I only have had one trap stolen that I know of. What was worse, back in the 80’s when fisher fetched big bucks, a deer hunter stole a fisher out of one of my running pole sets. His tracks in the snow went to my set, trap sprung and pole chewed up some fur stuck to trap jaws. Later I was told that the hunter was trying to sell a fisher he had. He was a older guy and died shortly after that incident, so I never was able to confront the SOB.

I've had probably 50-80 (25+ one night) or so stolen over the 40+ years I've been trapping. I'm way ahead money wise though by not skipping higher profile locations for fear of theft. I've caught a lot of fur that was easily seen by others that chose not to steal my stuff.

Only three times since I got back into trapping 25 years ago. Two were trespassing dog walkers and the third time a hunter. In all three cases I got my traps back and in one case the thief was successfully prosecuted.

I've had traps intentionally sprung and occasionally destroyed but only three incidences of theft.

Now back in the fur boom days is a different story, lots of theft of critters and gear back then.

I’ve had the odd bear problem but no two legged ones……yet.
Got a pic yesterday of a couple clowns that look to be targeting beaver down our line. I know it’s crown land, but once you drive by a box and are following fresh snowmobile tracks, turn around and find the next trail or cut your own like we did. The good thing is, Freezers a LEO, I’m good buddies with the local COs and the 3rd pic is a perfect shot of their faces with a plate number on the $25000 Expidition…….lol.
I’ll find out next Monday morning.

A good friend had a few beaver sets stolen a few miles from my place. I call the road “trap thief ally”. So I went and posted on the local FB group says that whoever stole the sets, they forgot to take the cam on the other side of the ditch and I knew who’s vehicle was in the nonexistent pic. They had a week to put them back and said that they’d probably rather deal with a CO than the owner of the traps.
2 days later 2 out of 3 sets were laying in the grass.

One this year.

Whoever did it used bolt cutters to cut off the drowning lock off the cable drowner.

No trap in the bed, pulled up the weights and no trap no drowning lock.

I could see DP's being easy to spot and stolen, but I sometimes can't find my own darn sets. How are non-hunters/trappers finding some of your traps?

Trap and fur theft was part of trapping more back when I got started in the 60s than it is now. The 70s and 80s were worse. Trapping primarily public waters. I took these acts very personally at the time. Went to great lengths to catch the repeaters and occasionally caught them in the act. The payback these thieves received would certainly land me in jail today, but at the time I was much younger and it seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

I believe the hardcore fur thieves are either too old now or dead and gone. Their offspring are probably too lazy to continue the lifestyle or see no monetary benefit to it. Any theft I experience now appears to be appears to be random and happenstance. Occasionally I have an opportunity to educate a young person that results in a positive experience for both of us.

Encounters with other trappers on public waterways have evolved into friendly discussions as time passes on. What a change from the fur boom days.

And I do consider the 60s to be the "fur boom" years for me. I call it McDonald's math. Was a big deal when the folks went to McDonald's and Dad gave my brother and me a dollar to spend any way we wanted. That meant 4 hamburgers, fries, and a shake, with enough yet to pay the tax. Figure out what that meal would cost you today.

Muskrats I trapped back then roughly averaged a buck. That was my fur boom.

Fur boom time was about enough to make an honest person give it up

If you had lots of private ground maybe you had it made during the fur boom.Public land was something else

As bad as the thieves are those who think they need to kill your trapped animal. My nicest coyote this year went in the trash because a deer hunter felt the need to put a basketball sized exit wound in it. Don't know what he, or she, was shooting, but it was the biggest exit wound I've ever seen on a coyote.

Back in the early 80's I lost many high dollar coyotes to bird hunters. That was a hard pill to swallow when I depended heavily on fur sales to pay bills.

When I was a kid, late teens, still in high school, I set up a muskrat line with nearly every trap I had. Ice was just out, the rats were active and prices were high. A thief cleaned me out first night. 70 traps. What kind of a cretin steals from a kid? I always had an idea who did it but couldn't prove it and the conservation officer whom I contacted to report it just shrugged his shoulders and said "fur prices are high, it happens." And that was the extent of his investigation.

It's so easy and cheap to run a cell cam these days, if I was getting theft i'd have some hidden ones out for sure.

Back during the fur boom of the 80's, here in Wisconsin, you had anywhere from 2 to 5 trappers at each bridge. That's when I started getting permission on every bridge I trapped both upstream and downstream. It effectively cut off the competition. Most of these farms I'm still trapping 45 to 50 years later. I pretty much have no theft any more. Granted there aren't near as many trappers now with the low fur prices.

Anytime I may have a coyote that can be seen i run a drag just to make sure everything is discreet and with beaver if you can use drowning rigs as much as you can no on will ever know what's going on and atleast mitigates theft issues. I had a guy once try and steal a foothold, I used really long wolf fangs and weld all of my swivels, I watched from a far him trying to pull it out of the ground was not successful and somehow cut his hand cause there was blood everywhere. 🤣

Could fill a pickup box with the equipment I've had stolen.

Raccoons like to walk off with rats and mink. Tug until the stake comes loose. Sometimes you find the traps back sometimes you don’t. Probably happens more than we think.