Chris Hooker aka funkymunkyzone at Geocaching.com trashed our caches over a period of weeks leading up to 28th February 08 and it was on this day that we publically posted still shots (below) obtained from the video footage we were now in possession of. Because of the footage and photographs we now also had eyewitness accounts of Chris and his vehicle being at the locations of our other vandalised caches.

You can read about the extent of the vandalism in our previous posting Cache Trasher… , along with more photos of Chris and how the situation unfolded. Basically Chris Hooker accepted responsibility (see copy of his email below) for vandalising the cache where the video footage was obtained but denied vandalising the other caches… all despite eyewitness accounts which place him and his vehicle at the cache locations and the caches being destroyed after he left the scenes.

Chris states (see copies of his email below) he vandalised our caches because of our “predatory practices” on Trade Me (a NZ auction website), based on his prior antics it all surrounds the issues of Travel Bugs which he was selling via Trademe under his trader name funkymunky. What Chris has failed to acknowledge is that he started trashing our caches before we also put Travel Bugs on TradeMe, prior to that we were only selling TB’s via our online store.

Copies of emails from funkymunkyzone / Chris Hooker:

First Email from Chris aka FunkyMunkyZone that we received the morning we posted the video:

Envelope-to: bee@geocache.geek.nz

X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/818.31 YahooMailWebService/0.7.162

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:45:29 +1100 (EST)

From: Chris Hooker <funkymunky@XXXXX.co.nz>

Subject: You cache

To: bee@geocache.geek.nz

You know what, you’re right.  I feel very very bad for what I did and I’m so sorry.

It’s no excuse but I got really wound up by what I considered to be predatory practices on the TradeMe auctions, but really I have no excuse – your business is your business.  I showed extremely poor judgement, and I really am so sorry for that.

I notice you have some of your other caches disabled, but I can assure you I have nothing to do with them.

Once again, I’m incredibly sorry.  I enjoyed the caches of yours I found so far and I’m totally ashamed of myself for stooping to such a low level to do something like this.  I am utterly remorseful for doing it.  I’m sorry and I hope that my stupid and resentful actions don’t tarnish your future enjoyment for the sport.

With regards TradeMe, I won’t be ordering any more TB dog tags after these ones I have are sold.

If you see fit to out me publicly, you may obviously do so.  I’ll leave that to you.

Chris.

and second:

Envelope-to: bee@geocache.geek.nz

X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/818.31 YahooMailWebService/0.7.162

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:03:40 +1100 (EST)

From: Chris Hooker <funkymunky@XXXXX.co.nz>

Subject: Once again…

To: bee@geocache.geek.nz

I just want you to know that I feel absolutely sick that I did that to your cache.

I’m not normally a bad person.  I have been under a lot of stress recently in all aspects of my life, and once again, I know there’s no reason for me to take that out on your cache, but I flipped out and did something totally out of character.

I honestly wish I could put it back, and undo the mean thing I did.

If you could see yourself to not make this public I would be very grateful, but I’ll understand if you don’t want to.  I believe having read your blog before, that you’re good people – you totally didn’t deserve me doing this, no one would, and again I’m really really sorry.

Chris.

we replied as follows:

Hi Chris,

Firstly I will just say that this is intentionally going to be brief and to the point, I think that a day or so for us all to think this over and gather thoughts would prevent any other regrettable actions being taken.

I would like to be able to arrange a time to discuss this and the events leading up to this, be it over E-mail, phone or in person.

I belive that the best course of action would be to publicly take responsibility for the destructions that you have caused to the Geocaching community. We have not named you but as you are probably aware many others shared our previous suspicions and we were in discussion with them before the posting on Stones Throw.

The last thing I want is what others are suggesting, in that you be removed from the Geocaching site. In spite of everything I think there is a way to move forward.

Andy

his reply in turn:

Envelope-to: bee@geocache.geek.nz

X-YMail-OSG:

X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3

From: “Chris Hooker” <funkymunky@XXXXX.co.nz>

To: “Kathy & Andy \(GeoCache.geek.nz\)” <bee@geocache.geek.nz>

Subject: RE: You cache

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:22:00 +1300

X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0)

Hi Andy,

I appreciate your response and once again I would like to offer my sincerest apology for this action.

Please know, Andy, that like I said in the first email i sent to you, I did not have anything to do with any of the other of your caches that have been disabled.  It is regreattable enough that those caches went missing, due to whatever circumstances.  In a moment of spite and weakness, I took advantage to make the situation worse.  I can assure you that I am no serial killer of caches.

