Hi, I have seen small piles of golf balls on the odd day, but never anything like that! especially never anything like prov's

I've never seen them piled up around the course, but have seen some left on tee boxes before.

A few years ago a good friend of mine and I were playing an evening 9 in the fall and he hit one into the trees with a lot of bushes around them, we both went in looking and came out with about 30 balls (nothing real good), but we stuffed them in our bags and when we finished we dumped them next to the putting green were the First Tee had a session in progress (we figured the kids could use them).

I'm never surprised to hear how weird people can be.

I admit I have been guilty of doing this, too.  Once, I played a course in the Pittsburgh area, and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I pulled over fifty (50!) balls out of the trees on one single hole. 

My foursome was waiting in the fairway for the group in front of us to clear, and I just started hawking balls in the woods.  The balls were laying everywhere, and I quickly filled up my towel and came out of the trees with balls spilling out.   My playing partners were laughing like little children when they saw all the high quality balls.  I picked out a few of the best Pro V1's and V1x's and left the remaining balls in small piles along the cart path so others could take their pick of ones they liked. 

It was a fun end to a good round.