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I can't think of anything worse than a thief

8K views 69 replies 29 participants last post by  isaacelectricllc 
#1 ·
When I got to my first job of the day, I opened the door to get my M12 impact, and the box I keep it and a few other cordless tools was gone. I borrowed an impact from the customer, finished the job and started back tracking through my day to check security cameras. (I made two non work stops, one supply house stop, and got gas. I am the boss and can do what I want to) The supply house could only see the front of my van on the camera so I couldn't be sure if it got stolen there or not. After the supply house this morning, I stopped at Walgreens to get a prescription filled. It wasn't quite ready, so I had to wait an extra couple of minutes. I explained this to the manager six hours later when I went back. She went and looked at the video and came up to tell me to call the cops. (customers aren't allowed to view the video). An officer came and looked at the video, told me all about it. A red Chrysler mini van pulled in two minutes after me, was there for three minutes, and I came out five minutes later. I was there a total of 10 minutes. The driver of the van got out and walked all around my van checking the doors which were locked. His van was blocking the view of my side doors, so they couldn't tell how he got into mine, but he did. He said there is a view of the van with the license plate, but it isn't legible, the detectives can probably enhance it though. I told him I estimated about $1000.00 was taken. He gave me a case number, told me a detective would contact me next week, and we both left.

When I got home, I was sitting back pouting about getting robbed and it occurred to me that I didn't see my leather tote full of stuff I rarely use. Went out to the van and sure enough, It's gone too along with my propane torch and a flashlight.

So far, what I know is missing is up to $2439.00 to replace it. Who knows what's missing that I have forgotten about.

And I just think, if my prescription had been ready when I got there, I would have caught the s.o.b in the act when I was leaving and hopefully beat him to within an inch of his life. I may be a 47 year old fat man, but in my mind, I am still the 30 year old power lifter and strongman competitor that I used to be.

I put a call in to my insurance man when I thought it was just the $1000.00 worth of cordless tools. We both decided that by the time I paid the deductible, it probably wasn't worth it to put in a claim. I have since put an itemized list together and emailed it to him.

I have heard somewhere before that if there is an insurance claim on stolen property and the cops know who it is, the insurance company goes after the thief to get their money back and it won't affect the policy holder. Does anyone here know if that is true? I wont hear from the agent until Monday.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
The good guy in this story is my friend


It's my understanding that they won't raise your rates or cancel your policy for something that's not your fault. You should confirm that with you agent.

I'm sorry for your loss. I really do hate thieves, cheats and liars. It's too easy to make an honest living for someone to have to resort to that, so it can only be selfishness and greed. Quite possibly a drug addict. Hopefully the cops do catch up to the scumbag.
 
#3 ·
I have to replace lost, stolen and broken tools every year but, someone breaking into my truck and cleaning it out is a whole different thing.

I would make the company replace everything that was taken with the newest and latest model I could find and pay for a couple of spa days to get my Chi realigned.
 
#27 ·
There wasn't enough time to clean it out. He got the side door open with a slim jim, grabbed a tool box that had my m12 impact, drill, screwdriver, and m18 impact along with all the bits that I had. He also grabbed a leather tool tote that had occasional use stuff like nut drivers, tin snips, screwdrivers I don't use, and things like that. If he had got in the back door and had enough time to actually clean out the tools. I bet there would be over $10,000 gone.

As far as the company paying, I am the company. Just a little one man show out there doing the small jobs the big boys don't want to mess with.
 
#16 ·
I not only catalog my tool serial numbers but also take pictures of them.

This has been deeply ingrained since several friends have been asked not only to produce receipts but also pictures of the items stolen.

One year my BIL had his truck broken into and handtools stolen several times while working on NYC.
 
#5 ·
You can install vehicle dash cams that record while you're driving, but also activate on motion even if the van is off. They normally point forward though the windshield but you can also have one pointing toward the rear where tools are. I know this doesn't help the past but you may consider it for the future.
 
#9 ·
I know for a fact that the insurance companies raise rates whenever they have to pay out any money at all.
I had someone damage my vehicle in a parking lot. I was not even in it when it happened and no one saw it happen.
When renewal time came I found out it does not matter who's fault it is as much as how much money they had to spend.

This lesson has been learned more than once. If you file a claim and they pay anyone including you, the chances of a premium increase go up.
 
#10 ·
OP, I hear you. And since it is not my blood boiling right now I can also only offer up the 'at least this didn't happen' scenario. If this was a crackhead or three time felon loser the aftermath could have been much more costly than the dollar value of the tools.

That does not mitigate the fact that even at 55(well in May anyway) I would have went Toby Keith on him if I would have walked up on the crime . Not in that manner but with a fist to his ear. I may not be as good as I once was but I'm as good one punch as I ever was. It may break my hand, I may get my bum kicked, and I might get arrested. But sonny Jim is going to understand that is one van he should have walked by. I despise tool thives.

My father in-law said it best. When you jank a working man's tools it's like walking into his house and taking food off his dining table. I hope you can get this worked out.
 
#14 ·
We always hear of marking tools so you might get them back.
But few people realize that only your Drivers Licence number is traceable across state lines by the police.
Even a pawn shop don't like to touch things with that number etched into it.
 
