Your coolest thievery story

My favorite I've had done to me is..

Caught a nice double on coons. Both were skun and they put the coons feet back in the trap.. Pretty neat

Had a coon blatantly stolen in high school by the land owner and told me I had caught a cat

Years back I had a guy stealing coon next to a road culvert at night he tried to make it look like it escaped. I pulled the trap and left a present for the guy.

I had someone exchange a stuffed teddy bear for my raccoon in a 220.

Had a guy steal a cat out of my trap, then post on fb how he was blessed with a nice big Tom. lol. Eric

Had a fresh caught marten in my sleigh,it was still floppy.While I was in checking another set I saw a big raven swoop down and grab the marten and fly off with it.$180 bucks(avg that year) gone with the wind.
Now I bag everything.

Nice catch!!!

had 10 williams cage traps in shed...stole 9 left me one for varmints i guess

Wonder how long the Raven had been planning the heist

Didn't happen to me but to a friend of mine.His wise guy neighbor used to sneak in his chicken coop and steal eggs.(not a big deal as they pranked each other all the time)So,,my buddy went out early and swapped out the fresh eggs with hard boild ones,,then sat back and waited for the phone call.

had some coon hunters take my DP and leave the coon after their dog had a fun time tearin it apart once

I've never had a cool thief story. They all suck.

Not thievery but beaver peeler put I life sized baby doll in one of my 330’s once and tossed it out in the slough I was trapping.

In the last coon boom, I had 2 coons stolen out of traps along a fence line. Catch circles full of dog tracks. The last set was skunk, still alive, very odorous, and surrounded by dog tracks also. Karma ruled that day, I guess.

That said, I hate thieves.

Not with fur but a few years ago some crack heads were checking car doors, well the wife had her purse in hers and is mighty trusting. She goes to work and the bank calls and ask about some charges. She goes out and looks for said purse. Gone ! She calls me. I tell her to start putting stops on all cards, she didn’t have numbers so she goes to the mall, Cabelas first. They just left with 100’s$$ spent. Kohl’s they just left denied jewelry she calls me. I start calling the other mall, JC pennys , maceys, they take my number and call me right back. Security has eyes on them. So after finding out security can’t just kill them I have to call the police and get them hooked to security. (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman). Ok done, get a call back they left the property but have a description of the vehicle and direction of travel. Few minutes later I get a call from police they spotted the vehicle in the parking lot of REI. Now they are watching surveillance footage from mall security to make sure they get the right guys. While all this was going on I was in a garbage truck trying to work. As I head up to the highway on-ramp I’m going by REI’s parking lot and see 5 cops surrounded a green van. Guys getting cuffed. Great! Try as hard as I could, could not get REI to have vehicle towed even after 5 days. Cops tell my wife they never get to catch them. Then our POS district attorney says with Covid they don’t have resources to prosecute. I guess at least everything got returned, the Sitka jacket was peeled off the skumbag. And I hope the withdraws where horrible.

Western Wildlife Services

They Do... I hate thieves

Not enough pages on here! But I was checking tras once and a car pulls up ,the guy gets out and down the ditch he goes and pops up with a mink wasn't mine and he hollers to the car and says so and so 's trap . the guy in the car says take the mink leave the trap .

LOL, That's messed up, and funny as scat!

Had a trap stolen they left the coon two empty shot shells boot prints in the mud and the coon was well ventilated

Not trapping related, but one of our Peace Corps nurses was on her way to a lab to have some feces samples checked for parasites and a guy reached into her purse and grabbed the brown paper sack all the samples were in and ran away.

I had a couple coon traps stolen. Just after I saw they were gone the guy called and apologized and went brought my traps back to the location

Oh geez, I forgot about this one:

During the last ballot measure to ban trapping in Oregon the anti's had attack ads with a bunch of "facts", anecdotes, etc. One of those was how indiscriminate traps were and the story of a young woman who got her arm caught in a 330. Turns out that one of our better trappers (now passed) had a legally set underwater 330 on private property and this young gal saw it and was trying to steal it to save animals. She had to wear it in to the sheriffs office to have it removed if I remember correctly.

The only screwy part of the story was our guy didn't want to press charges as he figured she had suffered enough.

Not me but my dad had Muskrat stole out of a shed one night.tracks in the snow led back to a neighbors house.when they were confronted they denied taking them.dont remember how many but was quite a bit of money back in the 70s when rats were good money.

Caught a coon in trail with a 160, it was stolen, trap was reset and put back on the stand, but not the way I do it. I remember Dad saying once he had a red fox stolen from him and the thief reset the trap and left it lying on top of the gournd!

