Family and friends of the late Ted Grindell appeal to thieves to 'Keep Ted Caching'

Ted Grindell with the Holiday Island geocache he established in 2007. Lorri Carter and Dorothy Guertin are reestablishing it in honor of Ted, who passed away this year. They are hoping to retrieve a traveling cache item, a keychain called "Keep Ted Caching" stolen by vandals. Carter is offering a reward for its retrieval. Photo by Kathryn Lucariello

Lorri Carter of Eureka Springs said she and Dorothy Guertin, who have become the new owners of the cache, moved it after it was vandalized at its location near the Holiday Island Recreation Center. It was vandalized again after its move.

"Our cache had a 6 x 8 lime green sticker identifying it as a geocache -- my contact info was clearly marked," Carter said on a local bulletin board. "Dorothy and I invested about $20 getting this one ready to go -- it's supposed to be there as a treasure for someone who takes the time to find it. I first found this cache over a year ago -- I thought it was a neat spot and I could see the care that had been taken with it."

Then vandals found and destroyed it again.

"This is so discouraging," she said on a local bulletin board. "We hid it differently so it was no longer out in the open. It had some of Ted's personal items in it ... Ted's family gave us personal items to place in the cache. They were intended to travel from cache to cache in his memory. This hurts my heart."

Muggles strike again

"I was so thankful when Lorri and Dorothy contacted me about keeping the cache active and taking it over in Ted's memory," said Ted's wife, Judy. "I was very upset when the cache had been 'muggled' once again and the keychain that I gave the girls had been taken."

Grindell, a Holiday Island resident and Recreation Center employee, established the cache in May 2007. He passed away in April of this year, from cancer.

He was an avid geocacher, having found more than 100 caches since he began his caching adventure after moving to Holiday Island.

Geocaching is gaining in popularity as an interesting sport that gets people outdoors and is a great opportunity for exercise, as it often involves easy to strenuous hikes to find a geocache.

Go to geocaching.com

Cachers can look up a GPS number for a cache on geocaching.com and then use those numbers to get within 10 feet of the cache. From there they have to find it.

The container can be as small as a marble or as large as a five-gallon bucket. A log is included for cachers who have found it to sign their names. The idea is to take something from the cache and put something in to replace it, although it is not necessary to do either. For many cachers, the challenge of finding the cache is its own reward.

Some cachers include "travel bugs," items that have a dogtag attached and are given a "mission" which the owner can then track online.

"Ted found more than 100 caches but only placed one," Carter said, "and he filled it with nice items in an ammo box. We want to honor Ted and reestablish it."

Unfortunately, vandals "muggled" the cache and took items from it, scattering some of them on the ground and destroying the ammo box.

Travel bugs

Included in the cache as a travel bug was a brass keychain from the Cray Company, where Ted worked before he retired.

"I had been looking forward to watching the travels that Ted made all around the world long after he was gone," Judy said. "I felt that a little piece of him would go on for quite some time and I could watch the progress of his trip around the world. This was a very comforting thought for my family to have to hold on to."

The keychain, and indeed, all the items in a cache, are usually not of great value, Carter said, although they may be sentimental.

Reward offered

"I'm offering a reward for its return," Carter said. "We named it 'Keep Ted Caching,' and the goal is to get it to as many caches as possible."

Ted Grindell lost his battle with cancer, but he kept geocaching up until the end, Carter said, stopping to find a geocache on his way to a medical appointment for tests.

The Holiday Island Cache has been renamed "Ted's Cache" and its number is GC12NAH on the geocaching.com Web site.

"When we heard the story of the original owner we just wanted to keep it going -- and we shall, just not in that location and unfortunately not with his personal item."

Judy spoke about the impact the theft had on her and her family.

"It is so sad to think that someone could be so callous as to destroy the opportunity for him to live on through his passion for geocaching. Whoever did this could not have possibly known the heartache that it has brought to us.

Ted's legacy

"I would like to reach out to them and ask them to please return the keychain and let Ted go on geocaching. He was a very good husband, father and grandfather and enjoyed the fact that so many fathers and grandfathers brought their children and grandchildren to find his cache."

If anyone knows the whereabouts or can return the keychain, no questions asked, they can call Lorri Carter at 981-0829 or drop the keychain off at the Rec Center in Holiday Island. For directions, call 253-9890.