thieves struck again in east Texas

Friend of mine who hunts near New Boston had his camera, feeder, and heater out of his stand stolen sometime Thursday or Friday. He hunts on 2,000 acres with 12 other hunters and the thieves would have had to drive in on a 4 wheeler past other stands to get to his. I hate this.

Call GW and local police.

Sounds like an inside job, or at least someone who has been on the property quite a bit. I would be real surprised that someone randomly drives out into the middle of 2,000 acres and finds a feeder and blind and steals everything out of it.

Although it reminds me of a buddy who had a stand "Stolen"

He was hunting a small property about 40 acres, set up his stand on the edge of the property at the far corner from the landowners house. Next door neighbor had a son that was a bit of a dirt bag, lot of run ins with the law, poaching, theft, dwi, MJ possession, ect..... Neighbors son was on his own property and the land owner saw the ladder stand and thought the neighbors son had placed it. He yelled at the neighbors son to stop trespassing and remove his tree stand immediately or he was calling the sheriff. Kid removed the tree stand. My buddy goes out to hunt and his tree stand is gone. Landowner is not around, but his wife is, wife knows nothing about it, says call the sheriff. Deputy shows up, knows dirt bag son lives next door because has had runs in with him before. Walks over to neighbors house, sees tree stand sitting along side carport. Arrests son for theft. It all got worked out in the end and the charges got dropped.

This is occurring at an alarming rate in all rural areas but east Texas continues to be at the top of the list. Makes sense because of the terrain and all the people living and squatting in their shack or trailer on small properties. I would never hunt there again and certainly not leave anything of value unless I lived there or hunted on property that people lived on year round.

A friend had his trailer stolen off his own place just before the start of the season. It's a problem that continues to get worse across East Texas. A large concentration of meth heads throughout that part of the state. I suspect that's who's living in his trailer now.

East Texas is full of dirt bags.........You wouldn't catch my happy azz hunting out there............

I feel for him

I've had some recent thefts and can relate

Sad, just got to know that is real problem with ETX hunting even on your own private property!

Please don't paint all of East Texas as dirt bags. There are some good law abiding people that get a bad rap. Yes there are some real dirt/meth heads there also. Those of us who live in East Texas don't like them either.

I've been in Tyler, which is part of East Texas for 16 years now and I had no idea it was this bad here, or that so many people thought so poorly of this part of Texas. Who knew?

Bummer, I hope they catch the thief and your friend gets his stuff back.

Folks aren't generally talking about small towns & mid size cities.
It is when you get into semi rural & rural parts, lots of out of town / absentee owners, lots of secluded back roads, lots of poverty & drug problems.

Of coarse, you'll always hear of the bad folks & the stuff they do and hardly ever hear about the good honest folks and the good things they do for others.

There are 'bad' areas in every county in the state.

Thieves are everywhere it's just a matter of time before they strike. My buddy has been in his neighborhood for 11 years and they finally got him. There have been some real shady characters moving into his neighborhood. Even the preacher man moved out of there. I'm driving down to install cameras for him and his neighbors this weekend at no charge. He says they are using kids as scouts to look for things to steal. Then at night they come in and snatch stuff. Going to be nice to catch some of these fools in the act.

We've had a nice place in Point Blank for 40 years and no problem so far. Mom and dad are gone now so the house is empty but I have good neighbors all around so I am hopeful that my luck holds. It is real hard to find a honest handyman there though.

The wife and I are talking about selling our East Texas property because of the increased crime, poaching, and amount of lowlife scum in the area. It has gotten noticeably worst in the last 5 - 6 years or so. SO is of no help...they refused to even come out the last time we had a break-in. We have provided pictures of vehicles, with legible license plates, and pictures of the scum themselves, with clear faces, but nothing ever comes of it.

We finally had to put bars on the cabin windows, reinforced the door, and put in a cloud based security camera. Something about watching the sunrise through burglar bars takes away a lot of magic...we bough this place with the idea of retiring there, but there is no way we would do that now.

