if you caugh the guys red handed doing what? finding a treestand in a garbage bag? or using the tree stand that he found in a garbage bag. it wouldnt have been stolen property, it would have been found property. you, being a cop should know that and you being a cop should know that a judge would laugh at you trying to press charges on this guy. your post says you were hunintg the past saturday and that the incident took place the day of your post. the post is dated the 17th which is wednesday. so you left your stand, laying on the ground for more than three days in a public forest. so its not like you left it there, walked to your car and than came right back for it. you abandoned it for over 3 DAYS!!! imagine you come back, your stand is gone and you see a guy that has a stand that looks exactly like yours, too bad, you cant do a thing about it. lemme give a senario, i have this stand im carrying throught the woods and i hear some jackle neck calling me over, out of courtesy i stop and wait for him to walk to me. he says, that stand looks just like mine and mine was stolen, im a cop (show a badge), hand over your stand or im going to arrest you. my response would be, "your crazy, go f-yourself and im giveing you 3 seconds to to distance your self from me otherwise im gong to put my foot in your A$$."

liquidorange,

your analogy is dumb. try this one, say your laying on the beach and you have a money clip with three hundred dollars in it. you decide you dont want to carry the money clip back home so you decide to put the money clip in a garbage bag and bury it on the beach for 3 days. next day a guy with a metal detector find your money clip with 300 dollars in it, is he a thief, did he steal the money cip, is a slob metal detector user, would anyone have a chance in hell trying to press charges on a guy for having in his possesion a money clip he found on the beach with a metal detecor?