The stolen tool thread, your stories.

[BackTracker]

So, the "found tool" thread got me thinking about my stolen/lost tools and mosr specifically the random act's of thievery (some accidental) that have happened to me. Let the story telling begin!

Well, my fiancee and I went on vacation for two weeks and left our idiot roommate alone with the house...This already sounds like the beginning of a bad joke doesn't it...I wonder how many stories will start this way... anyway, we were gone for two weeks and actually called this guy to make sure he wasn't screwing anything up. It's not that we didn't didn't trust him, oh wait yes it was . For the sake of background, a friend of my mine actually owned the house so it was important to us to keep it clean. So anyway he keeps telling us everything is fine... sure it was....when we got back home he had done an engine swap in the garage, an SR20 I belive into his 240sx.

He used our regular bathroom towels to clean up the puddles of oil and coolant he tracked through the house and all over the brand new garage. My tools were....EVERYWHERE scattered all over the garage. And those tools were the ones I could find. There was a grand total of 20 or so tools that had "gone missing" while he and his douchebag friends did this engine swap (poorly obviously). Many of my then brand new ratcheting wrenches had disappeared, random sockets were gone, along with extensions reducers, swivels, ratchets ect. Needless to say I ripped him a new one and sat in the garage while he picked up and cleaned each and every tool.

I left him a list of the missing craftsman tools on he table. The next day he placed several powerbuilt tools on the table thinking he would replace my craftsman tools with powerbuilts. Later that week he was gone. I never saw him again or my tools.

 

[PhantomEB]

Not so much stolen tools but stolen time, bud was tryin to sell his house so he was paranoid that people would scope out his stuff and come back to steal them.... shakin head, so he asked me to store his tools over here, ok thinkin just tool box etc, lawnmower comes over etc for 4 months, i had to trip over his **** constantly.

Finally when he did move it back out, I told him it was nice to do a favor but hes the first and last person I will allow to store stuff in my workshop. As for tools, been far too many that have borrowed for far too long, only one I willin to lend out is the engine hoist and that deal includes they keep it til i need it back or someone else needs it. But anything else there is only 2 buddies I lend tools out to and they are bigger gear heads then I am!

 

[norry]

only one I willin to lend out is the engine hoist and that deal includes they keep it til i need it back or someone else needs it.

Interesting that you say that. I got a great deal on my engine hoist from a rental company that, in the owner's words, was "sick and tired of calling the police to get the thing back." Guess hoists are a headache for guys who rent out tools too!

 

[fordbroncodave]

never had a tool stolen from me. dad lost a few of mine though

 

[scottg1952]

How bout two "almost" stolen tool stories??

I was up at the town dump with a friend years ago. People were dumping cars and trucks and tractors off to one side then.
An old truck had come in and there were attractive parts I wanted and my friend wanted some other stuff.
So one fine morning we cruised on in.
There was a wide lot, I parked close as I could. Nobody else was around at all.
I had my travelling box open on the tailgate of my truck and so did Jr. We were going back and forth picking parts and putting them in the truck.
I'd just taken a small part lose and it was warming up, so figured I'd get something to drink on this round, when I saw it.............................................................
A middle aged woman, dressed fairly well.... My box and Jr's box in each hand, barely able to keep from dragging the ground from the weight, scurrying for the other side past some buckbrush as fast as her short little legs could go.
"Hey" I screamed at the top of my lungs and took off at a run.
She spun and around and saw me and dropped both boxes into the dirt and took off herself.
She was in her car and gone before I even got a look at the model of the car.

Here is my second story. No tools lost this time either.
One time I had gone to Berkley. I packed well and brought a lot of mechanic tools, knowing it would be a long trip.
Well, I got out my old Proto flop top box. You know the ones. About 26" long and 10" wide with a dutch barn shaped top where 2 loose 1/2 leaves fold over each other in the middle to make the lid?
This is a veteran toolbox. Probably 1950's.
It has been flattened several times and hammered back out roughly. Burn holes, from torch work. Brass plated cabinet corners applied at one time to keep the bottom on.
Whatever color it once was, it was about 12 colors splotched and scratched through here and there. A champion mutt of a box!!

One night in Berkley forgot to lock the wagon (I am from the country. I haven't even taken the keys out of my truck/car in 35 years at home, let alone lock the door)
and the box was sitting on the back deck, in full view from either side of the station wagon from some distance, and the doors unlocked.

Somebody siphoned my gas that night, but the old box,.... they just left that alone.
There were lots of good tools in it, but just the look of the beat to hell old veteran toolbox kept them away.
yours Scott

 

[Brookesy]

When i was an apprentice i was away from the garage for a week doing exams & the mechanics at work broke into my box & took my Teng socket set. Never did find out who had it.