I understand you would like me to publicly apologise for this.  The problem I have is that I know that would mean the end of me ever geocaching here, or maintaining any caches.  Maybe that in itself is just, I don’t know.  I know that if you were to accept my apology, and my assurances that nothing of this nature will ever happen again, then you will certainly come out clearly the better people.  I stooped to doing something stupid and mean – one really stupid act after 470 cache finds and 30-something hides.  You would

walk away from the situation with respect and dignity.

I hope you can tell that I am utterly ashamed of what I did, but the other reason I would beg for your forgiveness, without the need to go public is that this was the action of only half of this team.  I have let down the other half (Vera, the love of my life) with this stupid act.  I really do understand that you are angry with me, and rightly so.  But please don’t

punish Vera too.

Once again, I’m really sorry.

Chris.

and again:

Envelope-to: bee@geocache.geek.nz

X-YMail-OSG:

X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3

From: “Chris Hooker” <funkymunky@XXXXX.co.nz>

To: “Kathy & Andy \(GeoCache.geek.nz\)” <bee@geocache.geek.nz>

Subject: RE: You cache

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:52:30 +1300

X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0)

Hi Kathy and Andy,

I just read you blog entry and once again, I’m really sorry for what I did, but I really honestly didn’t have anything to do with any of those previous caches going missing.  I can understand you linking me with the cache I did destory – Stones Throw – but I really did not do anything to those other ones.

I guess I can understand that you don’t believe me, given the circumstances, but I really seriously didn’t have anything to do with them.  I’m ashamed of what I did do, but whether there is someone else who did the same thing, or whether they really were just muggled, I don’t know.

Once again, I’m really sorry for what I did, but please, I didn’t destroy any others.

Chris.

then his partner:

Envelope-to: bee@geocache.geek.nz

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:06:10 +0000

From: “Vera” <XXXX@XXXX.com>

To: bee@geocache.geek.nz

Subject: your cache

Dear Kathy and Andy,

I’m Vera, the other member of the Funkymunkyzone team. I only just heard about what Chris did now and I wanted to tell you I’m really sorry for his behaviour. I’ve talked to him about it and he’s extremely sorry for what he did. There is absolutely no excuse for it.

I also heard about other caches of yours being muggled. I wanted to tell you that I know Chris very well and even though I’m not his biggest fan right now after hearing about what he did, I’m sure he did not do anything to any other caches.

Chris has been under a lot of stress lately, for many reasons. He has lots of problems and sometimes I thought Geocaching was what was keeping him sane. I told him many times that I thought he was giving the sport too much importance but the truth is that he really enjoyed it and, for a while, the only way for him to feel happy about his life was by practising geocaching. It’s like geocaching made him forget about all his other problems and all the stress he’s being put through at this stage of his life.

I enjoy it quite a lot too and as a team we’ve had an incredible time exploring both of our countries looking for caches.

He tells me he doesn’t know what happened in his head. I guess he just snapped and I’m sorry you were his target this time (that’s my job, most of the time…). Despite all his problems, he is not a bad person.

As a member of the team, I’m shocked, embarrassed and ashamed of what he did. I’m in Portugal at the moment but if you want him to go and put your cache back I’ll tell him to do so.

I hope this terrible event doesn’t have serious consequences. The last thing Chris needs in his life is another problem (even if he was the one creating it).

I don’t really know what else to say except I’m really sorry. I had no idea he was going to do something like that.

I know there’s no excuse but I ask you to please try to understand. I wish I could have done something to avoid it. Once again, as a part of that team, I’m really sorry.

- Vera.

our reply to Vera:

Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 22:54:13 +1300

To: “Vera <XXXX@XXXX.com>

From: “Kathy & Andy (GeoCache.geek.nz)” <bee@geocache.geek.nz>

Subject: Re: your cache

Evening Vera

We appreciate the time you put in to contacting us.

We are fully aware that you played no part in Chris’s actions with destroying our caches, the photographs and video footage show he accomplished this on his own. Neither Andy or myself harbour any ill feelings towards you.

With regard to our other caches being “muggled” we find this extremely disturbing as it implies that others are responsible for Chris’s spite and willful vandalism. From our perspective this alone seems to indicate that no progress is, nor will be made, to resolve this issue, not now nor in the future. There are overwhelming facts and the evidence, as stated above, that place Chris’s vehicle at more than one of our cache locations. It would have been nice to have been able to resolve this issue promptly but as honesty is lacking we shall move on regardless.

It is a shame that Chris has chosen to take this path and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he remains comfortable with denial and blaming others. Ultimately it is he who has to live with himself, his conscience and the future that is in front of him.

We both wish you all the best in your endeavours.

