Thieves

[Shawn Pixley]

My wife teaches silversmithing on the side through our local Gem and Mineral Society. They have a space in a building in the center of a park. It had been remodeled over the last year and a half. They have completed moving in their tools, equipment, etc... and have classes scheduled to start on Monday the fifth. Sunday the Club President was dropping off some books and found that someone had tried to break in. We spent four hours on Sunday waiting for the police and a board up service to come and secure the door. At that time, we were not sure the theives made it in. Yesterday with the city employees back at work, we got the parks personnel (the parks department is responsible for maintenance and repair of the building) to come and open the doors. We didn't want to totally destroy the doors opening up the shop. They got the doors opened and we were able to get in.

Thieves had made it in and were prepared with bolt cutters and pry bars. They cut off the lock to the storage room as well as cutting off the lock to storage cabinets within. They took jewelry hammers, pliers, and other tools. Fortunately they really didn't know what they were doing as they passed up on much more valuable equipment. Strangely, they took the MSDS binder!?! They didn't vandalize what they didn't take either. The loss totaled around $6,000. The final tally is still being compiled by the various instructors. My wife is in charge of all the classes and shop. Due to the move out for renovation, they had a really good inventory in which to validate the loss and the claim to the insurance carrier. Unfortunately, much of the equipment needs to be replaced by the start of class on Monday.

The parks department re-secured the doors with heavy duty hasps, cane bolts and padlocks. They'll need to get new doors and hardware to provide a permanant solution. The Parks staff were very helpful and responsive when we were back on normal business hours.

So here is my unsolicited advice and the lessons learned from the incident.

1-Look over your shop to determine how people could break in (Thieves aren't concerned with the damage they do when effecting an entry) Secure all identified weaknesses.
2-Consider an alarm system
3-Inventory and document your equipment and tools (It is remarkable how quickly even small tools add up to a very large dollar amount)

[Paul McGaha]

Sorry this happened Shawn,

I agree with all of your suggestions and especially the alarm system.

I'm in the electrical contracting field and we have break ins at our jobsites on occasion. Sometimes repeated break ins at the same site (presumably by the same people). Mainly the thieves seem to be after the tools and the copper wire.

It's a crappy feeling.

PHM

[Mel Fulks]

Most distressing ,Shawn. Barbarism is hard to "get over".Hope you are treated well by insurance people and police.

[Erik Loza]

...Sometimes repeated break ins at the same site (presumably by the same people). Mainly the thieves seem to be after the tools and the copper wire....

Our house was broken into several times during the remodel and thieves ripped out romex and old copper piping. Not my tools, but a friend who was doing a piece of furniture on commision for us was a dummy and left some tools in the house overnight. And guess what happened to them. It's amazing how tools can just walk away in the middle of a busy jobsite and nobody sees or knows anything. Our GC told us it apparently is rampant in the contstruction industry.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Bill Huber]

I hate to hear this, why some people just can not get a job and buy there own stuff.

I have pictures of all my tools, opened the drawers and took pictures of the contents.
I have also done the same with the house, have pictures of most everything in it.

Hope everything works out.

[Brian Elfert]

My house had no windows with just housewrap over the holes for at least four weeks during renovations. I was worried about a break-in so we put all the tools in the garage when not there. After a while we started leaving some tools in the house since nothing had happened and we got sick of moving tools all the time. The house apparently had been broken into before I bought it as they had thick steel plates at the deadbolts. The garage door is missing half the frame, but I haven't fixed it since I plan to replace the garage eventually.

What the heck is a thief going to do with a pair of pliers? You can sell them for what, $2, maybe?

[Matt Day]

Bummer Shawn. I hate to hear that.

I was a PM for a couple commercial construction companies, and we probably had about a dozen incidents over about a three-year period. copper theft was rampant and still is. Thieves would steal any wire they can get their hands on, including welding leads. I think we had temporary power wires stolen three times at one job site. We had a cameras and increased police drive-bys, but we never caught anyone. We even had a Connex box broken into that the electrical contractor had. They used welding equipment to burn the locking mechanism off.

