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Recently, our county sheriff’s department recovered a huge amount of stolen tools from a chain of thefts in the area. Reminiscent of roadside tool sales, they rented a huge auditorium and displayed the recovered tools; allowing the “rightful” owners to recover their tools. Unfortuneately, many tools could not be matched with their owners.
Which brings up my main question: Do you mark your tools with your name?
Other questions I pose: Do you also mark them with another identifying mark such as SSN or phone number? Do you mark just your portable power tools or all your tools including small hand tools? If you do mark your tools, how do you mark them (eg. engraver, letter stamps, marks-a-lot)?
From experience, I know how violated one feels when their possessions are stolen. My tools represent a significant investment over time as well as some emotional connection – particularly those tools passed on from my father and grandfather. It would be devistating to have them stolen but it would be worse to have them recovered and never have the opportunity to be returned to me.
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Hi Steve,
Know what you mean.
I won't go into specific details but I use a small trademark logo on my stuff, even the cheap things and then you keep a record of what is stamped and where the stamp is located. This record will be your identification when required.
Too many guys use numbers or names etched on the surface that can easily be filled in or filed off.
The trick is to make it look like it's part of the tool and won't be noticed and removed or filed off.
Time for a little ingenuity.
Nothing worst or lower than some SOB stealing a man's tools that he needs to earn his living.
Gabe
*I use a cheap Craftsman engraver, and, like Gabe, make an "obvious" mark with my name (the mark which would get filed off), and a "hidden" mark at a spot unlikely to be found. My records also include the model, serial number, and purchase records, all filed with the manufacturer's instructions and warantee info. I keep these in a ring binder, using heavy sheet protectors for each tool record.
*I saw that byline! I keep seeing these contractors in 3/4 ton Dodge Ram trucks. Makes my little Ranger look puny. Had to look up to a contractor today as we talked in the street. Good idea on the 1 obvius and 1 hidden mark.
*One of my first tools purchased was a Dremel for engraving. My personal tools all get my name. The Habitat tools on site get some additional blue spray paint. This way we can see them left on the ground.Peace,Martin
*Funny you should ask,Last Monday (7/17/00) I had so far........$2,750.00 of tools stolen off of one of our jobs. They pryed up the top to two Knack job boxes and took two routers, a belt sander, door planer, nail gun, 4' level, and varoius small hand tools. Add in the cost of two ruined job boxes and it adds up. I got lucky. They wiped out the painter, took two wet saws from the tile company, and the mason got hit pretty bad too.A lot of the tools belonged to our employees, which we replaced the next day on the company's ticket. We have no insurance for tools on the job. I can get insurance for tools at our shop, but not for tools on the job away from the shop.At the risk of sounding "Apathetic", there ain't a thing you can do about it. Oh yeah, you can make it hard on the thieves, but you can't stop them. We have taken steps over the years to make it hard for them, but they will still take what they want.Mind you, this was in one of the most wealthy neighborhoods in Dallas, where big money is BIG. It doesn't matter where you are because the theives are there as well.I etch my drivers licence number on all our compay tools. That can be traced anywhere in the US. Your name or ssn# won't help if they take your tools out of state.So far, I have never gotten anything back.I chunk it up to the cost of doing this business and add it to the overhead.Ed. Williams
*Once upon a time law enforcment agencies advocated SSN#'s as an identifier. Nowadays that is highly confidential information because of fraudulent credit applications. I.E. don't give out your SSN# anytime you don't have to.Never forgot the argument 14 years ago i ended with the the question: So if this is your hammer how did my initials get engraved on the side?The secret mark is a good idea thanks Gabe.joe d
*I rebuild all my tools before I use them. Even the new ones. Or at least, I dissasemble them, check them out, and reassemble. I usualy put my name in obvious places, and while the tool is apart, somewhere inside.There's nothing you can do when your 'boss' and your fellow carps take your tools, either...I had my tools all marked. They 'mysteriously' dissappeared after I broke my back. I took nearly a year trying to get them back from those who took them. Got tired of the runaround, and went to the police. Told them who had the tools, and told them what marks to look for and where. The police didn't do a damn thing. Said it was a waste of their time...
*It is a shame that the ordinary people don't have the "juice" to get action. You can bet your last tool that if you were the Mayor or one of the city's movers and shakers you would get some action.
*I too mark them with specific logo. My grandfather also did something similiar to this. Logos not names: sometimes, a person may not always want people to know who's tools were accidentally left somewhere....... Or so I've been told.... Sam
*i don't give out your SSN# anytime you don't have toGreat advice, Joe D., and also, don't give it out even when people ask, esp. if others can hear you when you do so. I think there is some law about this . . . actually, a law that might be helpful, hard as THAT is to believe!