Regards

Kathy & Andy

Contacting Groundspeak:

Andy and I took a couple of weeks out to collect our thoughts  and during this time attempted to contact Groundspeak via contact@groundspeak.com but we never received a reply. Eventually we contacted Nate Irish who we have dealings with when any Groundspeak distributor issues crops up, he put us in touch with Jenn Seva.

On the 17th March 08 I emailed Jenn Seva outlining our situation and the problem we had experienced with funkymunkyzone, who was a registered, premium member of Geocaching.com

On 18th she replied:

X-Apparently-To: xxxx@xtra.co.nz
Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:33:00 -0700
To: “Kathy & Andy” <xxxx@xtra.co.nz>
From: “Jenn Seva” <XXXX@groundspeak.com>
Subject: RE: Complaints Process
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:32:55 -0700
X-Mailer: Kerio MailServer 6.5.0 WebMail
X-User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12)
Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12

Kathy,

Thank you for making me aware of this situation. Let me see what I can do from my end. As Nate suggested earlier, there is little that I can do but I can give it my best shot.

Have you considered going to the police with the evidence that you have gathered? I’m just wondering of perhaps that might be a real and quick method of dealing with the perpetrator. If you have already done this, what has happened on that front?

—–
Jenn Seva
Groundspeak, Inc.
The Language of Location

http://www.groundspeak.com

Despite numerous emails to her over the next 3 months we never had the courtesy of a reply.

On 13th June 08 I contacted Nate asking if Jenn Seva still held a position at Groundspeak as she was no longer replying to my enquiries. I forwarded Nate a summary of our findings including copies our email communication from Chris Hooker, his partner Vera, and our replies (as posted above).

Groundspeaks findings and decision:

Nate got to back to us this same day with a finding from Groundspeak:

X-Apparently-To: xxxx@xtra.co.nz
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:00:54 -0700
Authentication-Results: mta104.tnz.mail.aue.yahoo.com  from=groundspeak.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Subject: RE: Complaints Process
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:02:37 -0700
From: “Nate Irish” <XXXX@groundspeak.com>
To: “Kathy & Andy <xxxx@xtra.co.nz>
User-Agent: Kerio Outlook Connector (6.5.1.6098)

Hi Kathy,

Thank you for sending this info. I must say that I’m very impressed with the investigation you conducted. I know that it must have been hard for you to spend so much energy on this matter, but I hope the outcome satisfies you.

I reviewed your email with my superior and we were both apalled. Our decision is that funkymonkeyzone should no longer have website priveleges. In addition we are revoking his distributor account from Shop Groundspeak. This decision is permanent and final, on both accounts.

In the future I will be check in to make sure Mr. Hooker does not attempt to circumvent the ban by creating new accounts. Chances are you might notice something before I do, so please be sure to let me know if that happens.

Again, I’m very sorry you had to go through all this. I know it must have been extremely disheartening to have a fellow geocacher treat your caches in such a manner. I’m sure it is a comfort, however, to know that this one bad apple is not representative of the rest of your caching community.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Best,

Nate

It was no secret in the geocaching community that Chris /  FMZ was still actively geocaching, in fact despite being caught on video and claiming responsibility for vandalising  GC18B74: Stones throw (Auckland) on 27th February by the 9th March he was back logging his finds and continued to do so right up to 13th June 08 when Groundspeak labelled his funkymunkyzone account at Geocaching.com as “banned”.

In fact Chris continued to cache from that day forward, a quick look at his cache finds stats show this to be factually correct, and it’s at this point that Groundspeaks credibility started to unravel.

Groundspeak Recants:

Chris was banned on the 13th June, yet on the 16th June he logged his find on the cache Waiting for the Bus (M.I.P #17) (Auckland) , on the 19th June he logged his find on the cache Trees for Babies (Auckland) , on and on he went, actively geocaching and logging his cache finds.

Groundspeak was aware of this and obviously condoned this continuation because when they failed to uphold their own findings they then merged all 97 of the cache finds Chris Hooker obtained during the period he was banned with his original geocaching.com account, funkymunkyzone.

On 13th December 2008, Groundspeak reinstated funkymunkyzone to a “Premium Member”. I contacted Nate, who had processed our previous complaint, seeking an explanation as to why Groundspeak had recanted on:

Our decision is that funkymonkeyzone should no longer have website priveleges. In addition we are revoking his distributor account from Shop Groundspeak. This decision is permanent and final, on both accounts.

