You will find parts of MIB CE5 and Carmen Sandiego in this geocache, with apologies to each.
Do not go to the above coordinates.
Nothing is known about the thief except that he is bold and weird. He always leaves one or two things behind when a theft occurs. One is a puzzle and the other has something to do with the solution location.
The thief has operated outside of Colorado until recently and you have been assigned to track him down and recover the cache that he has hidden.
His last heist was with a gang at a hardware store and because he was not the leader, he went unnoticed.
Lets look at the possible thieves.
Bob Ford
Bob Ford was a member of the James gang in the early 1880s. He had met Jesse James through a mutual friend, Dick Liddil, who was another gang member. After hearing of the $10000 reward for the arrest of Jesse he met with the sheriff of Clay County, Tennessee and together they formed a plan. Basically, Bob was to stay in Jesse's confidence until the next raid that the gang was to perform. However, Dick Liddil had surrendered and Bob was trying to keep that information from Jesse when, on April 3, 1882, it appeared in the newspaper. Bob tried to hide it but Jesse found it and suspected Bob of not being quite truthful. Jesse was not going to kill Bob in front of his family and deliberately took off his belt with four revolvers in it and turned to adjust a picture. Bob panicked and shot Jesse in the back of the head. Bob Ford was tried before a jury of St. Joseph citizens. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. Two hours later a pardon from Governor Crittenden arrived by telegraph.
Bob Ford wannabe: He is tough as nails and you best not get in his way. He has dark brown eyes and hair, a mustache and no beard. He is of medium height and build. Although a suspect, he has never been brought in for questioning.
Jesse and Frank James
No gang was bolder, more rapacious or more renowned than the one led by the James brothers, Jesse and Frank. The brothers were well prepared for bandit careers. During the Civil War they had fought in Confederate guerrilla bands whose hit-and-run raids on the Union troops terrorized the Kansas-Missouri border zone. They served under Quantril and Anderson's raiders so they were denied amnesty, unlike the regular Confederate soldiers. They went home as outlaws. So, when the war was over they organized other ex-guerrillas into a strike force, ranging up to a dozen men. They planned raids on towns with commando precision and then vanished into the countryside. The gang flourished from 1866 to 1881, during this time they executed 26 raids with a take of about half a million dollars. When Jesse and Frank James, while on the run from the law, arrived in Abilene, Kansas in 1871, they notified Marshal Wild Bill Hickok that they would make no bad moves while in town but would arrange for his funeral if he attempted to capture them. Hickok did not seek them out. Toward the end of their careers, they partnered up with the Younger brothers. The end of the gang came primarily as the towns fought back with whatever resources they had at the time of a robbery. Although the Pinkertons were brought in, they were no match for the gang and many were dispatched for their efforts. Their last big effort for a comeback was in Minnesota where the gang was pretty well destroyed. Frank and Jesse made it to Dakota Territory and then to Nashville, Tennessee. Jesse changed his name to J.D Howard and Frank changed his name to B.J. Woodson. Both lived there with their wives and families and still managed to participate in a few raids. An offer from the railroads for $5000 for each gang member and an additional $5000 for Frank and Jesse caused Jesse to come to an untimely end at the hand of Bob Ford. After that, Frank offered to turn himself in if he would be pardoned. Governor Crittenden pointed out that Frank could not be pardoned since he had not been convicted of anything. Frank gave himself up, was arrested, tried and acquitted. He was 40 at the time and lived until he was 72.
Jesse James wannabe: He is quite cautious compared to his namesake. He has blue eyes, blonde hair, a mustache but otherwise clean shaven and of medium build in both height and width. He is a thief and proud of it.
Frank James wannabe: He is a thin, mousey character. He has dark eyes and hair, a mustache but no beard, medium height and skinny as a rail. He works best at night and alone.