*I like the Idea of a mark in a secret place. I have had more problems with things getting 'borrowed' and not returned. To help this, I hit most of my tools with a big spot of green spray paint. This way, I can see across the room if someone has something of mine.Unfortunatly, if someone really want to steal something, then they will go to the trouble to remove the markings. The method I used makes it much easier to spot my stuff from a distance. Plus most folks there know its mine.
*Joe D,I've belabored the issue of what to mark on my tools for nearly twenty years now. At the start, the recommended marks were your name and SSN. But soon after, the SS Administration would not cooperate with local, county and state law enforcement agencies in providing the address associated with the SSN. You see, an obvious advantage to a SSN is that stolen goods are often recovered in a different state than the theft. The SSN has the potential to find the rightful owner quickly and efficiently.In response, county sheriff departments and some bigger-city police departments implemented their own I.D. systems. Problem was they never centralized their information. Your stolen tools showing up two or three state lines away, even with the I.D. stamped, was little guarantee that the agency recovering the tools could find you in order to return them. These I.D systems petered out.Lately, the SS Administration has begun cooperating with law enforcement agencies with regards to SSN info. My guess it may be due to the fact that everybody seems to have your SSN already. What has the SSA have to lose? Initially, this was goods news but like you have pointed out - we need to rein in the use of our SSNs. This leaves me at the same spot I was twenty years ago.I've given thought to driver license numbers (I've moved four times in the last 20 years) and to using my phone number (changed..well, I lost count) Many of my tools don't have room to continually stamp new information - particularly the hand tools.I'd like to place a mark on my tools that will help get them back to me if they are recovered. I don't know what the percentage of recovery to thefts is but I'd still want them back if they are recovered in, say, Phoenix AZ.b That identifying mark, aside from my SSN, does not currently exist.What are the tradeoffs with using my SSN versus being the victim of credit or other fraud?Damn thieves.
*Once a tool is stolen in most jurisdictions, you are at the mercy of the authorities and the degree of effort that they put into finding the rightful owner.If the police write off your tools as not worth the effort, it wouldn't make any difference if you had your entire name, SIN or service number etched on both side with a branding iron, you still wouldn't get your tools back.All that a mark or number or name will do is make identification of YOUR tools possible when a large cache of tools has been recovered by the police.It is also one step more that the insurance company likes to see, when you fill out your claims sheet. Type of tool, make, model, color, serial number, value AND personal identification marks on the tool.This is the part that says, it's MINE and only MINE.Thieves should be put in shackles on public display, in the town squares, for even a day, as part of the sentencing.Gabe
*Steve,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*OK,I got a question.If you guys are hiding hidden makers on your tools, how do you expect the cops to find them if they recover them? Do you think they will take them apart looking for some kind of hidden marker?Ed. Williams
*In a situation like the one that inspired the original post in this thread, having those marks inside can be what makes the difference between you getting your tools back and your being told, "there is no way we can be sure these tools are yours". Without the marks, you can be looking right at your own tools, and they will not give them to you. Marks of any kind, inside or out, are not going to do any good at all unless the police stumble across your tools in the first place. (All this, granted the police officers don't keep them for themselves anyway... It happens.)
*I recall an interesting suggestion I read in a bicycle book years ago. Put a note between the tire and the inner tube, saying "I NEVER loan or sell my bikes - if the name of the person who brought this bike for repair doesn't match the one on this note, please call the police..."Could this be applicable for power tools?
*I guess I've been lucky as I don't mark my tools whatsoever and 80% of the time leave them on the jobsite overnight, but then I deal with something like 60% new construction and the balance is the retail customer. I gotta admit I don't hear about much tool theft from jobsites in my neck of the woods(SW Fla) and I haven't lost much with the exception of a few extension cords over the past ten years.
*True story- I'm 20'from my truck talking to the customer and a car full of guys pulls up along side of my truck, they grab a compressor and a nail gun, and take off down the street.I call the cops on the cell, they say if the crooks get caught they'll get released on a misdimeaner, because of the (3strikes you're out rule)the felony theft was raised to $2500. The cop said it's called "DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH".So what I look Like I've got $100 dollar bills Hangin out my pockets???Car insurance doesn't cover it . You have to have a separate home owners policy to cover stollen tools.Must have stollen it for drug money, cause they were not smart enough to grab the hose.I could just see those assholes trying to fire the nail gun pluged into the compressor though.As much as I'd like to think marking tools would help, I've got to be honest with you, once they're gone, don't plan on seeing them again.
