocache maintenance is the story of two smiles. You earn a digital smiley for your Geocaching profile by finding a geocache. If you’ve found a well-maintained geocache it often leads to a real, in the flesh, teeth showing, ear-to-ear smile. Now, we’re on a quest for even more smiles.

It’s the perfect time to help.When you find a geocache, treat it with care and lend a helping hand if it’s necessary. After signing the log book, make sure the geocache is clear of debris and return it to the original hiding spot. If you notice the geocache is no longer water-tight, the log needs to be replaced, or anything else that needs some geocache love, submit a “Needs Maintenance” log on the geocache page. The geocache owner will receive a message and a red wrench icon will appear.

If the geocache is well-maintained, make sure to include a thank you to the geocache owner in your log. And, of course, don’t forget to smile.

Geocachers are always prepared. GPS? Check. Pen? Check. But wait! What should you bring to combat the growling stomach that inevitably follows a finding frenzy on the geocaching trail? To answer this most important of questions, we decided to ask our fellow geocachers here at Geocaching HQ for their top remedies for an empty belly. Here are their top tricks and tips for a great geocaching adventure!

Tip #1: Avoid getting ‘hangry’ (hungry + angry)

Family and friends can take the geocaching fun-o-meter to a whole new level, but hungry people can sometimes be cranky people. Geocaching videographer Reid Kuennen (Username: reidsomething) advises always keeping snacks on hand. She says, “One thing you should know about me before we go geocaching together is that I have a tendency to get hangry (hungry + angry) if I don’t bring snacks. Over the years I’ve learned never to navigate too far from home without my trusty bag of trail mix.”

Geoacching HQ User Experience lead Nick Botner (Username: Whiskey Bones) suggests a similar tactic to maximize your find potential and reduce the need to exhaust your carefully honed geosense scrounging for food in the forest. “If you’re going out into the wild, make sure you bring a little more than you might need. I know I can tend to get a little carried away with the whole ‘just one more cache’ so it’s nice to have the extra food and more importantly water to enable me to enjoy my time out there and not be reduced to eating the surrounding vegetation.”

Tip #2: Stay hydrated

Staying hydrated is key to keeping in tip-top geocaching shape. While drinking water is great (we highly recommend it!), there are other ways to keep hydrated as well. Nick likes to eat apples while out on the trail: “This not only stops the hunger but also helps hydrate me. Plus, the natural sugar gives me a little pick me up.” Power geocaching couple Jayme (Geocaching Community Manager) and Ben Hewitt (benandjayme) always make sure to have a good day pack with a hydration reservoir. “Sometimes we even add lemonade powder to one of our water bladders.”

Packing in snacks is useless if nature gets to them first! Nick says, “It’s not often I go into bear country. But when I make my way into the swamps I make sure I bring a backpack that has a compartment on the top so in case I get too deep. Food and electronics can stay dry in their respective compartments.” Reid also reminds us that weather can be important when packing and snacking: “I recommend sealable plastic bags or light-weight Tupperware, both can be washed and used many times! You probably already know this, but chocolate melts, and it’s something to think about on hot days.”

Tip #3: Cache in, Trash out

Anything that you pack in should also be packed out (unless it’s in your belly of course!). Jayme and Ben warn that this is often easier said than done and can sometimes require a bit of hunting: “After we are done eating we always check the area to make sure we’ve gathered any rogue baggies that the wind has picked up.”

Tip #4: DIY Snacks with Reid

Personalized Nut Jumble:

• Roasted almonds (a little salty)
• Roasted cashews (also salty)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Dried cranberries (preferably not sweetened… nature has sweetened them plenty)
• Dark chocolate chunks 

How to: The fun thing is that you get to put whatever you like in it! Above are some of my favorite ingredients.

Surprise Dates:

• Dates
• Chocolate
• Almonds

How to: Putting these together is simple and sticky – pit the dates & shove (gently) an almond and hunk of chocolate inside.

Now it’s your turn! What are your favorite snacks to bring out on the geocaching trail? Tell us about them in comments below!