Cole and Jim Younger
Younger Brothers
There were four younger brothers. Jim, Cole, John and Bob. Cole, 24, joined the James brothers in early 1868 after being recruited by George Shepherd. Jesse and Frank were delighted to see him as a comrade who had been with them in the Lawrence massacre and would now join them in hitting the Russellville bank in Missouri. On March 20, 1868 they hit the bank and easily shot their way out of town. The bankers were less than happy and hired D. G. Bligh, a Louisville detective, to track them down. This caused a raid on the Shepherd home and George was captured after a gun-battle and served three years in jail and then rejoined the James gang. In 1872, Bob Younger, 18, joined the gang and together they robbed the ticket seller of $10,000 near the gate of the Kansas City Fairgrounds and then played up to the crowd by shooting their guns into the air. By now the bankers had enough and had hired the Pinkertons to help out. However, because of conflicting stories told by the witnesses the Pinkertons often were met by an unrecognized gang member and given false information. Allan Pinkerton took his agents' failures as a personal affront and set up a branch office in Kansas City to supervise the hunt. In 1873, the James gang also branched out and started hitting the railroads. On a curving stretch of the Rock Island Line's tracks near Council Bluffs, Iowa, Jesse, Frank and five members of the gang pulled a rail out of line wrecking the train. They did not find the gold shipment that they were after. It came through 12 hours later. For once their intelligence had failed. Allan Pinkerton took this as a direct and intolerable challenge and the James gang knew it. The next train robbery was done with much more expertise. They seized the agent and switched the train onto a siding and flagged the train to slow it down before crashing. As they were robbing the train they stole from those who had soft hands because hard hands had to work for their money. They asked if any Pinkertons were onboard and as they left they handed a prepared news release of the robbery leaving the amount stolen blank. An agent, John W. Wicher sought undercover work at a farm near Kearney. He never lived long enough to walk the four miles to the farm. Within a week two more agents were killed in an exchange of gunfire with John and Jim Younger who had joined their brothers. John was killed in the exchange. In 1876, the James and Younger brothers boarded a train for Minnesota. They planned to rob a bank in Mankato but were recognized by someone from Missouri so they rode on to Northfield to the biggest shootout of their lives. On the morning of September 7, 1876 they rode into town and were barely able to ride out. Cole was hit in the shoulder. Bob was hit in the right thigh and right elbow. Jim Younger was shot in the mouth. Of the eight who rode in, six rode out. Jesse, Frank, Bob, Cole, Jim and Charlie Pitts. Shortly thereafter, Jesse and Frank split off. A few days later the others were trapped in a thicket of willows and plum trees near Madelia. They fought until only Bob was left standing. All were wounded and Charlie was dead. A Minnesota judge sentenced them to life in prison.
Cole Younger wannabe: Although tough, he is easy to get along with. He has dark brown eyes and hair, mustache and beard, medium height and quite thin. He is a bumbling thief but has never been caught.
Jim Younger wannabe: He is soft spoken but has a mean glint in his brown eyes. He has brown hair and is clean shaven. He is medium in height and solidly built but slender. He is a skilled thief, caught once but charges were dropped.
Bob Younger wannabe: He has an easy going attitude about life. He has blonde hair, green eyes, clean shaven, average height and build. He has never been arrested so not much is known about him.
Okay, gumshoe, here is your first case. The thief has just robbed a Parker establisment and stole nineteen driver's license blanks. After the thief ran out the door the clerk turned over the demand note and saw the image shown below.
First Witness: It appeared that he was of medium build but I was so scared that I am not sure.
Second Witness: He had beautiful dark brown eyes.
Third Witness: I got a good look at him and he had a mustache and no beard. Not sure about the eyes though.
GCAWPER Avoidant Paruresis (24.56 kms W) GCAWPE4 Welcome to the Water Pipes #6 (24.76 kms W) GC9YNGW Big tan box (25.02 kms W) GC6QEC3 Schweet Little Park (25.29 kms W) GC1FB57 Prairie Dog Observatory (28.39 kms NW)
05/08/2018 By herndonrd As usual, with much help from the CO (I bet he wishes I would give up geocaching!), solved all three cases and then did the find this morning. TFTC!
05/30/2017 By Jim Reeb Replaced container in a new location about 30 from old GZ. Updated puzzle.
05/16/2017 By jasperdakota Awesome series of puzzles. Third thief caught today. Still chasing the others. This cache needs maintenance. The lid is gone. The baggie that is holding the log is torn. The log is dry today, but won't be for long with snow coming. Thanks for all the great puzzles!
Thief 2 cache
03/21/2015 By Sissadies Quick find with animjason, thanks for the cache! Cool puzzle too, we will have to solve more of these.
03/21/2015 By animjason Awesome puzzle and was finally nearby and remembered to grab it. Sissadies and I found it really quick thanks to good coords. We were the first to sign the new log. Cache is still in great shape. It is cool to see the different stages of bark decomposing on the ground as we walked to GZ, the side facing the ground almost turns into very fragile shredded paper. TFTPuzzle!
11/24/2013 By sassydil Two visits to the final and a discussion with the CO leads me to believe the hiding spot is MIA. Logging with permission of the owner. Great puzzles and the final Thief puzzle for me.
03/04/2012 By robespierre50 Got over to finish this one off on a nice day. This is #5 in the Thief series for me, so I am ready for some more! Had a little help here and there with the puzzles but a nudge was usually all it took. Thanks, Jim, and look forward to some more.
01/23/2012 By KA&JWest Woo Hoo! I finished the puzzle last week and went looking for this after work.
This was a fun puzzle, and I finished it with only a "little" (Ya, right) help from the Cache Owner. This is a great set of puzzles, and not too much running around.
Make sure you get the password letters right! It makes it much easier!
If you are currently finishing it up, be aware that the final is NOT Winter Friendly. I was lucky to find it today.
To Catch a Thief 2
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Bob Ford
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1 ;){kind=link}