*So far as I understand it, my insurance covers any loss due to theft. I have the Erie 5 Star policy, and an additional rider that cost only about $150 for every 10K of tool value. It limits each tool to under $500. As I understand it, the tool are covered as they sit outside in the van at nite, and at the job site as long as a "secured environment" is provided. My agent said while remodeling someones house, this is simply a locked entry door, and on a multi-trade job site a lockable container(even a site made plywood box) and/or a chain and lock. Hope I interpret this right! Jeff
*Yup,You talked to the very same police I did. (Seattle) I told them where the tools were, and where the tools were marked. Did everything but go and steal them back. Of course, if I'd done that, I would probably have been arrested...
*Many years ago, when I was still teaching, someone broke into our shop and stole a lot of my hand tools. I had my name engraved in plain sight all over the hand tools.Well, a few days later, the main office of the High School got broken into. The thieves had tried to pry their way into the locked safe using a hammer, large flat tipped screwdriver, and a pry bar. Evidently they got interrupted during the escapade, because they left the tools laying on the floor, and got out of Dodge real quick.The next morning, the local police came to my shop and were about to arrest me. The High School Principal and the Business Manager were at the shop discussing how much more security we needed there. The Business Manager told the cop that he was an idiot. The reason the cop thought he had the thief red handed was the tools that were left behind had my name all over them. The Business Manager told the cop that if he had bothered to look at any of the recent theft reports, he would have seen that these tools had been stolen a few days prior to the incident in the office. I thought I was gonna spend a few days in the county lock up. Now, I keep all of my tools with me, even at night. Like Joe Fusco, I take them home with me, and lock them up when I get to the house.If I ever get some stolen out of my trucks/vans, my agent told me to be sure and tell the claims rep that they were stolen from my house, not a job site. I don't think I could do that, and I hope I never have to find out.James
*James,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*James,How long does it take you to load up table saws, jointers, compressors, ladders, hoses, mitre boxes, planers, cords, etc.?I guess you spend a great deal of time loading and unloading tools from your job sites.Ed. Williams
*Has anyone used this etching processhttp://www.etch-o-matic.com/index.htmlor a similar one? I assume that the etching could be ground off, but perhaps it could be done as suggested in a previous post so that it looks like a manufacturers logo and thus the thief wouldn't realize it was a unique mark. Of course as also suggested earlier, it may not make much difference how well things are marked...
*Get a big mean ugly dog!!!When I was a back in my teens (Don't even ask how long ago!) I worked for an old timer (I think he helped Noah on the Ark). He had this big, ugly dog that when with him on every job. If you worked with him, he let the dog know you were ok and you could get near the tools, but if a stranger came up, that dog was the best guard you could have. It stayed in the back of the truck, didn't have a chain, didn't chase cats, but if you got within 5 feet of the truck or the guy's tools, that damn dog would start to give a low growl, the hairs would raise on his back and you just knew that you would lose a hand (or worse) if you tried to take something.Vince
*An old buddy of mine told us about a big commercial job he was on. One of the electricians was stealing tools from the carpenters; when this was pointed out, a few of the other electricians followed the guy into a stairwell or something and taught him a lesson. The worst site I ever saw was the new museum in Ottawa; I was museum staff at the time, not on construction. We had to detail a person every time we were working on site just to watch the tools.Working on my secret logo...
*A friend of mine swears that this is a true story...He and another guy were two and a half storys up on a roof shingleing when a car pulled up in front of the house. Two guys got out of the car and walked over to the house.After scoping out the site and determining that that the only access to or from the roof was the extension ladder leaning against the front of the house, one of the guys pushed the ladder over. Then the two of them took their sweet time loading up all the tools they could grab. They cleaned out his toolbox and the back of his truck, got his wallet and his watch off the seat even took the compressor the were using to do the roof.My friend said he threw his hammer at one of the guys but missed. The guy picked up the hammer jumped back in his car and sped off.They were stuck up there until someone came by and set the ladder back up. Sounds like a BS story to me, but like I said he swears it's true.
*Hey Ed,I don't spend a lot of time at all loading and unloading.I learned a long time ago when working alone, take out only what you'll be using at the moment, and put it back when you are done. This works for me because I don't have large crews working on projects, and my jobs are not all that large.My table saw is a lightweight portable job, my miter saw is a 12", and my compressor is mounted on a portable hand truck type rig. Real easy to get in and out of the van, and real easy to get to where I need it.My cords and hand tools are all in buckets and boxes, and I get out what I need, then return it when I'm through. My wife is my helper, and she does most of the loading and unloading while I work. It helps a great deal. My work table is a set of bifold doors (solid), or at times it may be a 36" hollow core door set on saw horses. This actually makes a very stout work surface.My van is set up for ease of getting to all of the equipment and tools that will be used. My wife takes care of the rest.James
*Just like i said in the, what do you do when your ladder falls over thread.Tie the ladder at the top. joe d
*Now if we could all just get your wife to work for us too...: )
*Man!That takes some real balls to steal soemthing out of the truck while the contractor is there working out of it. I say cut the bastards nuts off if ya ever catch him!My wife will lock the van doors if she is coming inside and I am already inside. It gets to be a pain in the butt sometimes, but I have to say I have never had anything stolen out of the van or my truck. Been very blessed I guess.James
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A friend of mine was driving down the street one day and sees this pick-up with two big crossbed boxxes, and one has a one foot diameter hole cut on the top at each end. He starts thinking "What good is that? His tools will get wet in the rain. Folks could just stick their hands in." Then they both came to a stoplight and two rotwiellers stuck their heads out of the holes! Another fellow I knew had a stepvan full of tools and a dog who had lived in that van since he was a puppy. It worked great until a crook with a gun came along and shot the dog.
