If a trail cam is taken from public property, is it considered theft?

[Lwilliams]

Yep, if you didn’t buy it then it isn’t just finders keepers. Nothing worse than a thief.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Do any of you cam users put your contact info in the camera out of curiosity? Would solve the whole abandonment question.

I use a label maker and put my phone number on lots of pieces of my gear (binos, tripod, range finder, etc.) incase I drop something and can't find it and an honest person finds it makes it easy for them to do the right thing. We've had folks find pistols and such and post on here looking for the owner so its not like its impossible, lotta good folks in the mountains if you make it easy for them to contact you in my mind.

 

[87TT]

That's just what I need some guy taking my camera with the excuse that "I thought it was abandoned". Report it to the FS if you want but keep your hands off.

 

[rob86jeep]

Do any of you cam users put your contact info in the camera out of curiosity? Would solve the whole abandonment question.

I use a label maker and put my phone number on lots of pieces of my gear (binos, tripod, range finder, etc.) incase I drop something and can't find it and an honest person finds it makes it easy for them to do the right thing. We've had folks find pistols and such and post on here looking for the owner so its not like its impossible, lotta good folks in the mountains if you make it easy for them to contact you in my mind.

That's actually great advice that i've never thought about doing before.

 

[Squamch]

My cameras that aren't in lock boxes have my name and phone number on them.

I've also accidently taken a dump in front of a trail cam. Sorry, guy with the cabin in northern BC. Your cabin really is well hidden from the road.

 

[R-K]

If they take in bolt cutters for the lock cable, I'm gonna say it's theft.

But now I'm curious how many cameras I've been caught on that I never even saw...

 

[ewade07]

this arguement could go round and round. i hunt in a particular spot in MT on FS land, and like previous posts have said, if left for more than 16 consecutive days something is considered abandoned. i personally use trail cams and leave them up for 2-3 weeks before checking and moving. now, its hard to tell how long something like a trail cam has been in one place. however, for other things its not as hard. for example, my brother and i were out checking our cams this last summer and stumbled upon a tree stand that had clearly been there for quite some time, as in probably years. we have some history hunting this area, to make a long story short, there is a private landowner who thinks he/they can do whatever they please on the forest service land, such as drive ATVs wherever they please and steal trail cams. as much as i wanted to take that that tree stand down i left it. now, if it is there come next summer and clearly hasnt been moved, i will gladly escort a FS officer to its location to have it taken down.

 

[beginner]

YES!

 

[Werty]

It's theft.

 

[hflier]

You've got to figure..........we have a very large part of our population that can't even figure out what "shall not be infringed" means. A lot of those same people seem to think that everyone should be able to partake from the goodies that others have worked their entire lives for. So it's not surprising that there might be questions as to what "If it's not yours, don't touch it.......period" means. In fact, many of those same people might just believe it to be theirs in their own minds because of the warped mentalities that have taken over society in recent years. If they can't even figure out what gender they are, they certainly can't figure out what's theirs and what isn't theirs. Pretty messed up society these days, and it gets worse every day.

Well said


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