Close Encounter?

I was out with the Labs last weekend to run the trail camera trap line and replace SD cards and check on batteries.  I went to fetch the camera furthest from the house and... IT WAS GONE!  

I thought to myself - Fine,  After all of these years some trespassing jerk swiped one of your cameras  You've been ripped-off.   A five year-old, $100 trail camera - if that's his haul he needs it worse than you.

Walking out to the main trail something caught my eye - something that didn't belong.  There it was - the camera.  

 click on images to enlarge

Hanging from a tree tube not 50 feet from the tree it had been strapped-to.

The face plate was wide open, the belt clipped-shut, the batteries dead and the SD card still there.  Strange.  Why someone would mess with the camera like this and not take it with them?  Did the perp have a short case of thievery remorse?

Swapping-out the batteries and replacing the SD card I relocated the cam to an alternate location.  Back at home I uploaded the pictures and found the first...

Among others...

And the last picture taken...

Nothing including any people or the actual moving of the camera.  My best guess is the aliens are back and they're messing with me again.