Nate replied on the 17th December 08:

X-Apparently-To: xxxx@xtra.co.nz
Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:18:42 -0800
X-Originating-IP: [66.150.167.157]
Authentication-Results: mta101.tnz.mail.aue.yahoo.com  from=groundspeak.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Subject: RE: RE: Complaints Process
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:18:41 -0800
From: “Nate Irish” <xxx@groundspeak.com>
To: “Kathy & Andy” <xxxx@xtra.co.nz>
User-Agent: Kerio Outlook Connector (6.6.0.6924)

Hi Kathy,

I’m very sorry for the delay. I’m just back from a week holiday with my family and am quite dismayed to learn this whole “unbanning” has gone on without my knowledge. I’ve had a chance now to review the email chain that led up to this action and I am very disappointed at how it was handled.

What happened is that my coworker here, in concert with the cofounder, received a heartfelt email from funkymunkyzone requesting access to the account, on the basis that he has learned his lesson and found productive ways to benefit the geocaching community during the previous six months. Had I been here I would have insisted you be contacted for your input before any decision was made, as you were the one who was victimized from the beginning. That was not how it was handled, however. That said, I have to agree that funkymunkyzone’s pledges to be respectful to the game and players seem sincere, and I think that we should not have any more problems from here on out. I certainly hope not.

Again, I’m so terribly sorry you were not brought into the loop. I wish it could be done differently but the decision has been made over my head. It is unthinkable to me that we should have any more problems with this person, but if so please contact me immediately for assistance. There will be no more leniency after this.

Best regards,

Nate

in closing:

Many an employer, potential business partner or advertiser will use the internet as a research tool to gain insight into the behaviour, culture and social standing of a person, professional or otherwise, or an organisation, commercial or otherwise, in fact you don’t have to look too far to see that many a job has been retracted because of the contents readily available via the myriad of social networking websites or personal blogs; Equally so many blossoming business relationships have been terminated or questioned due to the experiences conveyed by previous clients, customers or associates.

This blog entry, and our previous posting “Cache Trasher“, has been our own personal experience dealing with Chris Hooker aka funkymunkyzone and Groundspeak, the governing body of Geocaching.com.

The email below, dated 17th December 2008, is my reply to Nate, it sums up my own personal feelings on the issue thus far.

My reply to Nate on 17th December 2008:

From: Kathy & Andy [mailto:xxxx@xtra.co.nz]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 1:41 PM
To: Nate Irish
Subject: RE: Complaints Process

Morning Nate

I am appalled that Groundspeak made no attempt to contact us during what can only be called a closed appeal process and I strongly believe that we have been treated with profound disregard and disrespect. For Groundspeak to then merge Chris’s accounts together is abhorrent, making the “ban” futile, and one can’t help but feel victimised yet again.

Since joining Groundspeak we also considered ourselves to be members of the geoaching community and felt that our contributions were also valid, this is quite clearly not the case, at least as far as Groundspeak is concerned as we have been treated quite differently to Chris. One can only assume it’s because he’s a long standing member, whereas we are quite new, and that it is in fact “all about the numbers”, something which would go towards explaining Groundspeaks decision to reinstate and then merge his accounts.

It’s deeply concerning to hear that what is considered to be a heartfelt email from Chris, to a commercial entity such as Groundspeak, which deals with people, personalities and human nature every day, can override any previous findings and decisions made, all without any consideration towards our heartfelt feelings, our property and our own commitment and contributions to the geocaching community.

In the weeks leading up to 28th February Chris methodically and willfully vandalised our property, on each occasion driving a minimum of 45 minutes to get to each destination to destroy our hard work and our own contributions to the geocaching community. We committed endless hours of time, resources and a lot of money into finding factual information to present to Groundspeak, we also enlisted the help of others outside of the geocaching community who generously gave up their own time and resources in the belief that ‘good’ and fairness will prevail. Groundspeak clearly has a different set of morals and values that they operate under which is greatly discouraging, not only to ourselves, but to other members, both new and old, who strive to contribute to the geocaching community in a positive manner with respect for others.

Chris has not endured any hardship whatsoever, he wasn’t financially disadvantaged by having to replace vandalised caches nor was he penalised in any way, in fact Chris’s geocaching life has continued as if nothing ever happened. He continued to geocache from 16th June 08, 3 days after the so called “ban” was put in place, right through the remainder of the month, and through August, September, October, November and December. This fact is clearly evident as his now ‘unbanned’ account contains all the geocaching activities during the period of the supposed ban.

If he was truly sorry and had in fact committed the last 6 months to contributing to the community as a whole surely he would have taken responsibility for all of our caches and contents he destroyed rather than just the one with the video surveillance. One would have thought he would also have taken the time to replace the caches and the contents and to put some effort into finding the contents and contributions of others along with the custom made containers that he destroyed. Alas, this is not the case and I suspect the only people who have benefited from is just one, Chris himself.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Regards
Kathy