I engrave everything with names and sometimes phone numbers in enough places that filing them out would be a pain and I've never gotten anything back that was stolen, but it is a help in figuring out whose tape measure or pliers is whose at the end of the day. I wouldn't use a SSN or driver's license #. Identity theft is becoming a "popular" crime and compared to losing a tool it's a lot harder to recover from.
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In my former life as a CEE OH PEE we USED to recommend engraving with SS#. No more. Most PD's have programs where they lend you an engraver and advise on locations to do the engraving.
It is very frustrating to recover property (a rare event) and not be able to identify the owner. All it takes is a distance of a few jurisdictions for the stuff to become "unidentifiable". I have taken to first initial, last name and then city, state. Everything was getting yellow paint too but now I look like a DeWalt rep.
You CAN record serial numbers from tools that have them and engrave the same number somewhere else on the tool where it would be hard to grind off. After my tools were stolen from the back of my truck (my agent also advised that no claim would be paid under such circumstances) I find that every now and then I "think" I have the necessary odd ball tool for a job, go to the tool box and then "remember" that it was stolen...and that was over 10 years ago....it just infuriates me all over again...hard to explain why one should get so pissed over a lost tool but I can sure identify with the guys who took the tool thief into the stairwell Thor
*I lost a perfectly good lawn chair once. So, I figured that I'd be better off with a trash chair. If I happen to find a nice lawn chair in my dumster dive, I spray paint it horribly and bend the legs. No one steals junk!I leave my old levels, squares, and other junky looking stuff out on the job. No one steals it.I've even left my old saws on the roof when they get ratty looking enough. I love old ratty looking lead cords and hoses. An old lead hose can't have enough cracks in it. No one will steal it.I once lost a ladder that the bottom feet had been cut off from. I noticed the roofer on the ladder in the sub. The next day, I walked up with the feet in my hand and asked the roofer if he was done with my ladder. He said "this is my bosses" to which I replied, "So why do these cut off feet match exactly then?" I left carrying the ladder with no protest. I still am using the same ladder more than ten years later and have never locked it. It is a good ladder, it just looks crappy!I don't mark my tools and rarely lock them. I never use to even lock them when I went into stores but finally lost a drill. I now lock my truck in some store parking lots. My barn is locked with wedgeson the bottom of the door. I guess the locking system is too complicated for common thieves. I leave my keys in the truck. I'd nevr find them if I ever took them out.I've never locked the doors in my house. I don't even know where the keys are, or if I have any. I just figure if someone needs my stuff, then they need it more than me. I can safely say that more stuff has been borrowed and kept by co-workers. I now refuse to lend a co-worker anything unless he already owns one and it broke or he left it home. I also never buy anything "hot". I've passed up many deals but I know that they will just steal it back from me.Nope, i don't mark anything, and most of my stuff needs replacing anyways. A good thief will just give me an excuse to go out and buy some nice new stuff!bluePS Leave a tidbit or two lying around on your site to judge whether thieves work your area. They'll grab your square or wahatever and then you'll know that you need to be extra careful. If nothing is evey disturbed, you needn't worry.Sleep well.
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Recently, our county sheriff's department recovered a huge amount of stolen tools from a chain of thefts in the area. Reminiscent of roadside tool sales, they rented a huge auditorium and displayed the recovered tools; allowing the "rightful" owners to recover their tools. Unfortuneately, many tools could not be matched with their owners.
Which brings up my main question: Do you mark your tools with your name?
Other questions I pose: Do you also mark them with another identifying mark such as SSN or phone number? Do you mark just your portable power tools or all your tools including small hand tools? If you do mark your tools, how do you mark them (eg. engraver, letter stamps, marks-a-lot)?
From experience, I know how violated one feels when their possessions are stolen. My tools represent a significant investment over time as well as some emotional connection - particularly those tools passed on from my father and grandfather. It would be devistating to have them stolen but it would be worse to have them recovered and never have the opportunity to be returned to me.