someone broke in my garage and stole my tools

[ding]

It happened on 12/31/2010. I noticed the following have gone so far.

1. bt3100 on bosch gravity rise stand.
2. 12 inch Hitachi miter saw on Rigid mobile stand.
3. Bosch router kit
4. Thomas 2 gallon compressor (my favorite tool)
5. Milwaukee sawzall
6. Bosch Jigsaw

My Delta 12" planer and 6 1/2" jointer are safe. I guess they are too heavy to carry out. It took me about 5 years to collect these tools.

They (I am guessing there's more than one person who did this job) climbed over my 6 feet fence and unbolt my fence lock from inside. Then kicked the side door to enter the garage. A pliers was used to break in my shed to stole the miter saw.


I just need to rant.

Thanks!

D

[Hoakie]

OMG that sucks....hope you find the scum

[bigdaddyjohn]

That sucks. Where are you located? It may help since we can't be on the lookout unless we know where you are.

[cabinetman]

Sorry to hear about your loss. You might check with local pawn shops and flea markets for the next few weeks. Don't deliberate with filing a police report. If you happen to find some of your tools at a pawn shop, you'll likely have to go to court to prove that they are yours to get the shop to release them back to you. In lieu of that, the shop may decide to sell them back to you at their cost. BTDT.

Not enough can be said about marking your tools. You could engrave your driver's license number, or any other form of personal ID. It would also help to photograph them for your records. This would help in identifying them and may aid with insurance claims.

It's very likely that they knew what you had, and might have been familiar with your schedule. Check with your neighbors if they saw anything suspicious. I wish you luck with recovery.

.

[bigstick509]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. I take some ribbing from my family about locking everything down in the shop/garage. It is a pain to have to unlock things every time I work in the garage, and it only provides protection from casual thieves.It has been mentioned on the forum that a good home owners policy with replacement coverage is a good alternative to locking everything down.Good luck with the recovery process. Unfortunately, the only thing any of us can do is try to make ourselves a less favorable target from these scumbags.

[herb fellows]

That really sucks! I would keep an eye on Craigslist also, I think a lot of dodgy stuff goes on there, and they might actually be stupid enough to post a photo.

I think you have to assume it's not somebody with a fondness for woodworking, just another opportunistic scumbag.

[metalman]

I will also recommend carefully picking up a few items you think they would have touched. Although to you it might be obvious to wear gloves, petty thieves rarely do in my experience because they know the odds of the police going to the effort to fingerprint are low, but they fingerprint everyone thats arrested, and this probably isn't someones first time. The pawn shop advice and craigs list are good, however I would also recommend checking the craigs list for the nearest major city and just about anything within 100 or 200 miles of you. It will only take a couple minutes, and checking the craigs list next door has found stolen cars furniture and all kinds of things for me.

Also, it might be too late now, but some old fashioned tracking actually goes a long way with something like this too. Stay with me here, but since you figured out they hopped your fence, what direction did they approach from, a street or a backyard? What I'm getting at, is either they drove in, in which case your neighbors may have also been hit which gives you a lot more items to look for, or they were close enough to be your neighbors because roaming crackheads usually don't have the energy to carry anything heavy very far, and I have seen people climb a neighbors fence to break in, because then there is no witness and they are home in minutes.

last point, ask the cops if any of the pawn shops are legit and which ones are really crooked. Pawn shops can tell really quick who is a thief and who isn't, I mean, how many dvd players can you have to pawn in a sixth month period. The more honest ones hate dealing with the courts, and although they aren't going to tell the cops when a thief is coming around with more of the usual, they probably will tell you when they see stuff like your describing come around because if they don't accept stolen goods, their competitors do and they are undercutting honest prices. Its hard for a pawn shop to be honest, but I have known a few that went to pretty good lengths, even keeping track of who brought things they thought were stolen and didn't buy.

[ding]

Thanks for the tips.

I already filed the policy report. If anyone of you know Stockton, California, I think the chances of recovery is small. Is funny that the first thing my wife told me was not to work in front of the garage where everyone can see the tools. "New tools" came into my mind first.

I think I am going to engrave, take picture and check the insurance for my new and existing tools. I am thinking of putting a camera as well.

Good day everyone and have a great start for 2011!

D

[jdon]

Also, you might consider posting on Craigslist, describing what was stolen, and alerting potential buyers- it might produce a lead...

[sweensdv]

I hate thieves, lowest of the low! I hope they catch them and you can have the opportunity to give them a haircut with your planer and shave some butt hair off with your jointer.

[RAFlorida]

Ding, I know it's after the fact; But

when you buy something of value (or not), take pictures of it and picture of the lable with model and serial numbers. That usually requires macro mode of a digital camera. All my tools, guns, tvs, etc are on dvd with pictures of what I've listed above. Then you can print out a picture of the items and show to the pawn shop, cops, insurance, on and on.
I hope you find your tools. Really bad starting off the new year.

[Richard in Smithville]

That really sucks. I hope your insurance will cover your loss. If anything good comes out of this, you and I learn a bit little more on how to keep this from happening again.

[SHADOWFOX]

Definitely not a good way to start a new year. I could not even imagine how you feel right now. I do agree jdon's recommendation of posting on craigslist or going to local pawn shops and ask them to be on the look out in case somebody comes in with your tools. Good luck to you.

Kindest Regards,

[crybdr]

Sorry to hear this.

Due to recent break-ins in my neighborhood - I've installed motion activated lighting in the backyard... Perhaps it will give theives more light to work by - but I hope the extra attention will persuade them to move along...

The break-ins have caused a spontaneous introduction of neighbors that I had never met. I live on a busy street so the sense of community is hard. But, at least now we all have each other's contact information and watch out for strange activity, especially when we know people are travelling.

I hope your stuff turns up and that the theives are caught.

Best,

coryb

[ironhat]

What can I say to relieve your pain. After saving for so many years to have it all stolen is a complete bummer. Here's to hoping that they get the scum.