Cuz an i were out trapping beaver there was a bounty on this one spot for beaver as they were flooding the road so we set it up caught one the first day second day pull up an there's a guy pulled over there with a fresh wet beaver in his truck ..the 330 was fired an threw off to the side guy denied it up an down but we knew what he did was just a small kit but 25 dollar bounty on the tail he peeled out of there never to be seen again

Not trapping but about 15 years ago I was buying Silver Dollar City tickets on craigslist. Had done it before but always by check. Emailed person and they want me to money wire them at Wal-Mart. Only time I have ever wired money and as we were in a time crunch to get them before we left I did. Three days go by and no tickets. I email and tell the person if this was a scam then just let me know and I will move on so can get tickets some other way. Get emailed back saying how dare I accuse them of scamming, hurt their feelings, sad story, etc. and they did send them. So I apologize and two days later we leave without tickets and they never came. I'm sure they got a laugh out of the deal.

I caught one of my thieves one time and beat the snot out of him. Worked him real good.

I was in high-school and fox were bringing good money then. Had one set with a fresh catch circle with fox tracks, scat and cowboy boot tracks. Seen the farmer combining n a field close by so stopped to talk to him. Didn't know anything about it but fresh blood on his cowboy boots and the gloom of his combine said otherwise. Pulled all my traps and never went back.

Back in the '70's when I first started trapping, I made a nice coon set on a wide trail, almost like a two-track. I used a long hardwood drag just like I read about in some of the trapping mags and books.
Next day went to check the set. Trap and drag gone. Up the trail a ways, there lay my drag and trap. It had a pig hide that had been skinned out and the hide was left in my trap with the foot in trap.
Never figured that one out. No one around that area had hogs. One of the strangest things I've encountered. I still wonder who found that hog and skinned it out.

Saudi Arabia they cut your hand off for stealing, now that may curb the US stealing problem.

That's the wrong way to look at it. Take all the money from a anti trapping tree hugger!.

When I was in high school I was trapping rats on a river, two days in a row i had all the rats stolen. Well the next day I skipped school and got to the river in the dark, sure enough here the thief came, I saw him go up to the upper end of the sets so I snuck down to the lower end sure enough here he came with a dozen rats. I stood up from behind a big bolder, he dropped the rats and tried to run. I got ahold of him smoothed up his head a few times and threw him in the river. Never had any more thefts

I was snareing coyotes one time, had someone take 2 coyotes with the snares. That evening I had a young cowboy come to the house and wanted to know if I'd buy a couple coyotes from him, yep my coyotes and they still had my snares on them. He said he had snared them, l said how come they have my trap tag on your snares? I told him if I lost anymore coyotes I was coming to see him. Never lost any more

Here's an opposite..

Had a trap location all pre ready. Been spraying urine on this end of a log when we'd go on a wheeler ride.
Opening day pull up with trap in hand and there lay a $5 bill exactly where I was gonna set the trap..

When I was about 14 years old I had a muskrat trap set on a floating log in the creek at our cabin on the lake.
There was a kid same age from the city whose folks had a camp on the lake not far away.He was banned from hanging out with me and coming to our camp cause I drank a bit of whiskey once in a while
Anyway I found my rat trap knocked off the notch on the log a couple times and had seen that kid hanging around that area a few times previously.
Anyway I caught up with him one day and worked him over for knocking my trap off the log even though he whined profusely that he didnt do it..
I found out later from an old trapper that I should have a bit of sod on the log notch to keep the rats from knocking it off,lol.

I had 17 cage traps stolen. I know who did it and it's not over yet.

Some stories are better not told if a guy was smart about it.

Most of mine are not funny but one thief in particular was so stupid I did laugh about it. Apaerently he went back to his truck to get a pair of bolt cutters so he could steal my 220 that was cable staked to the ground, guess he couldn't pull it, but the really stupid part is he cut the SPLIT RING that attached the trap to the stake. LOL Obviously too dumb to work a key ring. Yu can see it here with these broken snares...

Lol that’s great!

i guess i have a couple others about some fine fellow sportsmen.
first is bird hunters im assuming because of the area ( i always waited till late season and set in out of the way spots) found my trap smashed beyond recognition almost, hangin on a gate to state ground. hope they had fun yankin the chain stake by hand.
second im guessin late muzzle loader hunters, checkin coyote sets again on state ground. good bit of snow i see drags marks to the parkin lot. was super early but though to myself o thats cool that they got a deer. headin to my set i realize the drag marks are coming from that direction... sure enough had a coyote circle with blood in in and drag marks startin right there. atleast they left the trap on this on, prolly only due to chain stake in frozen ground.

I was having trouble and took a small muskrat put in my trap by the hind foot. After work I checked the trap. The rat was gone and there was a front foot in the trap. Ran into prime suspect later and told him exactly what I had done. He stood there and tried to explain how the rat escaped and left the front foot in the trap.

Was hammering foxes in Chester County, Amish farm surrounded by development, with some fox/horse people in the area.
Caught 3 doubles in a week, then had both traps ripped off. Amish told me they saw a strange truck drive in his lane in the evening. I asked him to get a tag number. I reset traps, with earth anchors, since the foxes kept coming.
A couple days later, the Amish farmer walked down the lane after seeing the thief truck return. On the way out the lane, the thief sped out the lane and hit the farmer with the side view mirror. He was knocked to the ground w a nasty shoulder bruise. He never got a tag number but it was an older guy, with gray/white hair. He gave up on the traps that were earth-anchored.

