Stealing gear prevention - any ideas?

[Q_x]

I know this are rare accidents, but you never know...
Of course, it is easy to say "stay stealthy", "be alert", "avoid certain places", "wake up early"...
The only thing coming to my mind is to keep some small things (wallet, cellphone, knife) in side pockets (if available in hammock) or hanging on a ridge line, and hanging whole backpack close to one of hammock's end, under a tarp (which is still not acceptable kind of idea ).

How do you prevent stealing your backpack/gear/stuff when sleeping?

[MacEntyre]

You could put your stuff in a gear hammock alongside the hammock you are sleeping in.

[Shewie]

I have a little stuff sack which holds my mobile phone, car keys, ipod and camera. I usually chuck it on the shelf in my BB so that's pretty safe. With my pack I tie a loop round a tree and hang it by the grab handle on a karabiner, mainly so it's off the ground but it would delay somebody walking off with it I suppose.
To be honest though, the places where I tend to camp are well away from the dodgy towny folk anyway.

[Silverlion]

May sound funny, but I hang mine up in the tree with paracord and I have a couple of bells tied to knots on the paracord. Same thing I do with my bear bag. They won't ring in the wind if you tie it right, but move the cord and you'll wake up.

[lori]

The only place I have ever worried about gear being stolen is in Yosemite within a day's hike of the trailheads. Never worried a lick anywhere else, and never had anything taken.

[Cannibal]

Camp where people don't go and keep your gear close.
I figure my foodbag and its contents are fair game for somebody scummy enough to take it.

[ikemouser]

I hang my pack from my ridgeline

[timdogg]

Stow hard items in a gear hammock and use you backpack as insulation under your legs and feet.

[Doctari]

I don't have a real solution, it hasn't been a problem for me, , , , yet.

I feel this is one of the problems I have with hammocking, I sleep so soundly that I can imagine sleeping through a Elephant stamped. So someone taking my pack, even though it is hung from my hammock suspension, would hardly be noticed at all.
One thing I have thought of doing, but haven't implemented is to tie a cord to my pack & that to a wrist. And, I do carry a 4' piece of amsteel for hanging my pack from a tree when setting up / tearing down camp. As I hang the pack from the head end suspension, the 4' would reach my wrist, mostly at least. And, as it is the same stuff my Whoopies are made of, it wouldn't be easily noticed.

I'll try it next outing. Will have to hope it never gets tested.

[Q_x]

Thank you all!

In fact the problem is not easy even when tenting, some stuff, like fishing rods, gets stolen regularly (even from bungalows!)...
I was thinking hard for this time also. I've figured only single very small thing: it may be reasonable to fix the backpack "for good" by suspension strap going from a tree through a handle to a hammock - this way handle has to be cut to get whole backpack. The contents however are still easy to take - but again - if a guy has balls to take things from under a tarp, something like 30 cm away from my head, there is nothing I could do better. My next tarp will be bigger, thats for sure

timdogg, I'd rather do the opposite: take all soft things out and insulate myself with it, and leave metal gear inside - as a kind of bell, suggested by Silverlion

Gear hammock, I think, does the opposite thing of what I would need - it makes hard things easy to take, plus sometimes really uncomfortable landing.

I like the idea of hiking stealthy, far away from any people, but it is not always going that way, sometimes some other persons may like other places and I like this other persons...