Reminds me of the kind of thing my dad did as a kid. He grew up in the 50s and 60s in Salt Lake, and as teenagers he and his brothers would ride their bikes up into the canyons scouting for raptor nests, and then climb up to them and steal one of the fledglings to raise. My dad still keeps lots of great pictures of him and his brothers with their makeshift birding gloves holding red-tails, American kestrels and once even a golden eagle on their arms.
All stuff that would be very, very illegal today.