OK, so this has pretty much been turned into the "Ways to catch someone stealing your crop" FAQ.... I think almost every possible option has been discussed... This should almost be stickied!! lol...
i love many of the mentioned tactics... especially the one about the guy nailing his foots to the boards... muaha... great to whoever posted that... kudos... love it...
I have one to add though...
I once had someone steal a small crop I had about 7 years ago... I had used the location for numerous years (around 9 or 10) due to it's seclusion and just great feeling of safety when visiting given it was on my own property... The crop was stolen, with 95% of the buds taken, and about 95% of the stalks and stems remaining.. I was obviously furious, especially considering i stood their looking at twigs that were huge leafy, buddy flowers the day before.. ... Who the hell stole it and how they found it stumped me... I have 2 friends that i've been friends with since high school... They too like to endulge in the growing (although they prefer guerilla)... They were only 2 that had any idea of my doings, while they never were shown where it actually was or that I had a crop stolen...
Given those factors, the following year, I decided to once again use that same exact location on my property.. The inital process went well as usual, fertilizing, planting, feeding, sexing... This was no shock to me of course b/c I knew this wasn't the time to worry about it... The flowering weeks progressed, and b/c this crop was indica dominant, I knew around week 7-8 of flowering I would make a few overnight trips to the spend the night with the crop... I wasn't really too concerned about it in the grand scheme of things and didn't really think I would be lucky enough to catch someone (likely whoever stole last years crop) again that year... But I was going to give it a shot.. I luckily was single at the time and took advantage of 2 weeks of vacation from work...
Anyways... From Day 49 of flowering to Day 56 of flowering I decided I was going to pull an overnighter there 3 times in that span... 2 closer to Day 56.. First visit I brought along w/ me, a small tent, a nice lantern, tools to setup some trip wire, some water, some snacks, some herb, a pint of jack daniels, my trusty colt 45, a pair of brass knucks and given the nice weather a thick blanket and a pillow.... I told neither of my 2 friends about this, obviously, thinking it was possible it could be one of the two or even both... Getting there wasn't a problem, i took 3 trips throughout the afternoon so i was prepared for later...
I arrived to the location, It was probably about 3-4pm.. I quickly setup the trip wires around the crop and quickly moved on to making sure there was a path from the crop through the treelined area to where i was going to place the tent.. I removed any leaves or sticks all the way to the location i chose... By the time I got the tent setup in a location about 50-75 feet away from the actual crop (well hidden, treed area), smoked a few pre rolled joints, i started to get somewhat relaxed...
It wasn't even close to being dark yet and when i exited the tent to scour the scenary given the nice high I had... I'm one who loves camping and spending time in the wilderness (even if it's at home on the acres), so I was enjoying this... I turn to look over towards the crop, that is surround by some taller trees (hard to explain)... What do I see? I see someone over there w/ a pretty dim flashlight (possible lighter?).. They were approaching the trip wires, so hadn't gotten to the plants yet.. I couldn't believe it, i figured this was a waste of time as far as hoping to catch someone and i damn sure didn't figure i'd catch someone my first night... I was quick to make sure there wasn't another person... I made my way through some treelined area towards the crop, trying to be as quiet as possible (yes, i had the colt 45 and the knucks w/ me)... I made it close enough to see the person, make sure there wasn't someone else, but couldn't really determine who the person was... It was still far from dark by then, so I knew I had to really make a choice... I could tell they were getting close to the plants and very close to one of the trip wires I had set... I was about 25 feet away, silent, behind a large tree... I looked around, behind me, everywhere to make sure there wasn't someone else, as I knew that could spell trouble for me... All of a sudden I hear a thud.. HAHA! I turn back to look at the crop and whoever the person is has fallen flat on their face.. thank you trip wire!!
So being a bit younger at the time, i decided.. FUCK IT... I ran over there w/ the knucks on one hand and the gun in the other.. At this point i didn't care about being quiet b/c I knew i pretty much had this situation...
I got to him before he could even get up... He had dirt, some grass, mud, etc on his face... but I could tell that it was one of the 2 above mentioned friends... I won't give exact names, but lets just say his name was Bill...
I couldn't believe it... I was in shock... He stood their for a minute (that's all i gave him) w/ shock in his eyes as he saw I had the colt 45 in my hand...
I said, "What the fuck Bill!?"..
he responded... "I thought you weren't home.. i was just wanting to check on your babies..."
Bullshit... he didn't know where it was located, unless he found it the previous year (highly likely at this point)... And we're the kind of friends that don't just show up on each others property and assume their not home, so go inside or inspect property/land outside...
I took a second to decide what to say next, but i couldn't come up with anything... So i decided to slug him square in the face, brass knucks included... I tried to avoid the nose, but grazed it as well as his upper cheek... Hell fell to the ground and started grabbing at his face..
He was almost at tears.. "What the hell man? Why'd you do that?"
I was fucking furious, and had a gun on my property where someone was trespassing..
I took the brass knucks off my hand and put them back in my pocket... He was still on the ground, holding his face that apparently was bleeding some... I didn't care at that point, someone who i thought was a friend for A LONG time had stabbed me in the back...
I dropped down on the ground on top of him with the Colt 45 in my hand.. He was balling, crying... of course, he thought he was gonna get away with stealing a second crop that would end up producing around a LB of herb...
I shouted at him... "Why the fuck would you steal my plants Bill?"
He didn't say anything... he didn't know what to say... he was speachless.... so i made the next move...
I fired a shot into the air....
"Get the fuck off my property... If I ever see you on my property again, you won't be so lucky next time! YOU FUCKING BACKSTABBING PIECE OF SHIT!!!"
I got back up and he took a minute but eventually got up and started to walk away... I watched as he walked away, not being able to actually believe he was the one who did this to me...
He made his way to the street, which only had 2 houses on it for quite aways (mine and a neighbor that is a family friend).... He walked in a Westward direction, probably getting ready to call someone to pick him up....
I took everything back to the house and before long i got a knock on the door... Hah, the cops?... I was able to see who it was at the door by looking out the window in the front corner bedroom of the house... IT WAS MY NEIGHBOR!!... lol... I opened the door and he just wanted to make sure everything was alright, said he heard gun fire... I explained I caught someone on my property trying to steal something.. He's an older gentlemen, so he was all good with it and even said he'd keep an extra eye out for my property for me in the future...
I later laughed about it given how easy it was to catch him... sure it took me setting up the trip wire and making sure i wasn't heard in the event I had to approach him from where i had set the tent up...
I have never spoken to "Bill" since but continue to stay in contact w/ the other friend... At the time this took place he was in Florida w/ his parents and two sisters, so I knew he had nothing to do with... He has received phone calls from "Bill" for the past 6 years, but never answers them...
I don't really care what came of him... He had a bad record (several DWI's, unpaid taxes, probation, etc..) so he couldn't really do anything about what i did to him... He knew he fucked up and knew he couldn't do anything about it... Fucking dipshit... Yeah, still to this day I call him a dipshit and think about it about once a week.. A long time friend, it's hard not to think about it...
Maybe I should have done more, but it was a close friend... I had no intentions to kill whoever it turned out to be... The gun was just a scare tactic... I'm sure he pissed his pants... Plus getting a good punch in and scaring him to death was enough retribution for me...
Anyways... this is probably a long post... don't tell this story a lot, in fact never on an online forum... RUI is the first...
Goes to show... even friends can't be trusted sometimes... no matter how long you know them, you never know...
