Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I've heard plenty of stories about tree-stands, trail cameras, bows and guns or even deer being stolen, has this ever happened to any of you?


I became a member of the club no one wants to be a part of this past weekend. Some Jerk stole my trail camera off my own property!!! (This land has plenty of Posted signs) The camera was a Moultrie Digital, with battery and memory card, approx. $135 value. The money isn't what bothers me that much, it is the thought that somebody stole it off my land!!! It really made me think about some of the people we have walking around sharing this country with. To me, it is disgusting.

Since Ilast checkedthe camera on Sunday the 7th, which it rained all day and checked it again this past Saturday, gone! I think it was stolen during the week, either by a coon hunter, who got caught trespassing (picture taken of them) and decided to take it or by someone who just happened to see it walking the woods and took it.

I had the camera pad locked closed, so someone will have to cut the lock off, which may be hard to do, because of how tight the lock is to the camera, or they will have to break it open to get inside. Either that, or they just pitched it in a ditch or pond, hiding the evidence.

Hopefully, their conscious will get the best of them (if they have one) they will break into the camera, delete the pictures of themand put the camera back where it belongs. What would these people think ifthis camerawas some little kid's Christmas present that they stole?

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I have had around 6 lock on stolen and probably around 50 screw in steps and 2 sets of climbing sticks.

I also had a cam stolen this year. I had it lag bolted to the tree from the inside. The just snapped it right off the tree.

I have also had 2 3D targets stolen.

Countless stuff borrowed by buddies that I never saw again, I no longer loan any of my gear toanyone except for one buddy and my brother.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Yes , half of my season.
My daughter had a baby about 4 months ago, and my wife arranged to babysit him for the grand sum of $50 per week + $10 for doing their laundry to save our daughter some money and make a little change for herself since she's unemployed and likely to remain so. They live right across the river from where I work, a 30 mile drive, so my wife just assumed that she could commute there with me, we don't have a second car(yet). She neglected to remember that while I frequently get off work at 2:30 to 3:00 pm our daughter doesn't, which means I have to toddle over there after work and wait for her to come home, which lately has been nearly 5:00 pm. By the time we get home it's nearly dark, so my hunting time has pretty much been reduced to just weekends. When she first told me of this grand scheme she was mystified by my angry reaction until I explained how hard she had just screwed me. Tax time is just around the corner and I plan to go to a local auction and buy a gas sipper car for commuting , just wait until she finds out that I plan to let her drive my 20 mpg Explorer back and forth when October 1st comes back around. Between the $35 per month for the insurance and the cost of the gas I'm confident that she'll feel just as trapped and pissed off as I did.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Not hunting.....but I had a few TLD reels stolen out of my garage in SC.

I had a stand stolen, last year....but it was returned.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I find it funny that most women do not really know how passionate their men are about our sport. It's not done on purpose, they really do not know. I figure that if they actually knew just how important this was to us, they'd have run it by their men before commiting to their plan.

Non-hunters are the worst! My in-laws found it shocking that I refused to go to Jamaca for a November anniversary party!!!???? They could not comprehend that I wanted to stay home and hunt for deer, something that I've done for 40 years???!!:eek:

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Mine isn't necessarily hunting gear, but it happened while I was tracking my buck this year. While I was in the woods looking for the buck I had shot the night before someone broke out the back window of my SUV, opened all the doors, rifled through everything, and stole my digital camera and a flashlight. They left the $1300 bow where it was (thank goodness) so it was evident they were on foot and in a hurry.[:@]

The cost of the new back window and replacing the flashlight and camera turned what would have been a shoulder mount into a skull mount. At least I got my buck though.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Last winter I had my climber stolen off of my land. It occured when the local road department was working on a road adjacent to my woods. Pretty suspicious if you ask me but not a thing I can do about it!

