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Tresspassers, Thieves, and Shed Poachers

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dtr

Member
It amazes me how many landowners/hunters I know of that are having issues with people tresspassing on their farms, stealing trail cams, and shed poaching. I've heard of 4 different properties being shed poached in the past week. That's just people I know.

It seems like the penalties for tresspassing and stealing must not be significant enough to deter these activities! To me, if someone tresspasses on my land, it's no different than if they broke into my house. If they steal something, whether it's a trail cam or a shed, that's no different than breaking into my house and stealing something out of it.

Does anyone know what the current fines are for tresspassing? I'd be interested to know? How do these compare with breaking into someone's house?

If a convicted tresspasser was fined $5000, lost their driver's license, lost hunting privileges, served jail time, etc, etc., i bet we would have less tresspassing.

What can we do as a group to fight this problem? It seems as though Iowa Whitetail, IBA, IWF, etc. should be able to raise this issue up the flagpole and get something done about it.

Maybe I'm way off base, but I have no tolerance for a tresspasser or a thief and I just wish there was something we could do to improve this situation.

Thoughts or ideas?
 
Shed poaching is going on Everywhere!! My buddies farm got hit before the big snow storm. I have been told one of our farms gets walked by a neighboring landowner every year. I shed hunt a lot of public ground and I can't tell you how many times I have seen foot prints cross into the private. Maybe they had permssion but somehow I doubt it.

The fines are a joke. I believe less than $200 bucks.
 
A couple of people are going to get a surprise on a couple of places that I hunt this year. Pictures will be posted soon.
 
Limb Chicken said:
A couple of people are going to get a surprise on a couple of places that I hunt this year. Pictures will be posted soon.
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Posting these people's pictures is just awesome! Public humility and shame is much more costly than the fines. What would be great is if we could get them posted somewhere like at the classic to reach the non internet crowd.
 
Need to get hidden cameras on several strategically placed sheds. Get their picture- post & prosecute. If everyone got some trail cams about 10-18 feet up and hidden like mad - facing right on 5-10 sheds around their farm, sure goes a long way. My farm is like that now. Thankfully I haven't had any trouble.

Buckeye cams sure are cool for those with the money. Instantly sends a pic to your email- no monthly charge or anything. I've seen the quality of the pics and I'm totally fine with them even though they aren't 8mp like some other cams- PLENTY good.

Put a dummy cam out with a real cam way up there- THEFT charge!

Last, I bought 25 cameras for trespassing PREVENTION- I put one in every nook & cranny where I think someone could trespass- if someone did- they'd be DONE! Folks need to fight back against these crooks. When Limb Chicken or pal puts up some pics, I am going to be excited to click on that thread and see who the new & now famous STAR of IA is?!?!?!?!!!
 
This is what I found on every square inch of my farm while shed hunting. No horns, just two sets of boot tracks. If anyone knows of any shed poachers around Ft Madison/Denmark area I can provide pics of every bucks sheds they stole that had been droped on my farm before I went looking. Cash reward to anyone that can help catch the guys.

2011-01-30_12-15-01_170.jpg
 
I'm all for posting pics and agree that public humility is effective, but I also feel like we need much stricter tresspassing laws.

Otherwise, I can't see that things will ever change. If nothing changes, we'll always have these problems to deal with. Just looking for suggestions or thoughts on how we as a group could work on getting things changed.
 
Sligh1 said:
Need to get hidden cameras on several strategically placed sheds. Get their picture- post & prosecute. If everyone got some trail cams about 10-18 feet up and hidden like mad - facing right on 5-10 sheds around their farm, sure goes a long way. My farm is like that now. Thankfully I haven't had any trouble.

Buckeye cams sure are cool for those with the money. Instantly sends a pic to your email- no monthly charge or anything. I've seen the quality of the pics and I'm totally fine with them even though they aren't 8mp like some other cams- PLENTY good.

Put a dummy cam out with a real cam way up there- THEFT charge!

Last, I bought 25 cameras for trespassing PREVENTION- I put one in every nook & cranny where I think someone could trespass- if someone did- they'd be DONE! Folks need to fight back against these crooks. When Limb Chicken or pal puts up some pics, I am going to be excited to click on that thread and see who the new & now famous STAR of IA is?!?!?!?!!!
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So lets say you catch a guy red handed stealing a shed and/or a trail cam and successfully prosecute him. What happens to him? What is the fine? My point is that it's probably not enough to cause him or his buddies to change their ways. They need to be treated like real criminals!
 
A small pic in the paper or on the news along with the charges would work better than a $200 slap on the wrist.
 
Crockett said:
I'ts gonna get worse!!!:D
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I agree. and unless something gets done about the measly under $200 fine theres no end in site, I love the camera idea just wish there was a way for our voices to get heard and fines increases, and maybe the land owner getting some restitution out of the deal. lets make the fine $750 with $1250 restitution going to the land owner and go up everytime they do it again. JMO
 
If this issue is made public like places such as the deer classic, news papers, & news places that people will see them then I would think that this might get the right peoples attention Also we should be calling/writing our representatives and not stop untill they do something about it. If enough people voice their opinion they will be forced to do something.
 
