Since there's really no way to search this and only this forum for keywords, I'm forced to start this thread, google turned up no results.

Since there really is no good place to live in the game I found a nice place in the hills called Powder Ganger Camp East, I love it and lived there pretty much since level 3.
Anyway one day after a long haul of scavenging I return home and I'm putting my stuff away in the two ammo boxes, well I'm putting stuff into my second box when all of a sudden a prospector runs right in front of me..
I can hear something open, and then she runs off to a nearby rock and back, I watch her do it a couple times and then get curious and blow her head off, a quick check of her body shows she has a CZ57 Avenger, at first i was like.. Jackpot! I've been searching for another one to fix the one I already have. With a triumphant walk I stroll over to my box of weaponry from across the land, but where's my gun? I know i left it here, I hadn't sold it or anything..
Now, in all the omnipotent intelligence at Bethesda they decided the key to accept the amount of items to transfer to box from inventory and the key to take everything in the box all at once should be the same one; as a result, and after having to put 100 items/stacks back into the box after accidentally taking it all out, I save quite often, usually after clearing my inventory of one category of items. I tell you that to tell you this, since I had saved before the prospector lady ran up to steal my stuff, I was able to reload a few times and test if she was actually stealing from me, and if i really did have the gun before she robbed me..
And it's true, every time I reloaded she would steal different things, and I fear, drop them into oblivion; and she always took the good stuff too, that [censored].

I realize that there's a bed in Novac that provides a place to sleep and a xp buff, but it's a negligible buff and there's no where to cook, plus it's too a long walk to the room for me.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let people know what I found since I couldn't seem to find anything on the internet about it happening. Just be careful and kill them damn looters!

[edit] I have to lol at the fact that the B word was censored in a forum for a game that used the F word liberally xD

If an NPC needs extra firepower they will steal anything better even if it's not theirs. This happens to me alot too like companions if there's a better weapon around than what they currently have they will use that.

You gotta mine your base if you live outside or someplace npcs can get to. The problem is you can take a reputation (or karma) hit due to some dude from the wrong faction wandering into you home. Gotta love sandbox games.

-Gunny