[GregV]

I had similar issues with crab pots on Little Silver Point a few years ago. I threw the pots off a friends dock and found them emptied out more often than not a couple of days later. I even put a brass lock and chain across the pot door and found the wire door ripped back around the chain and the pot emptied. I stopped putting the pots where they were easily accessible to others. It was supposed to be fun, but wound up being aggravating. I never found out if it was kids or adults but the bottom line is that there are enough jerks out there to ruin a good thing if it is accessible to them.
BTW, I used to pot killies in OP/LB but there are commercial guys working the creeks very hard with pots that hit the kille population hard. Now I just buy them locally.