Well... it finally happened. After years of parking my van outside my shop full of organized tools, I arrive this morning to find a boulder through the drivers window. Some methhead f%&k has cleaned out thousands of dollars and put me out of work today, tomorrow, etc. Worse is the fact that without serial numbers and photos, they'll successfully pawn the stuff for their next hit... the painted "CEDi" logos won't mean s*&t to the shop owners that have already paid this bastard $10.00 for my Bosch RotoHammer, drills, vacuum (really?). If you, like me, have little time and buy a new tool and put it in use without recording the serial number... expect pushback from your insurance company, a lecture on how stupid you are by a cop (and your wife), and the feeling of penetration sans lubricant if the methhead finds your rig. If one of you takes the time to record some serial numbers, I've done my job.

Im sure most of us here feel your pain. I learned a long time ago (living in Chicago) not to leave anything in any vehicle parked outside. I moved out of the city about 5 years ago. Now i can leave my phone charger in the car and not worry about my windows being smashed. When i lived in Chicago a quarter in your ashtray meant you were buying a new window the next day. Sometimes all it took was a bottle of wiper fluid or a shiny gum wrapper (they thought it was a quarter).

I replaced windows at least 5 times a year from the moment i got my first car. I had gotten to the point where i was leaving my doors unlocked to avoid losing more glass but the morons would still break the window because they didn't bother to check. The worst one was where they threw a piece of concrete thru the passenger window and it bounced off the dash board...hit the windshield then bounced out of the driver side window. 3 windows and an air vent for change left in the ash tray thanks to my older brother being too lazy to push the ashtray in when he borrowed the van.

I had loaded up my suburban from a job site and had about 15k worth of tools and computers in it... I was running late for a boy scout leader meeting at the local watering hole...so instead of unloading the truck I went right to the meeting... they tried stealing my truck and then noticed the stash of goodies... so they left the truck and took all the tools and laptops.

funny thing was i was with an 8th district white shirt(sergeant) at the meeting he called the desk sergeant to have a local tack team or patrol officer stop by for report and 2 hours later no patrol car was even dispatched

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I had gotten to the point where i was leaving my doors unlocked to avoid losing more glass but the morons would still break the window because they didn't bother to check.



Same thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I leave my car unlocked and nothing inside, but the idiot(s) still broke out the passenger window!!! They went after a couple of dimes and quarters.

Roland sorry about your tools and loss of work! Thats a real bummer. Our van was burglarized last year but we settled up with insurance somehow. I'll ask Isaiah how we did it.

My business insurance took care of it. Within a week I had a check to purchase new gear.

I'm sure insurance will cover it... just feeling like I'd like to shoot these a**holes right in the nuts and laugh as they bleed out. All sorts of devious thoughts like rigging a drill to explode with indelible blue ink but someone innocently buying from the pawn shop would get hit. I'll just take my lumps and finally purchase that DVR I've been meaning to.

My friend who is always buys the best tools and keeps them in perfect condition . Locked his van at a home depot and came out 15 mins to everything missing. This home depot has a 2 level parking garage with no cameras I was shocked

I HATE the Norwalk Home Depot. Easily the worst one I have gone too. Not their fault, its just sooooo busy all the time.

Small world, I was born in Norwalk Hospital, down the street from that HD. Neighborhood went downhill because of me. Sorry. ;)

I used to drink underage at the Silver Star Diner, when a buddy worked there. That was sooo long ago.

Maybe a quick inventory with a video camera, buddy reading off the serial numbers, would work.

Thanks for turning it all to hell ;-)

I used to work with a guy whose family owned that diner. They do a good amount of business there. That whole stretch of road is so busy actually.

Just use your phone to snap a quick photo of your tools and serial numbers.

I'm lucky to have not needed it yet, but do keep a list of all my tools, serial numbers, date of purchase and purchase price in a spreadsheet just in case.

Using your camera phone is also a good trick to get serial numbers for products going into jobs.  After you unload all the boxes just snap photos of the serial numbers and keep with your other job photos. 

Much faster than writing them all down and you can pull up the photos if you need the serial numbers to add on invoices or for future service.

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