You will find out shortly if one of your neighbors suddenly has a rooted branch in their yard I suppose.

Do you have a likely suspect or reason to think they did this? Animals here usually leave mine alone but it is a possibility I suppose.

Did the removal of the branch hurt the tree? Unless it was done significantly bad, probably not.

Would you have give the person the branch if they had asked? I would have without question as the loss of one branch would be insignificant on a large crape myrtle.

So what is the problem of loosing one small branch from your tree. If your neighbor successfully roots and plants the new plant, think of how nice your whole neighborhood will look when there are crape myrtle in bloom through out the neighborhood. With all of those crape myrtle in bloom the neighborhood will be more attractive and your house will be worth more. All because a neighbor took a cutting from your crape myrtle.

Knuttle your nuts. If someone trespassed on needinfo's property and helped themselves to a branch of needinfo's tree, that is stealing. Sure I highly doubt this petty crime should be prosecuted but the neighbor needs to be made aware that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. Knuttle what if you had a potted plant getting ready to plant, you went inside, came back and it was gone? What then? Is that acceptable? Same thing. Someone trespassed and took something that is not theirs.

Yes, it is trespassing and i just planted the crape myrtles a few months ago and they are not large. I dont want to few branches they have to be removed.
If a neighbor wants crape myrtles then they need to go and buy thier own. Also, the seed pod just formed and they were not ripe. They were not even split open yet so the person who took them will not even be able to germinate them.

I am sooo mad. It woulf have been different if they had of asked first. I have also had things go missing from under my carport. I think a security camera is in order.

Do you have many squirrels or other wildlife (deer, opossum, ...) in your area? If so, there's a good chance some of them are behind the crape myrtle trimming. Squirrels eat or experiment with all sorts of things, especially during the intervals between their primary fruit and nut foods. They remove several flowering tips from our crape myrtles every year... as well as an occasional bedding plant, turf runners, and small branches or bark from other trees. Some birds do eat the seeds, though they don't seem to be a favorite with our year-round locals while alternatives are still available.

Sorry you're living with the frustration of stuff disappearing from your property. A security camera could help figure it out, just be sure to get one with good low light capability in case the "critters" causing your losses are nocturnal. At least your young resilient CMs should be fine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Goldfinch and crape myrtle seed