I hAd two apple trees so close together that the branches were tangled together.
Once spring day; after remarking how full they both were; we came out and discovered that one had been cleaned out and the other not touched at all!
Never did figure that out unless it was fruit eating bats; and they don’t live around Indiana!
Wasn’t any apples on the ground under the one empty tree either.
Baffling...
Your thieves were nice and left you half the crop. Ours totally stripped 6 pear trees in a fenced area overnight. They had to have ladders and flashlights to do it. We know it wasn’t squirrels because they leave evidence, partially eaten pears under the trees. No other animal could have done it, 6 trees, completely devoid of pears, it had to be people.