I've done a fair bit of crabbing and in my experience most of the pots thought to be swiped are generally either floated/dragged by their bouys/line out or in with the tide, or else the line has been fouled by weeds and the pot is still there but the bouy is now forced under by the flow of the tide. I was just out crabbing in Waldport, OR over Labor day along with nearly a hundred other boats and by the end of the day, at low slack after everybody had left, I fould at least half-dozen bouys scattered about--likely resulting from one of the previously mentioned scenarios. I personally had to chase down my pots several times becasue they were drifting away with strong outgoing tides and one one occasion I dropped a pot and within minutes the bouy submerged due to a huge raft of weeds. I had to wait 'till the low slack before it popped back up again on the surface.

On eht other hand, I bet a few pots get lifted by unsavory folks too, but more often than not, your pot is the victim of the bay and not your fellow crabber.

-GF