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#15 ·
When I got to my first job of the day, I opened the door to get my M12 impact, and the box I keep it and a few other cordless tools was gone. I borrowed an impact from the customer, finished the job and started back tracking through my day to check security cameras. (I made two non work stops, one supply house stop, and got gas. I am the boss and can do what I want to) The supply house could only see the front of my van on the camera so I couldn't be sure if it got stolen there or not. After the supply house this morning, I stopped at Walgreens to get a prescription filled. It wasn't quite ready, so I had to wait an extra couple of minutes. I explained this to the manager six hours later when I went back. She went and looked at the video and came up to tell me to call the cops. (customers aren't allowed to view the video). An officer came and looked at the video, told me all about it. A red Chrysler mini van pulled in two minutes after me, was there for three minutes, and I came out five minutes later. I was there a total of 10 minutes. The driver of the van got out and walked all around my van checking the doors which were locked. His van was blocking the view of my side doors, so they couldn't tell how he got into mine, but he did. He said there is a view of the van with the license plate, but it isn't legible, the detectives can probably enhance it though. I told him I estimated about $1000.00 was taken. He gave me a case number, told me a detective would contact me next week, and we both left.

When I got home, I was sitting back pouting about getting robbed and it occurred to me that I didn't see my leather tote full of stuff I rarely use. Went out to the van and sure enough, It's gone too along with my propane torch and a flashlight.

So far, what I know is missing is up to $2439.00 to replace it. Who knows what's missing that I have forgotten about.

And I just think, if my prescription had been ready when I got there, I would have caught the s.o.b in the act when I was leaving and hopefully beat him to within an inch of his life. I may be a 47 year old fat man, but in my mind, I am still the 30 year old power lifter and strongman competitor that I used to be.

I'm not the powerlifter that competed in Highland games I used to be either but God provides things that can be used as weapons to even the score.

Smashing two heads together can be very effective.

Bouncing a face off pavement is also pretty good.
 
#26 ·
I have never a believer in rules when it comes to fighting, so anything I can use to my advantage has always been permissible. There is still enough left in the tank that if I can get a hold of the dirty b@$t@rd, odds are, it's over. I don't stand much of a chance of running down a 125 lb meth head on foot through a parking lot though.

I am sitting here typing away like a tough guy and just realized that I think the last time I was in a fight was 23 years ago. There have been several close calls since then, but I don't think I have thrown or taken a punch since I was 24.
 
#17 ·
I'm working at a job now where there are a lot of illegals doing the sheetrocking, taping, painting etc. Our guys would set their impact down, go get material and when they come back it will be gone. There was a guy today who was landing wires in the panel and he had his tool box sitting next to him. He left just for a few minutes and came back and his entire tool box was gone! GF said they've already lost over 6k in tools.
 
#21 ·
A number of years back I was working a job on a 4 story building at night in San Francisco, I heard a weird noise and looked over the edge down at my van. I see some bum had broken in and was rifling through my stuff.

I yelled down at him and he got out of the van and looked up. He says "Drop me some cash and I'll leave". I dropped a $20 down and he shut the van door and walked off, I assume to the liquor store.

Bought those padlock units for the doors after that.....
 
#25 ·
When I lived in Ft Lauderdale, back in the late 70's this guy that I gave a ride home on Friday's took my tool box out of the work van and set them behind my car and didn't tell me. We got in the car and drove away. When I got home he called me and told me what he had done and had I put the tools in my trunk. AH NOOO! So back to the job site I go but no tool box anywhere near where we had been parked. Across the canal was a lady trying to get my attention so I drove over to see what she wanted. She asked me what I was doing over there and I explained to her what had happened. She then proceeded to tell me that the "Big Van" that was always on that site had been there after I left and the guy got out and put what she thought was a tool box that had been sitting a little bit beyond where he was parked into the back of the van. She described him to a "T". It was my boss. So when I got home I gave ol' Wendy a call. He denied ever even seeing my tool box. Great guy right there.
 
#29 ·
On the topic, does anyone know of a decent place to get tool insurance? It'd be cool to be able to log everything with pictures, serial numbers, etc. I'd imagine guys would abuse it just to get a payout, so it'd probably be pretty expensive.
 
#44 ·
Its sounds as if you have a better chance of catching the asshole than in most vehicle break-in's, but if its anything like the UK, it will be a druggie with a list of convictions as long as your arm and the court will give him a "one more chance to get clean"...

If fact its almost as if they treat the thieving scums bags as "victims" rather than the scrot's they really are...

Good luck though, I hope something goes your way...
 
#46 ·
They just got me I feel the pain .

We were working on a grocery store dude came in and stole a gas cutoff saw . Got it on camera so we know what he looks like . This punk is so spun out on dope 2 weeks later he came back trying to sell it to us . Plumbers beat the piss out of him and called the cops . This is a tiny town in eastern CA population like 200 . When the cops showed up this punk wants to press charges on the plumbers . Cops tell him to shut up I know who you are . Nice cop . He told us we should have beat him more because he did not care if we were to put him in ICU .
 
#59 ·
In Florida, stealing from a vehicle is burglary. Burglary, along with arson, murder, rape, etc. is a "forcible felony". Florida law allows one to exercise "reasonable force up to and including deadly force to prevent a forcible felony". Moral of the story - don't get caught in Florida by the wrong person.
 
#69 ·
Where I used to work, one of the maintenance guys had to be onsite when ever a contractor was in the building.

We had one that needed a band saw. I gave him ours to use, but he never returned it.
Told the boss and he asked the guy and he denied taking it out of the building, but 2 days later he delivered a brand new one. Never figured that one out.

Several years ago, I went down to my pond to cut grass and do a bit of fishing.
Cast my line, and then looked down the bank , noticed something odd.
It took a few minutes, but I noticed my boat and trailer were missing. I went over to where the boat was parked and you could still see where the tires were flat.

A few days later, the detective called and asked if I really expected to get my boat back.

I always suspected the neighbors kid.
 
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