Has anyone ever had their tools stolen?

[MichaelP]

With the number of unneeded tools bought by us, the GJ members, we should thank thieves pruning out collections occasionally.
This creates extra space to be filled by new junk.

 

[JuncleJohn]

With the number of unneeded tools bought by us, the GJ members, we should thank thieves pruning out collections occasionally.
This creates extra space to be filled by new junk.

NOT!!!

John

 

[MichaelP]

Bit of a hoarder?

Welcome to the club!

 

[finn]

Re: has anyone ever had there tools stolen

what if you don't own a home ?
insurance is a scam

Renter’s insurance would be the alternative if you don’t own a home.

 

[finn]

Yep, I've had my tools stolen, more than once actually. The first time was completely my fault, the 2nd time was unavoidable.

The second time my tools were stolen, I was doing a renovation job for a business in a strip mall (new drywall, wiring, bathroom, ect) and instead of carting my tools back and forth every day I just locked them in the back room completely out of sight. As luck would have it, the place was broken into one night, even though there was nothing in the store yet, the took almost all my tools. The real reason they broke in was not my tools, but they were trying to rob the store next door by kicking in the wall. They busted through the first wall, but ran into the second wall and gave up and stole my tools. These idiots were so stupid...my cordless circular saw was sitting not more than a foot from where they kicked in the wall and would have cut right through the steel joists with ease. In truth it would have made less noise than the kicking they were doing.

Oh, and I got NOTHING from insurance...homeowners wouldn't cover it because I was using them for professional reasons, and the company I was working for said I was a contractor so they weren't liable. While I am only a very part time contractor now, I have them insured for any instance. Talk about pissed! Oh well, live and learn.

Inland Marine or whatever it’s called covers things like work tools, I think.

There was a thread a couple of years ago.

 

[a6hux]

Roofers stole my generator after they were done with my house. They knew were I kept it because I allowed them to use it. Garage doors hadn’t been installed yet. At least I had the house locked up and a job box, otherwise I would have been cleaned out!

 

[sparky 1971]

I got to a job one morning only to find out that all of the tools in the side door of my van were gone. I'd had a Dr. appointment that morning, stopped at a gas station, the supply house and at Walgreens to get a prescription filled. Backtracking through the morning led me to find out it happened during the 13 minutes I was at Walgreens; the prescription wasn't ready yet which made me stay there for about an extra five minutes. I would have either caught him in the act or been gone otherwise. Never got the tools back, insurance paid out and the cops think it was the same person that broke into a muffler shop a couple of weeks later only to take a bullet to the head for his troubles.

Another time I was at a tool store when a guy came in needing a table saw. He'd just left with a new saw about 30 minutes before but when he stopped next door at the **** store someone took his new, still in the box, saw.

 

[Dick Tracy]

I had a Klein 5 in 1 stolen out of my pouch while working at a Dell facility about 20 years ago, still pisses me off..

On a more serious note, I had an entire work truck taken once, it was filled with all of my tools. After about 5 hours and police involvement, it turns out a tow truck driver grabbed the wrong Silverado, he didn’t verify the license plates, or make sure it was the proper truck before hooking it up and driving alway. It was a serious relief to get it back but a pita as a bunch of tools shifted in the boxes from the tow.

 

[Ohmthis]

I was a 4th year apprentice (electrician) and had every single one of my trade tools stolen out of my truck’s bed mounted tool box. Actually I should say that they took the whole box. I was at the school at night. It was estimated at $1500 worth of stuff. I was sick! I couldn’t afford not to work, but didn’t have any tools to go work with. The guys in my class all stepped up and gave me a piece at a time, enough 2nd hand tools to get me through. To this day, I’ll never forget those guys and the brotherhood we had built over the 5 years of school.
To the Rat Bastards that took my tools…….There is a special place in Hell for you!

 

[willf650]

I had a meter stolen and then it magically reappeared. I normally work by myself in more specialized work but was working with the regular electrical side of the company I worked for on weekends to pull a job out of the hole. I was doing my regular work during the week on a different job and 2/12s over the weekends. Was wiring up lighting relay panels and motor starters in stacked electric rooms and my meter went on a walk about as I was going between floors.