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I had a brand new Summit Climber stolen that was hanging on the back of my garage. I leave it hanging there so it doesn't pick up garage odor.
I can't figure out how they knew it was there.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Cuddebacks and treestands.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I don't know if I'd exactly call it stolen. I believe I would call that "sacraficing" to help family.JMHO.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

hi everyone, im new here. this is a subject i take very seriously. i live in southeastern pa, where people feel that they can roam where ever they want. we have had numerous stands stolen, from hangons to climbers, to the worst, homemade wooden ladder stands. i haven had any cams messed with but am very picky where i put them. the worst thing ever stolen was deer. not once but twice. the first one i found with the head cut off the morning after i shot it. the other the whole deer was taken. both died in open fields along roads.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Just one Lone Wolf climber so far.Yea right, "just"($350)[:@]
Oh yea, it was cable locked![&o]

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Yup..I too had a tree cam stolen. I knew it was some kids that I had seen back in my woods so I confronted them. Told them I just wanted it back...no questions asked. Well, I finally got it back, and it was broken beyond repair. Irks me royally! I have also lost tree stands and ladders as well as tree steps. But of alllll of the things I have had stolen, the one thing that makes me the maddest is when several A-holes stole my recreation opportunities by trespassing and hunting on my land......again!!! One even shot at a buck with his Glock and then had the nerve to ask me if he could track it. You feel really violated when someone steals something, but when they steal your hunting too, it makes you wonder what the world is coming to!!!!

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Only ideas and information.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Had a stand stolen last year.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I had a guy steal a mountain bike (Trek hardtail), my varmint rifle, my PS2 and 2 bookbags full of hunting equipment/random electronics/liquor/personal itemsall from my parents'driveway with the patio lights on.

Early Summer - I'd just moved home from college, and left my car in my parents' driveway still loaded with stuff(very safe neighborhood up to that point), and I went inside to hang out with the family for a while, planning on heading out to bring everything inside later. Car was unlocked, but we never locked our cars before - very safe neighborhood. I got home at8, and went back out there at11. Some scumbag must have been sneaking through the neighborhood going car-to-car emptying change trays when he hit the motherlode in my car. He stood in my driveway, put a thousand-dollar mountain bike together (front wheel was removed and it was stuffed in the hatch), went through the car, picking and choosing items to steal with the two duffel bags available. He found my varmint rifle buried under everything and wrapped in a blanket. Then, he rode off into thedarkness on my bike with my varmint rifle on his back, wearing my favorite backpack, and my hockey duffel bag on the handlebars. Note: there were lights on and people inside the house moving aroundthe whole time!

His luck ran out, b/c I went outside to get everything probably five minutes after he left. Enraged, I jumped in my car and caught up to him along the road. I saw the reflectors going, and the telltale reflective striping on my Ripcurl bag, and I stomped it to the floor, turbo screaming and I was chirping tires in every gear as I approached. I would have centered him on the hood if he'd have stayed on the road.

Lucky for him, heknew the gig was up, dumped the bike on a roadside bank, ran up the bank before I could run him over, dumped the gear, and ran down through the woods. I ran him down and cornered him on a pair of railroad tracks. It was dark, but I could tell he was a skanky black guy - probably a heroin addict. Real skinny and reeked of liquor. I told him that I was gonna kill him right there, and I picked up a good solid limb, and he started blathering about how he has kids and all this business. Promised to never step in my neighborhood again, and emptied his pockets on the railroad bed. Said he needed money for his kids' birthday. Sunken cheeks, scarred up face, just a rough looking old man probably in his late 50's. He was breathing and crying so hard, he said he thought he was having a heart attack.

By that time, traffic was stopped up on the main road, where my car was half off the road with the keys in the ignition, and I was worried that somebody was stealing my stuff again, so I had time to think about it and told him to get lostb/c I had toget back up and load everything back into the car. I made it real clear what would happen if he ever stepped into my neighborhood again. After I got back to the car, I got the police out there to filea report, but since I recovered everything, they dropped the ball on the investigation. I'm not real broke up about it anyway, b/c maybe that's what theold skeezer needed - to fear for his life. Spending a night in the slammer or paying a fine is one thing, but genuinely feeling that your life is about to end, thathas a way of changing people.