Greekhawk said:
If this issue is made public like places such as the deer classic, news papers, & news places that people will see them then I would think that this might get the right peoples attention Also we should be calling/writing our representatives and not stop untill they do something about it. If enough people voice their opinion they will be forced to do something.
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That was what I was thinking, we have the same issue everyone has mentioned. The only way to get a change is to start making contact with the right people.

One other problem I see is enforcment of the tresspassing law. It seems different CO's and sheriffs handle tresspassing differently. Some are willing to speed out there while others are pretty laid back if you give them a call about tresspassing... I'm sure the CO's and sheriffs get a bunch of phone calls about tresspassers but I'm sure they'd get less if people didn't feel so comfortable tresspassing, heck its a cheep fine if you get caught and if the right person actually comes out to write a ticket.

This then leads into the hot topic (that really hits homes with me) of coyotes hunters 'not having control of their dogs' and sending them into ones farm... but we'll save that topic for later.:mad:
 
its cheaper to hunt where you want and pay a fine than it is to lease a piece of ground and do all the work, lets make it the other way around
 
Trespassing

dtr said:
I


If a convicted tresspasser was fined $5000, lost their driver's license, lost hunting privileges, served jail time, etc, etc., i bet we would have less tresspassing.

What can we do as a group to fight this problem? It seems as though Iowa Whitetail, IBA, IWF, etc. should be able to raise this issue up the flagpole and get something done about it.

Maybe I'm way off base, but I have no tolerance for a tresspasser or a thief and I just wish there was something we could do to improve this situation.

Thoughts or ideas?
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I 100% agree. Seems like the IBA, since they have political clout should be all over this issue. Can anyone affiliated with the IBA let me know what they have done or what they will do to make Iowa deer hunting better as poaching and trespassing is obviously a major issue in parts of Iowa...?
 
Scott said:
This is what I found on every square inch of my farm while shed hunting. No horns, just two sets of boot tracks. If anyone knows of any shed poachers around Ft Madison/Denmark area I can provide pics of every bucks sheds they stole that had been droped on my farm before I went looking. Cash reward to anyone that can help catch the guys.

2011-01-30_12-15-01_170.jpg
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Just curious but how do you know 100% for sure those bucks you have pics of shed there horns on your property. If you know for sure 100% why didnt you pick them up. Because that is the only way to know for sure 100% that those deer shed on your property is if you find those specific sheds personally. I am not trying to pick a fight but deer do travel across fences and you having trail pics of certain bucks before shedding proves nothing. They can be just as easily be found on neighboring properties. On a different not if you catch a pic of a guy and his boots match the tracks you found on your property then you got a case unless they are Danner pronghorns Everybody has those things because they rock. LOL
 
scottonbuck said:
Just curious but how do you know 100% for sure those bucks you have pics of shed there horns on your property. If you know for sure 100% why didnt you pick them up. Because that is the only way to know for sure 100% that those deer shed on your property is if you find those specific sheds personally. I am not trying to pick a fight but deer do travel across fences and you having trail pics of certain bucks before shedding proves nothing. They can be just as easily be found on neighboring properties. On a different not if you catch a pic of a guy and his boots match the tracks you found on your property then you got a case unless they are Danner pronghorns Everybody has those things because they rock. LOL
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Not expecting to get a conviction out of it, just looking for some info or names. Already got a couple suspects, people run their mouth and its a small town, someone knows exactly who did it. People might think twice about doing it next year if there is a little fear that someone might be on to them. For the number of bucks I had on camera before and after they were shedding, there should have been horns there. I was in no hurry to go tromping around my farm until more of the bucks had shed, I guess I wont be making that mistake again. You drop thousands of dollars into your place to hold the deer on your farm until they shed only to have it ruined in an afternoon, it needs to stop and just shrugging it off wont change anything.
 
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If you really want to make it known that your property is off limits, buy a piece of ad space in your local paper and put a wanted ad with your unknown trespasser. Its going to cost you but it would get people talking in a hurry.
 
Scott said:
Not expecting to get a conviction out of it, just looking for some info or names. Already got a couple suspects, people run their mouth and its a small town, someone knows exactly who did it. People might think twice about doing it next year if there is a little fear that someone might be on to them. For the number of bucks I had on camera before and after they were shedding, there should have been horns there. I was in no hurry to go tromping around my farm until more of the bucks had shed, I guess I wont be making that mistake again. You drop thousands of dollars into your place to hold the deer on your farm until they shed only to have it ruined in an afternoon, it needs to stop and just shrugging it off wont change anything.
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Couldnt agree more with you on this one should have been some sheds there, obviously they were not just passing thru by coincidence they were looking for something if there are that many tracks. Time to head to the local watering hole and do some boot checks on your suspects because that is a pretty clear track.
 
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