The foreman on the job put the fear of god into someone and said he would beat the hell of them if the meter was seen in someone’s hand since I was there helping him out and didn’t need to be there.

The meter magically appeared the following day in the middle of floor of one of the electrical rooms. It certainly wasn’t there when I scoured every room looking for it.

Thievery from your own co workers is worse than a random crack head.

 

[nadogail]

There are entirely too many of us who have had tools stolen from us.

 

[bdbecker]

...On a more serious note, I had an entire work truck taken once, it was filled with all of my tools. After about 5 hours and police involvement, it turns out a tow truck driver grabbed the wrong Silverado, he didn’t verify the license plates, or make sure it was the proper truck before hooking it up and driving alway. It was a serious relief to get it back but a pita as a bunch of tools shifted in the boxes from the tow.

About 15 or so years ago, my cousin's work truck was stolen out of his driveway. Quiet, safe neighborhood. He always suspected it was someone he knew. The truck didn't scream 'contractor truck'. It was just a truck with a topper with blacked out (painted black on the inside) glass. Never was recovered. Thankfully he had insurance on everything, but he did have to cancel a couple jobs he'd already booked while he was trying to get everything sorted out.

 

[rcsuder]

To my knowledge I’ve never had any tools stolen, or really even lost any. But about 25 years ago I was in a pawn shop digging through a box of old wrenches and pulled out a 13/16” wrench which clearly had my name ingraved on it. I know it was mine because I had bent it a certain way to remove the drain plug on my ’73 Grand Torino that had a dented oil pan that wouldn’t allow me to use a regular wrench. I don’t know how or when it left my posession and I had completely forgotten about it. Funny thing is I didn’t buy it, I just tossed it back in box.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Was in a motel in the work truck for the annual hazmat conference, and some rat ba$tard f***ing doper tried to break into my Ubody... Bet he was almost as surprised when he got it opened and found reference books, a whiteboard setup, and other incident command post stuff as when he turned around and there were these "corn fed" firefighter boys (who I happened to know) wantin' to know why Scangily Scumball was breaking into my library... 250 response units and Spinball McTweak picked the wrong side box on the wrong truck to open, right outside a room full of rowdy firefighter guys...

OTOH, there was my dad, who lad a NICE collection of tools (Craftsmans, Snappy, Williams, etc.) and some older friends of these (questionable) friends of my brother's decided to do a little late night burglary.... hit dad's, took one box and some stuff on the workbench, then came back for the other one a couple nights later... Fool me twice, you're the fool.

He got some of his stuff back (not much) and his homeowners covered the rest. Ended up better off than he was originally..

 

[ecotec]

I had a meter stolen and then it magically reappeared. I normally work by myself in more specialized work but was working with the regular electrical side of the company I worked for on weekends to pull a job out of the hole. I was doing my regular work during the week on a different job and 2/12s over the weekends. Was wiring up lighting relay panels and motor starters in stacked electric rooms and my meter went on a walk about as I was going between floors.

The foreman on the job put the fear of god into someone and said he would beat the hell of them if the meter was seen in someone’s hand since I was there helping him out and didn’t need to be there.

The meter magically appeared the following day in the middle of floor of one of the electrical rooms. It certainly wasn’t there when I scoured every room looking for it.

Thievery from your own co workers is worse than a random crack head.

Agreed.

You can’t change dirtbaggy types.

“Good” people pulling off a one off crime of opportunity. You can break them. You tell a man’s parents/wife/children that their child/husband/father is a thief… you can break a human spirit and cause real positive change in the world.

Sometimes you need to make an example of someone to set the tone. Realistically, and unfortunately, it should be a “good” person.

 

[Oldsnapper]

I didn't have my toolbox stolen but one of my co-workers did about 25 years ago. Someone broke into the shop one night, stole the shop parts truck and the toolbox that was closest to the truck. Thankfully my toolbox was at the far end of the shop with the top bolted to the bottom. He got his tool box back a couple of days later after it was found in the middle of the road about 50 miles away with evidence that the pickup had been rolled. The top and bottom survived without any serious damage. I don't remember if the pickup was ever found.