This happens everywhere. We've been very lucky with no issues. Others, not so far away haven't been so lucky. Local meth dealer got busted and things have been much quieter. When she gets out of the can, I expect it to pick up again.

Small towns everyone knows everyone, including the Sheriff. This is a problem everywhere, not getting any help because someone is related to someone, etc..

I surely did not mean all of the people in east Tx, sorry if I came off that way. It just seems like they have more per capita than any other part of the state.

from my own experience, i can say that it's probably someone living close by.
if you're not living there or close by, you'll always have trespassing.
it's just a sad fact of owning property. they watch you when you come in, and
watch you when you load up and leave. the really sad part is that a lot of
people that trespass for what ever reason own more land than what they trespass
on. i guess the grass is greener and the deer are bigger etc. etc.

East Texas Man don't need you around anyhow!

I currently hunt east texas, near Athens. I think Athens is a nice town and am considering it for retirement.

Have not had a problem in 5 years, the neighbor had his trailer stolen earlier this year. It was a nice trailer, which I always thought he should have put it on jacks and took off wheels, axle.

You have to watch out, show up at odd times and develop relationships with neighbors and sheriff department.

With that said, all places have theft, I don't know at what rate, but its everywhere.

I don't have problems anymore, neighbors keep an eye out and feed cattle at different times. Word is also out that I am the crazy guy that shoots at trespassers first and then holds the survivors....this works very well, no problems in a long time! I don't know about now but years ago the sheriff and the game wardens could not be trusted anyway.

If somewhere is safe you shouldn't even have to consider taking the wheels or axles off a trailer.

I met several guys through a prison outreach program and stealing from hunters/leases was their bread and butter. They know most hunters leave stuff at their leases, and are rarely there.

It is everywhere, not just E Texas. I've been robbed several times near the border and it wasn't illegals. Had my camp stripped clean, even my BBQ pit/chairs/tables everything. The land owners always blame the illegals. Not my first rodeo so couldn't help but laugh and call them out as the liars they were. They were even more surprised when I spoke Spanish to them....and called them out. It's not an East Texas thing, it's a thief & liar thing and they are everywhere.

My wife's parents were from New Boston, and still has many kin there. The meth problem is horrific, it has ruined many of their friends lives and some family members. ,

I just moved here 4 months ago and that is what I am hearing. That the meth problem is out of hand. Was told this by another hunter and I have no reason to not believe it, that the GW said he has not looked into a game violation in a long time because he is working nothing but meth problems with other law enforcement.

I have mentioned before in other threads, but the exact reason I decided against buying in Oklahoma when we were searching for property. Like east Texas, even rural areas are pretty densely populated, high poverty, and significant drug abuse, specifically meth. Several years ago on a lease in OK we were CLEANED OUT the week following season end. They took everything that wasn't bolted down - and worst part, they got into ranch house and barns as well.

Not sure, but suspect, in east Texas it may be a lot like eastern Oklahoma, this is not just kids or random thievery by druggies, but organized gangs of thieves who make their living on burglary, theft, drug sales, etc. The SO seemed to know who had robbed us, but kind of shrugged their shoulders and said not much they can do without catching them in the act.

Probably the most important thing of all, they have to WANT to catch them.

I could write an essay of several pages on this, but not much point in it

Would you rather have stayed in west Texas? Buddy on my lease is buying a place out east but he isn't sure of neighbors and it is just for recreation. We have had zero issues at our lease out west in over 15 years. Our camp is 1.5 miles behind a gate. No way could I handle east now I am afraid. Plus I love dove and turkeys.

My wife and I just sold our home after 10 years in Bastrop, to get away from California and Austin moving in and bringing their ideas with them.

Renting right now, but we just made and offer on a place in Henderson County near Eustace. Seems like a bunch of good down-home folks who watch out for each other.

The meth problem is everywhere - big time in Austin too.

You do know that they call it "speeder creek lake", don't you? Tawakoni is the same way

I can agree the per capita rate may be true. We have plenty of meth heads that cause untold amount of damage and loss to honest working people.

I’d like to hear your opinion. It could shed light on a perspective that’s enlightening.

Thanks in advance.