Yesterday, Bobby went out to his workshop and discovered that most of his large woodworking tools (saws, drill press, stuff like that) had all been stolen during the night. It has taken him over 4 years to accumulate those tools, bit by bit as he could afford to buy them, and now everything is just gone. We made a police report, but the chances of the tools being found is pretty minute. Bobby did post it on Next Door neighbor with a list of all of the tools that he has discovered are missing, and we are going to check pawn shops, yard sales and Craigslist just in case any turn up there. He had bought a security camera from Amazon but had not installed it yet, and now we wish that he had because we would at least have had the thieves on video. Tootsie did bark during the night, but she barks at stray cats, raccoons, and the opossum when they come on the back porch; so we didn’t pay much attention to her barking. Bobby is having a hard time dealing with this, and please pray for him. He is going to make sure that the shop is totally secure, and also we will have to padlock the yard gate because that is probably how they hauled the tools out. Some of that equipment weighs a lot, so there had to be several men and a pickup or large van for them to haul everything off in.
This is terrible! My husband is a wood worker, and we know how expensive and time consuming it is to collect these tools. Should this not be covered in your insurance on the house ? If you don't know for sure, call them. According to State Farm, our are covered even though garage is not attached. i would think this is someone who knew what he does, has seen the tools and knows your daily habits. You both are in my prayers and hope at least some will be re covered.
Ah I hope the tools are found, is there a local pawn shop you could try to see if they have been passed on there ?
Since we are just renters, and do not have renters insurance , we are not covered for any property loss. My daughter, who owns the house, has insurance; but it only covers the house and property, not our possessions. It will be hard for Bobby to start over again; but once he gets the shop secure so that someone can ‘t just walk in and steal stuff, then he can slowly start finding and replacing the stolen ones, a bit at a time as we can afford to get them. I am also looking at getting a large dog that can be in the yard and guard the property. If we had a dog out there, even a smaller one, probably no one would have come in, plus we will definitely get that security camera installed. Robin said she might have an extra one; so that would help, too. We could have one in the driveway, and one in the shop itself.
Oh my, to have an apartment in Texas now you have to carry renters insurance. Also, when you get new tools, take pictures and if possible etch a number in them... to help identify..NOT your ssn.. perhaps a phone number or bdate. This is what was told to us.
Absolutely a good idea to take photos of every individual tool... @Yvonne Smith and @Bobby Cole ...this is a huge shock for you.. trotting out platitudes about it being only material things won't be of any help to how you feel at the moment, (although thank the Lord they didn't try to enter the house and you're both safe)... however I know how much it would cost to replace all of those tools, and it's eye watering..and you must both be feeling sick to your stomachs and so upset.. These people must have known there was a lot of expensive tools in there for them to come with a van and target your house... so it's likely to be someone you already know, even slightly... and that's never a good feeling. The thing about getting a dog to be in the yard has it's pitfalls, yes the dog could bark, but if thieves are determined and in this case it sounds like they had this all planned..then no dog will stop them. It's easy to feed a dog something to put it to sleep.. just drop some food over the highest fence... it's a very common ploy by burglars. The very best thing is Cameras.. everywhere you feel you need them..and alarms on every door... and do it NOW!!... Having been burgled myself many years ago...and they got it into the house while my daughter and I slept... believe me I know how devastated you're both feeling now..
Thanks, @Holly Saunders ! Having someone actually come in the house while you were sleeping would be a lot worse and harder to get over than just having someone out in the shop. We do think that it was probably someone that knew Bobby had tools out there. I think that there are two possibilities. One is that someone has been coming in and taking the smaller tools, and because they were ones that Bobby wasn’t using at that time, he didn’t realize they were gone, and then they came back with more people and the truck to haul out the large equipment. For someone to have planned it and done everything in one trip, they had to know what Bobby had in the shop, and had enough people to haul it all out, or they spent a long time finding and taking tools. Bobby thinks it was a one-time thing; but I think that it is more likely that someone was in there and maybe took smaller tools, over time, and then came back again for the large ones. If just one tool that Bobby needed was missing, he would have probably thought that he had mislaid it somewhere, and as long as all of the large tools were sitting there, he might not have noticed that some of the smaller ones were gone. Bobby was carrying a lot of his tools around in the back of the station wagon for several months, and I worried that someone might steal them right out of the car; so it might even be that someone had intended to do that, and then went looking in the shop when the tools were no longer in the car. Once Bobby starts getting tools again, we are going to have to somehow squeeze out enough money for the renters insurance, since it would have covered all of the stolen tools if we had had that.
@Yvonne Smith , You have my sympathy. The loss of the tools must be awful but the loss of the sense of security must be even worse. {{{Hugs}}}
I am so sorry to hear that. Yes, security cameras would be great but if affording a top-of-the-line security system isn't in your budget, you might consider some cheaper cameras of the type that people use as game cameras, and mounting one or two of them in places where they can be seen but not easily reached, preferably ones with night vision that would light up upon detecting motion. They make cameras that will automatically transmit photos to your cell phone or to an Internet site, but those are pretty expensive. Mounting a fake antenna to the top of a cheaper one wouldn't actually transmit anything but the potential thieves wouldn't know that. For not a whole lot of money, smaller and easily hidden cameras could be used to store photos of intruders on an SD-card for later retrieval. Of course, you'd want these to be of the type that don't light up when in use or they thieves would just steal the camera too, or the SD-card.
Hope they get what's coming to them ... Is the workshop visible from the street ? If so screen it somehow ... I had an expensive trolley stolen so installed floodlights that sense movement. Anyone comes near they get scared off by the bright light.
@Yvonne Smith Awful news, Yvonne, to be sure. An incident the likes of which has plagued my "possibility" quotient for many years. My shop tools & equipment value likely totals in the tens of thousands of dollars. I would hope the low-lifes responsible may be detected and apprehended trying to dispose of something. Frank
That's what we have, photos of anything we have of "cost". I took them. We also have Renter's Insurance. It's mandatory for the company that owns the property. Have an alarm inside, next to the front door. It covers all windows and back patio door. Whenever we leave in the evening, we set the alarm. It's no longer connected to law enforcement (property owners didn't want to continue paying for that), but does work.