I personally wouldn’t.
One action can lead to other actions and consequences 
On the one hand, you might be putting yourself in the crosshairs of someone who has shown obsessive, destructive behaviour. On the other hand, this person has consequences coming to them, too. Maybe Richie can talk to local authorities before taking any action to go over the feasibility of his direct involvement.
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Just to confirm I’ve received communication from the wayfarer team that they are still reviewing the additional evidence I’ve supplied them over the past couple of days. This was on the back of my initial abuse report
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Oh dear, i’ve just had the scripted reply that the wayfarer points don’t meet their acceptance criteria and their decision stands to retire the waypoint 
A little frustrating that this is not what I want, I can get the trail markers replaced however firm action against the individual involved in removing them the game so I can personally see to getting all these markers replaced
@NianticAaron sorry for the tag and if this is not appropriate however I really need this matter to be addressed correctly, can you kindly advise on the situation
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Don’t worry, disappointment is commonplace around these parts. They are really good at getting your hopes up and then dashing them quite effectively.
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You’ve had a lot of trail marker removal issues without the criminal damage side havent you! 
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Yep, at least the trailmarker-hating Ingress players in my area don’t seem to resort to vandalism just yet.
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Yeah so annoying, like have you actually been reading what I’ve been reporting to you 
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I’m hoping that the Wayfarer team’s recent silence in this thread is because they are taking it seriously and seeking out some really good advice.
This wouldn’t be the first time that players of Niantic games have been blamed - fairly or unfairly - for vandalism. This is exactly the type of story that can end up making waves well beyond the environs of Ipswich.
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I hope so, however it takes literally 1minute to say this, I’ve sent them numerous emails to them on this topic. I’ve acted on all advice given to me here either directly by the Wayfarer team, their ambassadors and the kind members of the community whom have kindly shared their thoughts and advice on this topic.
Local Council Notifed
Police report made
Provided detail timings of all events, with locations and waypoint titles and photos of damage
I’ve already had responses from the local council who have given me their great appreciation that I’ve kept them updated and offered my assistance in looking at crowd funding and personally seeing to these markers being replaced. I’ve received a crime reference number from the local police, and confirmation they have requested CCTV footage from national rail and I’ve also gone and received quotations for the replacement trail markers.
All I’ve had from Niantic is the wayspots and in violation of their polices and they stand by their decision to retire them.
I’ve got all parties waiting on feedback from Niantic and we have no idea what the current status is, meanwhile this player is allowed to continue to vandalise public property, as there are two remaining portals which I guess have now been destroyed, they have access to so many more at the same time 
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Just had an update
Basically they are not interested and seem very happy to allow for this player to continue to cause damage to public property
I guess this is why there has been no response
@NianticAaron perhaps you would like to elaborate to your community further why no action against this player will be taken
I can’t do anything while you allow this player to continue to play your game despite what I see as overwhelming evidence that they are causing the damage.
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That’s just disgusting and has ruined my breakfast. I knew some Ingress players were fussy but my oh my that is the worst. I’m over in Warwickshire and have done probably half the county haha. I’ve never had any trail markers be removed that I know of, near me. I do hope this individual is singled out and hastily banned for Waypoint abuse. I do often see your Orange Suffolk markers on the showcase, well I did at some point. All the best.
Drac.
P.S. Don’t forget about the excellent NCN markers. Those cant be removed.
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It seems the removal requests are under the foundation of a specific reason, which in the strange logic of Niantic seems to trump all common sense. It’s sad but still very alarming. On the back bone also of all the stuff in the Netherlands… Niantic seems to be on the same back foot. Hopefully tho they remain impartial and do not favour this Ingress players reasons for removal…
Drac.
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The thing with NCN too is that even if they did damage, deface or manage to remove those, (who knows, maybe theyll start bringing a wider range of tools!!), the routes are incredibly well documented online and well maintained, so you can potentially argue the route still exists and the sign is only temporarily out of action, therefore waypoint removal isnt necessary
The destruction caused by this person is just dreadful and I will reiterate that Niantic is enabling their behaviour by rewarding their vandalism, so I think they need to stop removing these waypoints in response to anyone in the area - a change freeze for removals - until this can be sorted out
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In totally agree @frealafgb
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I know this is a difficult situation for you and that you are trying hard to rectify it to the extent you can. However, I think you are expecting far too much from Niantic. They are only able to review submissions and requests for removal from their database. If either falls into an abusive pattern, they can take action on the anbuser’s account(s). That’s it.
You have repeatedly showed your evidence of vandalism, but that is outside the scope of Niantic. For all they know, these signs have been removed for a legitimate purpose and you are misinforming them for your benefit. I AM NOT SAYING THAT IS TRUE just that it’s all a case of people telling Niantic things that they have no way…or frankly no interest in verifying. All they can manage is their database, that is all anyone can truly expect.
I think Richie would be pretty easily able to show that the markers were not removed legitimately by sharing correspondence with Niantic from the council and charity who maintain these routes. They’d be able to confirm that the removals were not official and that the routes are still valid.
So if that really were Niantic’s stance then that concern is easily resolved
I think the issue is that the actions Niantic are taking are validating to the vandal that their criminal damage is the correct action to take, by repeatedly acting on their vandalism and giving them what they want. If the waypoint removals stopped for a time, maybe the vandal would lose interest in their little spree law breaking. But for now, it works every time so why would they stop?
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Hey
thanks for the feedback. All I’m looking from Niantic is to the review the evidence provided in detail, there is a very clear pattern of submission → approval → publishing → vandalism → removal.
In recent examples this complete process has all happened within days, with vandalism being observed after 17hours of portals being published to the intel map.
I’m not expecting the wayfarer team to act as the police or look at taking criminal proceedings. I’m expecting them to have some accountability of their players very apparent abuse of their system and I honestly believe this type of targeted behaviour warrants account termination, Once they take action, I can then continue the work with the council and local trusts to repair and replace, as one complete walking trail has now completely vanished from my local community, and I would strongly argue that the service which Niantic provide they must have some type of duty of care over local communities and even myself a respected wayfinder within my community and their other members of their play base.
I really don’t think I’m asking of anything unresponsible of Niantic here, only to act within their own TOS
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They can’t deal with it, they won’t deal with it, they want you to stand in a bush with a video camera? Maybe you need to be a Dutch PvP player adding trail markers to get a ban?
No explanation at all?
Just a yeah, it’s not our problem?
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It’s with great pleasure that I can report some positive news.
The Wayfarer team have reinstated all of the vandalised portals. I will now continue to work with the local trust and council to getting these replaced and then eventually the wayfarer database updated with new photos. Hopefully seeing that going to this extreme will not make these waypoints going away will stop the person from doing it again
I would like to thank everyone who has shared their thoughts on this and particularly @elijustrying whom has been assisting me directly and discussing the matter with the team.
As mentioned I will be looking at crowd funding the replacement markers (if it’s permitted) I will share the required donating link here once it’s all set up, if anyone would like to kindly contribute to repairing and reinstalling these markers.
Thanks everyone
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