I spent many hours reading your thread and enjoyed it. I felt almost as bad as you did when your plants were stolen.
I was once told not to ever trust anyone. Once again, I see that is really true.
A good friend of mine grew 5 8ft plants in his back yard. 2 weeks before harvesting, he showed his buddies his plants, and needless to say, 1 week later 4 were stolen. Furthermore, he found out later his buddies were the thieves.
I will never leave my plants with anyone! No matter what. I never will tell anyone I grow. Not even family.
Start a new crop and tell everyone (except your wife) you have given up the hobby and buy it off the streets. No one really needs to know anything.
I feel for you. It hurts your soul when you put blood, sweat and tears into something and someone plots and schemes to steal from you. The worst thing is that most of the time, it is someone you trusted!