 

[fordbroncodave]

i got a story not about me but what i saw at sears yesterday.

it was raining like hell outside so i walked indoors to talk to someone on my phone. i was only in maybe 15 feet from the door and talking away on my phone (feeding directions). i took a glance down the long walk way in the tool department and some guy is walking fast with a 5 piece dewalt kit in a bright yellow box. he gets about 12 feet from the door and about 8 sears representatives come screeching around the corner. one of the women loudly says "are you gonna pay for that" and the guy responds " i was gonna" when he had his hand on the door. he drops it and books across the parking lot as fast as he could.
when he replied "i was gonna" his face got captured on multiple security cameras around the door.


of all the things he could have stolen, why a 5ft bright yellow orange box?????????

it was raining yesterday and he had a coat on. he could have easily stolen the ingersol rand titanium in the air tool section and put it in his coat. worth a couple hundred

 

[WVU Tuba Dale]

it was raining yesterday and he had a coat on. he could have easily stolen the ingersol rand titanium in the air tool section and put it in his coat. worth a couple hundred

Perhaps his coat was already full and he still got away with a bunch of stuff. Theives.

 

[Dust]

I'm pretty sure one of the service writers at work has taken some of my tools and my partner's tools. My grandfather's hammer went missing one day after he had been poking around, and the other day our big red funnel went missing. A few months ago it was our air chuck.

I can't prove it because I've never seen him do it, but the vibe I get from him is one of "I don't give a **** about anyone else or their stuff."

 

[gatewaysysop]

... but the vibe I get from him is one of "I don't give a **** about anyone else or their stuff."

I know quite a few people like this, including some family members and neighbors. Talk about a huge red flag and the #1 reason I absolutely refuse to loan tools to pretty much anyone, not even the HF cheapies. Even if it was a cheapo tool, I'd still get worked up about it every time I saw the person, and I'd rather avoid that headache to begin with.

It's funny the parallels you can draw to this in the corporate world. You loan out your expensive projector, stuff goes missing (lens cap, power cord, etc.) before you get it back. Ask the last person who borrowed it, they'll swear up and down they packed it up proper and left nothing behind.

A more on-topic story about theft: My dad once ordered a real nice boat prop, stainless and all, not cheap. There was an old, miserly ******* down the street that got our mail once in a while. UPS guy had said he delivered it, which we knew he hadn't. From his description, it sounded like he delivered it to this guy by mistake. Went to a yard sale he had not much later, looked like someone leaving with a nice stainless boat prop. The old guy was confronted about it, his only response was basically "anything that gets delivered here is for me." Never could prove anything of course, so that was the end of that, but it was an eye opener at the time. Some people have no shame.

 

[rogsmart]

This is an almost stolen tool story. Years ago I was working on a house just above Dolores Park in San Francisco. (Lots of druggie activity in Dolores Park for those that aren't in the Bay area.) I was installing an overhead garage door opener for the owner. The house was being totally remodeled so no one was living in it at the time. It was a Saturday and the only people working on the place were myself and an electrician who was hauling lots of stuff in and out the front door.
My last words to him before I took off to get some coffee, "Make sure you close the front door every time you go in or out." So I get my coffee and am pulling back up to the building 15 minutes later just in time to see this very tall muscular gentleman step out the front door with my cordless drill case in his hand. I was young and full of testosterone in those days. So without any hesitation I jumped out of the truck, screamed at him to, "Give me my Motherfxxxxxx drill back, you sob", and snatched it out of his hands. The expression on his face was priceless, I could see astonishment in his eyes at being confronted by this red faced skinny little white dude screaming his head off. I mean this guy could have seriously flattened me with no problem if he'd wanted to. As it was I don't even think he managed to utter a couple of uhhh... uhhh. I uhh... before I was back in the truck with my cordless drill safely retrieved. Anger and quick action saved the day. Later on I thought it was probably a pretty stupid thing to do, but hey I got my cordless drill back and I was still in one piece.

 

[shovel]

I had ALL of my tools stolen 30 years ago when I was in college. I had purchaed those tools with my high school graduation money and was using them on sideline jobs to help pay for college. I drove a 65 VW baja bug. I had every tool I owned in a box in the storage area behind the seat. While working in the sporting goods department at JC Penneys at the local mall, somebody broke the window and made off with my tools and a pair of speakers in walnut boxes in the back seat. I went off on the mall security and local police. They did nothing. They same week they had stereos, car batteries and even a transmission stolen from a 4wd truck in the same parking lot. After 30 years, it still pisses me off. My Dad said it best about the situation. He said to just pray that the fool that stole them will have to make a living with them from now on.

 

[longroof63]

Interesting that you say that. I got a great deal on my engine hoist from a rental company that, in the owner's words, was "sick and tired of calling the police to get the thing back." Guess hoists are a headache for guys who rent out tools too!

I ran a rental store in a previous life and that guy is right. Pain in the rear end renting those things out. Shade Tree Mechanics always think, I can pull that motor out and put another in before my half day rent is up?!?! No...You can't and when I call you at noon looking for my hoist don't act like it's my stores fault you don't have a clue what you are doing...Oh and by the way yes you will be paying the full day rental price, bud!
The sad part is we would rent those things for around $60. The same poor guy would rent it 2 or 3 times a month. When it was all said and done he could have bought a REALLY NICE one.