I have been meaning to take pictures and video of my shop inventory for the past couple of years. I think this will be the kick in the pants to make me finally do it.

[Shawn Pixley]

We will be monitoring Craigslist, garage sales, and flea markets. These are fairly specialized tools. No one will frame a house with a silversmithing planishing hammer.

[Jim Koepke]

Saddened to hear this Shawn.

Hopefully something will show up on the pawn shop watch or Craigslist that will lead to the thieves.

jtk

[Bill McNiel]

Shawn, I am truly sorry to hear about this miscreant behavior. Only advice I have is to spend your energy moving forward and forget about expending effort trying to catch the evil doers. Just continue to focus on the positives. I am wondering about the MSDS binder, WTF?

[Mel Fulks]

Shawn ,you are right about those tools not being used to frame a house.... But a guy that goes to prison with them could get a cushy job making custom license plates for the warden's friends....I'm hoping that doesn't happen.

[Bob Rufener]

Sad story Shawn. Very unfortunate. It reminds me that I need to re-photograph items in our house including my workshop.

A friend of mine ran a commercial HVAC business. Because of the size of some of the units, they stored some outside waiting for installation. He had someone break into the fenced in enclosure and rip out the copper and aluminum from the units. The units were scheduled to be installed the following week. He was naturally upset about it-as much for the inconvenience of trying to get new equipment as well as the theft. He said he would have gladly given them the few hundred dollars they may have gotten for scrap. It is a different world out there. When I was growing up, we never even locked the house doors. Never a problem. I wouldn't do that now.

[Kevin Bourque]

We will be monitoring Craigslist, garage sales, and flea markets. These are fairly specialized tools. No one will frame a house with a silversmithing planishing hammer.

I know that thieves will sell their stolen goods on craigslist and Ebay.

What they do is they move the goods far enough away so that if you search your local craigslist you won't find anything and if you find an identical item on Ebay the location is far away from where it was stolen.

[Rich Riddle]

In the Appalachian Mountain states there are many signs posted on properties that say, "we don't call the police." They mean it. Sorry to hear about your losses.

[Shawn Pixley]

Thank you all for our sympathy. Yes, it is a bit of a pain. It is worse for my wife as she tries to get the whole club (or at least the Board Members) to lift their fair share of the work. She has been the person overseeing the packing and storing the equipment, renovation of the shop, negotiating the new lease agreement, and the move back in for the last 18 months or so. She thought she was at the end of the process.

One of the more stupidly annoying things is reprinting the MSDS and getting a new folder for it. They need to spend about $750 to get the minimum aliquot of tools to hold classes next week. It could be much worse. they could have stolen more expensive items or vandalized what they left behind. No one was hurt either.

[Mark Bolton]

The sad thing is an alarm system does virtually nothing. You can see all these smash and grab that happen in well lit, alarmed, and even open, businesses. Its a deterrent for the idiot thieves but will likely do nothing for anyone who really wants in.

Its a fear for anyone, and moreso for those of us who rely on the items they'd steal for our livelihood. Even with insurance, the inconvenience and replacement would likely bankrupt many small businesses.

[Larry Edgerton]

What I think of thieves can not be posted on this forum. My shop is 10 feet from my bedroom window, there is a shop dog, and there are self defense items in my bedroom.

We are all living the illusion that we have become a civilized society, but we are really one disaster away from survival of the fittest rules. People are animals and as I read the news I am glad I live where I do even if I am missing out on some things by living out here. Being in construction I have been hit a few times. They came in with two large trucks and stole the whole top floor of a house I was building that had been delivered but was still on the ground. Amazing, and that was out here in the country. I have friends that work in the city and the stories they tell and the lengths they have to go to to protect their materials and tools is just astounding.

Sorry you and yours have to deal with this Shawn, it does leave an empty feeling in ones heart.

[Raymond Fries]

How sad and I feel sorry this happened to you and your wife. It is always the innocent ones that suffer and have to jump through hoops to make things right again. Many of us have been violated by thieves, me included, and it is always upsetting. Hang in there and I hope everything returns to normal soon.