Tools stolen from my Garage

I keep all my tools in my garage. I use it for my main access to our place and close it behind me every time out of habit; my wife and I leave for work in the AM at the same time and it gets closed before we head off. That said, I had a brand new Makita 18-V Combo drill set with about $100 worth of drill bits that I was given as a wedding gift from my wife's uncle....He thought that guys needed "guy" things instead of all the towel and kitchen appliances weddings normally produce. Needless to say, I was extremely grateful and had grand plans for those drills. We are closing on our first house as we speak and those were going to be life savers!

Enter yesterday. I go to the garage to get my sweet drills and they are not where I left them. The drills came with a carry-all bag and I kept all the bits in there as well. Went through all my cabinets and tear apart the whole house looking for them; nowhere. Went back out to the garage and went through everything I have and my mechanics tool set is MIA as well. Birthday Gift from my father....Now I am pissed and after reflecting on what could of happened to them, only one instance pops up.

We had our hot water heater let go about two months ago. Insurance paid for a professional clean up crew and then we hired a local carpeting company to come in and replace the damaged areas. The Inlaws stayed at our place to make sure someone was home, but they were upstairs on the computer while the contractors had free reign in and out through the garage. That would be the ONLY time someone was in my garage who would of taken those tools - easy grabs too. If someone broke in while we were out, I would assume that a lot more items would of been stolen, not just the two things that were in cases with handles.

How do I go about calling these guys up and letting them know I am missing about $400 worth of tools? Is this a case of "too bad, so sad"? I am about ready to drive over there and bitch them out.

 

call the police first and file a report

 

You pretty much nailed it, call them up and complain, be descriptive about the situation, more than likely nothing will come out of it and you'll just have to file a claim with your homeowners insurance. It might be worth a shot, they might come forward and claim they grabbed the wrong bag or something.

 

Be glad youve caught it fast. Years ago I had an elderly relative likely lose a fancy shotgun new-in-box like that. We didn't realize it until probably 10 years later when "the only people who've been down there was the flood cleanup crew years back..." The box and wrap was still there but the gun wasn't. Years later, what can ya do?

I'd say file the report fast. Give them the company names if you know them, and file a claim. In the end there isn't a whole lot you can do. That's why criminals are still around. Sometimes they get away.

 

That's what I'd do.

 

Worst case if they deny everything and you know it had to be them, post it on a google review. Let people know that if you hire these guys your tools might get stolen. However this may be risky unless you can prove it is them.

 

I took an engraver that I got at Harbor Freight, but a soldering iron would also work, and put the last 4 numbers of your social security number backwards (example, if the last 4 would be 1-2-3-4, engrave 4-3-2-1) on the battery pack and the drill body somewhere & the charging unit. If you are on a job site, this is how those that share a charger know their battery from someone else's. If you get ripped off, hit the pawn shops and see what they have. If you find it, call the cops!