Went to fill the feeder/check the camera and when I got there this morning to I found a nice little surprise.

I've had the camera in place for about 8 months and it's got a Python lock holding it on to the tree with a small padlock to keep SD door closed. Well I guess someone didn't want their picture taken because when I walked up the camera I found it in the normal position on the tree, but the padlock was broken off and the SD card was gone. (The tresspasser had to have some type of knife/screwdriver because it was broke of pretty clean).

Any ideas on what to do to keep this from happening?

Metal lock box? I know someone makes something like that

Two cameras... one hidden really good watching from a different angle and up high enough that it takes a ladder to access it. That's what it took for me to catch a vandal/trespasser.

What can I do if I get a picture of them? Do I call the Police, Game Warden, or some one else?

Well, to my surprise and "disappointment", I ended up knowing who my trespassers were... with disgust I gave the pictures to both the sheriff and the GW. Ultimately the sheriff handled my situation. My situation was a little different in that we ended up knowing who was in the photos. I'm not sure what kind of luck I would of had if it was just a face or person in a photo... I still would have shown them to the GW and everybody else I could think of due to the possibility that someone may have recognized em...

Go on.......

Well if someone in the area recognized em they may have filled me in on who they were and I could have taken that info to the sheriff ,or they may have let the guys know "hey your on film" and maybe they would have stopped vandalising and trespassing on our place... I don't know

In our circumstance the trespasser was the son of guest that came out to the place the previous year and a couple of his buddies.

Have a welder make you a lock box. Bolt the box to a tree (from the inside), and then put the cam inside.

If someone wants in bad enough, they will get in. Try and put it out of sight.

Ya remember the scene from the movie "The Hurt Locker" where the guy pulls on a wire and 6 artillery shells slide out of the sand all around him... I'm just sayin...THAT's what you are dealing with 'cause you are the guy pulling on the wire.

We had a problem once upon a time on one lease...seems like our non owner Ground Lease Holder, who had subleased the deer hunting rights to my gang, but had also told the neighbors "yeah sure ya'll go over there anytime DURING THE WEEK WHEN THE DALLAS CROWD AIN'T THERE"..and gave them a key to our gate locks. Surprise surprise when I let the setting sun hit my shiny arsed rifle and scope hangin out the window on their side of the blind from out of a tower blind one Wednesday afternoon as they glassed the draw I was looking down into from the other side. That made lots of sense why we were all of a sudden no longer seeing the deer we had been accustomed to and had stuff missing from camp that we blamed on the oil well service crews. I had never seen a Ford F150 go airborne before....but I have now for sure! No shots were fired in either direction even though they had had their rifles pointed in my direction before I exposed myself to them, and I told the Deputy exactly that too on the way out of town that night. Called all my lease buds about it too ...who Talked to the sheriff and got a totally different story until HE CAUGHT THEM TOO couple weeks later.

The following season the Ground Lease Holder leased the place out from under us with no notice despite our sending him the deposit check as required that he deposited as per usual. Then claimed our 10 blinds & 14 feeders were his and went with the lease according to the new guys from Houston who answered his newspaper ad and showed up the following August to fill the feeders during our work weekend. They were some kinda PO'd about the whole deal too since they had not planned on having to put up feeders & blinds and had been charged accordingly with our blinds & feeders in place.
We filled a 18 wheeler box in one day with EVERYTHING and never looked back...except to advise the Sherrif what we had done when he called about the "Missing Stuff", and gave him the name of the Attorney who was on the Lease with us, which is Always a good thing to have.

Bottom Line ...NO Winners anywhere but BE CAREFUL since you don't live there, and the locals do ... and they VOTE...but are also sometimes so interrelated/intermarried to the local LEO's & Judges that you'd be better off to stay at home after opening weekend and the holidays and let them do whatever they want to do...as one Texas Ranger told a family member of mine one time in a similar deal.

JMHO & YMMV but I've BTDT the last time without an original signed and Notarized copy of the written Legal Lease Agreement document filed in the County Records ...and for sure in THAT County, and several others I keep hearing about.
Cheers
Ron

2nd camera hidden good facing 1st camera. Unfortunately, you probably know the person. Landowner, friend, landowner family member, ranch hand, whatever...

You can get a metal security box at academy or cabelas. I did that after having my cameras stolen

You should go to a welder and have them build you a couple of boxes. I did that when hunting in NH and it was great. Never lost a camera. They will usually make them for cheap money and have the metal laying around to make them. Just spray them down with rustoleum after and you are good to go. Also if you have a climbing tree stand then you can mount one on a bracket high in a tree looking over it from a distance for extra protection if you don't go with a lock box for safety. Hope this doesn't happen to you again. Some people just suck these days.

Take your camera in and check it. Some cameras will still take pics and store them in the unit itself. If I'm not mistaken, Bushnell is one of them. But I could be wrong. I just know one of my cameras did, just can't remember which one.

I use heavy metal lock boxes all the time to keep bears from eating my cameras, but if a person wants in they will get in. Having another camera hidden and elevated beyond easy reach is good advice.

Thankfully I never have any of that sort of problem up here.

As mentioned, if someone wants one bad enough, they'll get it. Most Im sure disappear due to the fact someone is not where they are supposed to be.
Best advise is keep a cheap/broken camera where it can be seen and hide a real/working one

I get JMHO, but what is
YMMV but I've BTDT

Years ago I kept a set of slide gates up in one of our local rural subdivisions which are occupied by City Folk. We were having about $10K plus a yr. in vandalism..I had to build a box
from 1/4 & 1/2 in plate to set a series of cameras in..Amazingly
the vandalism stopped and thankfully the developer and I managed to give the entire mess to the Homeowners Assoc. which has a few
genius's in it..Cameras' can create as many problems as they solve..DD

I have a friend with property in FL. His vacation home kept getting broken into. He got a camera that took pics of anyone opening the front door. Now, the camera was fake,at least part of it was, it still flashed and took pics but that was all it did, but the sign saying "Your picture has now been sent to the property owner and local authorities" was real. Problem stopped. This was years ago when cell-cameras were new and very pricey, he probably has the real thing now. I wouldn't spend the money on a "camera cage." They've already proven they have tools and are persistent, and the cage will only be as strong as the lag bolts holding it to the tree. A few good hammer whacks and you'll lose the camera and cage both. Just my humble opinion. Good luck.

hide your cameras with brush. probably easy to spot with padlocks on it.

One of my neighbors feeds year around. He has a camera that sends the picture to him over an AT&T cell phone line. He also sends one to me. It works quite well. It won't do any good to steal the camera since the pic has been sent. It has no SD card.

Trespasers are such a pain in the a**. They want everything yet give back nothing

This is what I made, the stand is locked with a cable around a tree on this one.



The other ones have a 5 gallon bucket with 80's of concrete chained to it.



However, all it takes is bolt cutters and the whole thing is a mute point. Most people don't walk around with bolt cutters, though.

The best thing is to have another camera watching the first one.