Protect your tools

[Bingy man]

I imagine a lot members have there vans and shops protected but others may not . Every now and again the subject of security or worse one of us has had there van or workshop broken into causing loss of income and loss of expensive tools and equipment. I picked this letter up this morning and thought some of the information may be useful to others . This is from West Midlands police but I’m sure the police in other areas have similar schemes. The websites are however accessible to all . Again some of this is old news others may not be aware. Thanks

 

[stuckinthemud]

I remember when advice was do not lock your shed/workshop/vehicle as at least that way your shed/workshop/vehicle won’t get too badly damaged in a break-in, but, it never ceases to amaze me at the number of vans I pass left full of kit outside a job with doors wide open and no-one in sight

 

[Stigmorgan]

I remember when advice was do not lock your shed/workshop/vehicle as at least that way your shed/workshop/vehicle won’t get too badly damaged in a break-in, but, it never ceases to amaze me at the number of vans I pass left full of kit outside a job with doors wide open and no-one in sight

And then insurers decided that by not locking your shed etc you were responsible for allowing the breaking to happen and they could refuse to pay out so the advice changed to keep everything locked up like fort knox

 

[niemeyjt]

With regard to serial numbers etc - a quick solution is the Bosch Pro360 App. Whilst it will scan and recognise Bosch items automatically, it will also allow you to add other brands of products - so all serial numbers can be in one place.

Sadly, it does not (yet?) support an easy export function - though hopefully it wont be required.

I have bitten the bullet and bought a SmartWater kit - hopefully I will never get to find out how good it is. Has anyone got good/bad feedback?

 

[Lorenzl]

Of course smart water and serial numbers ( except for insurance claims ) are only of use if the police find the tools.

 

[Amplidyne]

There was something about tool theft on one of the breakfast TV things on today. BBC?
More of the same, lock your stuff up. mark it, make your van as thief proof as possible etc.

I use a UV marker on my stuff. As said though, the coppers have to find the kit first.

Personally I'd go medieval on people who nick other peoples' livings, but that's me.

 

[Spectric]

I have bitten the bullet and bought a SmartWater kit

They have a really good track record and many businesses use this product and I have seen the signs at Waitrose. You need to put it in places where no one can remove it, ie nooks and crannies in major components of the item, do not use it on parts that could easily be removed and replaced.

 

[Bingy man]

I think a lot of stolen kit is recovered but sadly a lot is unmarked so it’s not easy to find the owners . They keep it for so long then it’s off to the auction. I do wonder if the likes of dewalt, Bosch , festool , hilti etc to name but a few allow the police to access their data base of registered owners of stolen and recovered tools so they can be reunited with their rightful owners.

 

[joncooper27]

I’m thinking about hiding apple tags on some of our kit so if it gets stolen you can see where it is.

 

[Bingy man]

I’m thinking about hiding apple tags on some of our kit so if it gets stolen you can see where it is.

My neighbour ( a tech head ) recommended this for any expensive equipment. The trick is hiding it where nobody would think of looking . Smart water etc is as far as I know invisible ( I’ll stand corrected though) . End of the day you need to make it as hard as possible for the low life’s go steel your kit but super easy and beyond any possibility that these scum bags can try to say it’s theirs .

 

[Lorenzl]

The trick is hiding it where nobody would think of looking .

There are some videos on Youtube by a tracking company tracing customers tagged vehicles. One of the cars he tracked was a Range rover and it was partially gutted when found where the thieves were looking for a tracker.

Where I worked I had a conversation about building renovation and we got onto the subject of mini diggers. It seemed the company had a mini digger and an employee wanted to borrow it for a renovation. The company said no and a few days later the digger was stolen. A year or so later my workmate received an email containing photos of the renovation and in the background was the digger.

 

[kinverkid]

You do need to lock your tools away to a reasonable degree to be covered by your insurance. If you concentrate all of the security on the shed door though they may resort to removing a window or lifting the roof of a regular garden shed. If you are over thirtyish you could put a sound bomb in the shed or back of the van. These are similar and sometimes the same as the high-pitched heron/cat deterrent devices. They are unbearable to the young intruders (U25) but bearable to 'older' ears. A shed solar-powered shed alarm is also a good move for both sheds and vans if they are close enough for you to hear it. Smartwater is one way of marking the item along with UV pens. They are both removable with Isopropanol or Acetone but thieves rarely go to the trouble of even trying to remove them. Generally, they need to get them sold straight away to get their drug money so don't over-think their intelligence over their desperation. If using a UV pen then set a reminder on your calendar to refresh the markings. These should be postcode and house number minimum. Keep your precious hand tools separate from the electronic stuff. They are rarely interested in your planes and chisels. They sometimes end up taking them because they are in the same box as the circular saws and drills. They won't get much if anything from the type of person that deals in stolen tools. Police often recover tools in raids and use UV to look for markings so don't hide them too well. If you put a nice large X in a prominent location it will show up to the Officer drawing their attention and prompting them to have a closer look at the item. The reason many tools end up at the auctions is because the insurance has been paid out so the owner may not want them back because they will have not only replaced the tool/s but they would have to return the insurance money - as I understand it.

 

[Bingy man]

You do need to lock your tools away to a reasonable degree to be covered by your insurance. If you concentrate all of the security on the shed door though they may resort to removing a window or lifting the roof of a regular garden shed. If you are over thirtyish you could put a sound bomb in the shed or back of the van. These are similar and sometimes the same as the high-pitched heron/cat deterrent devices. They are unbearable to the young intruders (U25) but bearable to 'older' ears. A shed solar-powered shed alarm is also a good move for both sheds and vans if they are close enough for you to hear it. Smartwater is one way of marking the item along with UV pens. They are both removable with Isopropanol or Acetone but thieves rarely go to the trouble of even trying to remove them. Generally, they need to get them sold straight away to get their drug money so don't over-think their intelligence over their desperation. If using a UV pen then set a reminder on your calendar to refresh the markings. These should be postcode and house number minimum. Keep your precious hand tools separate from the electronic stuff. They are rarely interested in your planes and chisels. They sometimes end up taking them because they are in the same box as the circular saws and drills. They won't get much if anything from the type of person that deals in stolen tools. Police often recover tools in raids and use UV to look for markings so don't hide them too well. If you put a nice large X in a prominent location it will show up to the Officer drawing their attention and prompting them to have a closer look at the item. The reason many tools end up at the auctions is because the insurance has been paid out so the owner may not want them back because they will have not only replaced the tool/s but they would have to return the insurance money - as I understand it.

I’ve not heard of sound bombs - very interesting as these low life’s often operate in the very early hours , most of my items are uv marked but I didn’t know you have to re mark every year , my reference to hiding was for using as suggested above ( Apple tags ) or similar . The other thing I do is try not to advertise my tools so large bags ( Sainsbury’s/ Asda etc ) so the brand name is hidden , large black bags for the larger items or dust sheets , it’s no guarantee but names like Bosch , dewalt, Milwaukee, festool are easily identified by these scum bags ..