Over the last weekend, we had 3 trail cameras stolen from one of the farms we run a few dozen game cameras on.
We haven't had a game camera stolen in years and we got sloppy. This is a good opportunity to remind ourselves (and you) the importance of properly locking your trailcam, or, perhaps more importantly, keeping the trailcams out of sight.
These 3 cameras had been positioned along a fire road going to a barn and were in plain sight - mounted waist high. Our thief was kind enough to steal the wildlife cameras on his/her way to stealing a reciprocating saw, pole saw, and several other farm tool essentials. Probably made away with a few thousand dollars of goods.
This is an excellent and expensive reminder that no matter how remote you feel your property is, an opportunistic thief will steal anything they can carry out with them.
We will have our revenge!!!
Time to deploy a few dummy game cameras (waist high of course) with a Reconyx Microfire MR5 mounted discreetly up a tree, pointed at the dummy camera. If they come back, we will be ready.
3 Tips To Keep Your Game Camera From Getting Stolen
These tips are especially ironic given we just had trail cameras stolen. Regardless, here they are...
- They can't steal what they can't see. If using a trailcam in a high traffic area, mount the camera high in a tree with an angle mount or get creative with some 3D camo to make the camera less obvious.
- Purchase no glow IR game cameras. This will keep anyone from spotting the camera if they are walking by at night. The flash is invisible to the human eye.
- Don't put cameras on a walking path. This seems obvious but even we ignored it. If you walk the path on a regular basis, they probably do too. If you have to put it in a high traffic area, get a security case and hope the thief doesn't bring tools.
Bottom line, you will have a trail camera stolen from time to time. It stinks, but it happens. Hopefully, following these best practices will keep it from being a regular occurrence.
Happy scouting!
3 comments
Marty Turner
A cable and lock will only keep the honest person away if a thief wants it hes going to get it no matter what you do.I had about a thousand dollars worth of cameras stolen 2 years ago and pretty much knew who did it called the police they didnt do anything.Need a camera fixed up with a piece of thin rope attached to the latch and other end on shotgun trigger when he opens the latch would be missing a few fingers
Cammosutra
Good advice. I am troubled that it is difficult to sort cams with password protection or none on this website and have notified the administrator via E-mail. It might be a business opportunity for someone to come up with a LoJack type software or app for trail/game cams. And I hope some of the manufacturers read this post and get some ideas. It would be nice if a stolen camera photo could “phone home” somehow. Hope you get your gear back.
Cammosutra
Good advice. I am troubled that it is difficult to sort cams with password protection or none on this website and have notified the contact. It might be a business opportunity for someone to come up with a LoJack type software or app for trail/game cams. Hope you get your gear back. And I hope some of the manufacturers read this post and get some ideas. It would be nice if a stolen camera photo could “phone home” somehow.