A Reddit user said he was dealing with a trespasser and possible poacher right as the rut was kicking in, and it had already gotten bad enough that he started pulling equipment out of the area. According to the post, he had a blind setup and cameras on the property, but after repeated trouble, he said he removed all of it because he was worried the man would steal or destroy it. He wrote that he still planned to hunt the area, but he was going to do it from a climbing stand in a different spot instead.
What made the story more specific was that the hunter believed the man had been partly identified already. He said he hunted with a local police officer who had possibly figured out who the trespasser was because the man was missing his left thumb. The poster also said the guy appeared to be coming straight from work in a mechanic outfit, which gave the thread a strange level of detail for a trespassing story. From the way he told it, this was not just some unknown figure moving through the timber. He and the officer felt like they might actually know who they were dealing with.
The hunter sounded more frustrated than dramatic about it. He wrote that he was disappointed to be dealing with something like this during such an important stretch of the season, especially because it forced him to change how he was hunting the spot. Instead of leaving his blind and gear in place, he felt like he had to strip the area down before the trespasser had a chance to mess with it. That left him still planning to hunt, but with a very different setup and a lot less peace of mind.
The comments turned into the kind of discussion you would expect when somebody says a trespasser may also be poaching. People told him to keep documenting everything, save any camera evidence, and work closely with game authorities if the man showed back up. Others focused on the practical side of what he had already done, saying it made sense to pull the blind and cameras if he honestly believed they were at risk of being destroyed or stolen.
The story itself was pretty straightforward. A hunter believed a trespasser was moving through his area during the rut, possibly poaching, and the problem got serious enough that he removed his blind and equipment out of fear they would be vandalized. At the same time, he and a local police officer thought they might have a real lead on who the man was, thanks to one very specific identifying detail: the missing left thumb.
What do you think — if you believed a trespasser was moving through your hunting area during the rut and might damage your gear, would you pull everything like he did, or leave it in place and hope to catch him on camera again?
Original Reddit post: Trespassing/Poaching