I've never been that enraged before or after. I reallymay have killed that guy if I knew I wouldn't have caught AIDS for touching him. Crazy. I hope I never get that mad again. I mean, you just walk outside and see your car hanging open with clothes and stuff strewn all through the yard, and you realize that somebody just ripped off your $1000 varmint rig, and a $1000 mountain bike that was my BABY, along with 2 packs filled with every personal item I owned... It just goes through you like a fire. He even had my hockey gloves. What's a ghetto black man gonna do with hockey gloves? Seriously.


Edit: I always tell this story, b/c it illustrates how stealing can evoke acrazy reaction out of the parties involved, even if you're a guy who doesn't have a volatile personality. No matter which end of the theft you're on, you're putting yourself at risk of getting into a really bad situation. Maybe I overreacted at the time, but I know if either of us had a handgun, one of us would probably still be laying in the railroad bed, and the other would probably be sitting in a jail cell. Just something to think about.

I was lucky to be able to look back at the whole situation and get a laugh out of it, but honestly, it was really close to ending really badly.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Yes, after hunting an area since 1997, I puttwo hang-on stands up in a split walnut tree that had deer trails below itthat resembledthe spokes of awagon wheel for my youngest daughters first season.

Problem was that I placed the stands in this area in early fall. And latter in the year, once the leavesfell, left the stands in fullview from the county road to the south.

Some ingrate stole the stands by cutting the cables, leaving the locks intact as thoughthey thought that I could re-use them. How considerate!!!

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

In the past 5 years my son and my father-in-law have had 4 tree stands stolen off public land in Northern Michigan.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I had a ladder stand stolen but the worst was a neighbor, a pregnant female 7 months or so along shot a beautiful 10pt we were all after. She field dressed and tagged. Then proceeded to the house approx 1/2 mile away to get the 4-wheeler. upon returning the deer was gone. She followed the drag marks to an open field where it appeared to be loaded on a wheeler. Warden gave her another tag but trophy lost forever. Makes me sick!!!!

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

Once I had a fish stolen out of the back of my truck. I was surf casting for stripers and caught one that probably went about 15 pounds. I had it in a cut off bottom of a 55 gallon drum in the bed of my truck covered with a wet towel. After the action slowed down, I moved to a different beach and saw a friend fishing there. He started razzing me about how I hadn't caught anything, so i showed him my catch. After shutting him up and putting it back, we both decided to check out a different location. We spent maybe a half hour casting with no luck, and decided to call it a day. We got back to the trucks and he just wanted to see the fish one more time, and *POOF* it was gone. I can only suspect someone who saw me show the fish to my friend followed us and grabbed the fish up while we were busy casting. What ticks me off is if someone was hungry or even if he realllly admired the fish, I would have given it to them. I'm sure someone just wanted to sell it illegally to a local restaraunt for some $$.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I had a climber stand stolen early in the season. Then a couple weeksago someone trashed my fish housetrying to break into it. All the other houses got busted into and they stole a bunch of stuff from them. They couldn't get in mine so they cut my gas line and turned gas on to drain the tank.A bighole through the window and two big puncture holes right next to the door latchwhere they tried to pry the door open.Good thing they didn't get in cuz I had a electric lazer mag auger and all my rods and tackle in there. Left it all over night cuz I was coming out early next day and just didn't feel like loading it up. Never leave anything out there again.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

I had a trail cam and treestand sstole.

RE: Have you ever had something hunting-related stolen?
 

It would be sacrificing if she had asked me to do it and I had agreed, but she just announced it out of the blue one day as though it were a done deal and I had no say in the matter. They didn't even discuss it with me and she's the only one benefitting from the deal, I'm getting a total hosing. But that's ok, the insurance on a beater car is at least $35 per month, and the gas will be at least $30-35 per week. She also smokes about $20 per week, so that $60 per week she's making won't go nearly as far once that begins. She stole my season from me and I'm gonna fix it to where she'll be babysitting the kid for nearly nothing before it's over so she can feel just as trapped into it as I was. I'm gonna be real unpopular come October 1st...