Number 2 cam stolen in 10 years of using

[vdep217]

As we all know...trail cams don't last long, they cease to function properly after only a few years.

I save all my defunct cameras and place them on my points of interest along with 'The real camera' up high or well hidden.

So far I've never had one stolen from such set-up but if and when I do, I'll have proof of who stole the dummy camera.

I also use a climber as my main stand, they can't steal it if it goes out on my back at the end of the hunt. The few stands that I do have out are guarded with hidden cameras that are just as likely to snap a pic of the thief as they are of the deer I'm hunting.

I've been lucky that was a cam that I won at a shoot 4 years ago. The rest of my cams except 2 are over 10 years old. The original wild game infrared

[Buck154]

That totally sucks. I have had 2-3 stolen in the past 10 or so years. It's crazy

[Nanuk]

With all these thefts , would it be feasible to hide one of those GPS "tile locators" inside the unit so you can then track it to the perp ??? Would that even work ??? It's the same technology everyone has suggested for my dog . Do they make one small enough ???

LoJac for Cams !! Lol

[Shootemandmountem]

Plain and simple,........some people just suck

[Bucksnbows]

We sometimes want to blame fellow "hunters" with all of the stealing, but I know it is often simply kids or hikers that don't know what it is or don't agree with hunting and illegally remove (steal) them.  I once stood in a buddy's garage many years back and stared at about 5 trail cams he had sitting there.  He told me 'the kids found them in the woods" to which I explained they belonged to hunters and your kids are stealing them.  He never thought of it like theft, and I knew he felt bad that he never stopped the kids and forced them to return them, but at the point I had that conversation with him, they had likely been in his garage for years already. 

 

While I have been fortunate with theft - but not with bears - I have had pix of kids' faces and often closeups as they found my camera and purposely got closeups thinking that would be funny.  After posting one of those pix here a couple years back, Rusty turned out to know the kid as he was a student.  As soon as I know my camera has been found, I pull it and never put it back there again.  Nowadays when I do use a camera, I brush it in.  Humans are hardwired to see lines, and trail cameras and the horizontal straps around the trees they are attached to is something we all see that stands out in a forest that seldom has any straight lines.  An old branch or a bunch of leaves on the end of a branch can cover up those lines and help hide your cameras.  Of course if you place it over bait on public lands or unposted private lands, all bets are off.  Try using them on nearby trails instead if you hunt over bait.  That bait pile is a magnet for anyone wanting to steal a trail cam. 

[Sotaroas]

Sucks for sure ! Cam lock  and python cable ! However if they really want it , no stopping" em ! 

[Kayak Ken]

If they only made cams with a lock feature like your phone has. But doing that would hurt sales as hunters would have to buy less cams. Even so, I'm sure you would still have some jerks jist vandalizing them for their pleasure.

 

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[Haskell_Hunter]

Camera makers could easily design solutions for cameras in this case.

 

There is a switch, commonly used in bomb making, that would solve this problem.  The switch is used to complete a circuit if the device is lifted or moved from a surface.  It's designed very much like a mouse trap.

 

On the back of the camera is a piece of metal that you pull back when you attach the cam to the tree.  That piece of metal is the switch.  It can make the connection for the circuit.  If the camera is pulled from the tree, the switch on the back will close, and that could turn on an internal GPS that sends a signal via cell to an app on the owner's phone.  The owner would get an alert that the circuit closed and the camera is being actively tracked.

 

I can see this being put on higher-end cameras to protect the investment.  Too bad they don't have a case mod for existing cameras to give them a capability like this.

 

I also register all my cams and use a passcode if it accepts one.  If someone is going to steal my gear, it's going to be useless to them.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Haskell_Hunter