Darn guy swiped a good pair of Monty round jaws! I don’t like these guys having my name and address on my traps. I now use a registered trapper ID number.

I had a Bridger 1.65 stolen years ago. The thief left me a Gerber multi tool at the set worth much more than the trap.

Was trapping a swamp for rats under the ice that was close to the road, so I waded the inlet creek into the swamp so I would not leave tracks. I got to the edge of the ice and crawled up to check 1st trap. Stake did not look right, and trap was missing. Next set same thing. Rounded the corner and saw someone on the ice further up. I yelled and he took off running, dropping rats and traps as he ran. He had a good start on me, but I ran like h@#$ and saw him get into a car along the road and took off. I went back and collected dropped traps/rats and took a tally. Lost 3 160's plus couple rats. Called the ECON officer and told him the story and description of the guy and car. I asked him if it was legal to shoot trap thieves, he did not fine humor in that.

Back in the late 70s or early 80s, i was rat and minkin in a small crick. I carried mostly conibears because i could get a bunch in a backpack and i used a long light pine stick to stake them as they were easier to find even if the water rose. I start early one day and right away i could see they were gone, all of em. Not knowing what to do i walked all the way up to the bridge on the road and noticed on the same crick across the road, a bunch of light pine stakes all down through there. In the days before cell phones had to do things different i guess, went down and sure enough they still had my trap tags on them. I rounded them all up and went home, never did find out who exactly the culprit was but i was just happy to get my stuff back.
I could fill a pickup with all the ones i've had stolen over the years though.

About two years ago a neighbor of mine down the street (and fellow trapper) told me that something had been bothering him for a while.
I went to high school with this fellow,and at that time a lot of kids trapped in the bush around town,My line was west along the gas cut line,and then south along a creek. Him and another fellow trapped west along the rr.Now this is around 50 years ago.
Anyway this fellow and his friend lifted two number 2 ls traps I had set on a trail for fox.I had not even rememberd it until he mentioned it,then I remembered how mad I was at the time.
It had been bothering him for all that time I guess and he insisted on giving me 50 bucks to ease his conscience.lol.

Caught some trespassers and took pics of drivers license, VIN, tag, and made them call my phone so I’d have their number if anything went missing. I was bow hunting but had a pistol on my side that they apparently didn’t see when they told me they were leaving and would whip my tail if I didn’t let them. 2 of them and 1 of me. I set the bow down and pulled the pistol and laid it on the hood of my truck and asked one at a time or two on one? Guess they figured I knew something they didn’t so they started cooperating with my demands.

Two days later a camera went missing. I called each of them and told them they had three days for my camera to show back up or I’d be at their house to collect my moneys worth. One of the boys told me if I showed up his Dad would kick my tail. Now these were close to 30yr olds, lol. I told him to tell his Dad to eat his Wheaties cause they had three days and I’d whip his Dads tail and his. They both said it wasn’t them, and to be honest, I believed them. I told them they may not have done it, but they knew who did.

Day 2 my camera was on the tree with an orange ribbon around the tree to show me where it was since whoever took it forgot the tree it was on. The SD card was there but wiped clean. Ain’t had an issue with anything else stolen on the plantation since that day. We have had some kids walking through from one road to another. But once they were caught and exposed that quit as well.

Some good stories on stopping firewood theft, if you Google it

Nowadays he would be on the losing end of that deal.

I saw a door cam video from Portland when a person walked up to their car with someone underneath cutting off the catalytic converter. The thief’s car was parked there and idling. The guy hopped in his car and drove off with it before the thief could wriggle out from under the car.

Walked up on one of my fox sets. Trap was laying on top of the ground. Blood and big chunks of fox fur all over the place. Empty 12ga shotgun shell on the ground about 10 yards away and boot tracks leaving along the edge of the field the same way they came in. Figured they were hunting rabbits or squirrels and saw the fox and shot not knowing it was in a trap until they got to it. With the amount of fur on the ground that fox wouldn't even make it as a wallhanger.

A few years ago me and my trapping buddy were running our coon trap together and come up to his trap with a skinned out coon carcass in his trap. We both stood there trying to process what the heck we were seeing. Now this is on public property so we come to the conclusion that some coon hunters during the night found it with their dogs. Well on the plus side at least they didn't steal my buddy's trap but we did report it to the game warden and pulled all our traps from that area.

I had a crazy thing happen once, had coyote traps out on blm land, a local rancher was down in the area with his dog and it got caught. He took my trap, I found out who took it. I sent him a message through a 3rd person to return my trap or i would have him charged with theft. The next check i made here was a steel fence post drove in the ground with my 3N snapped on the top of it, the chain was wrapped around the post with a 20 pound rock drag still on it and the whole thing welded to the post in a dozen places