[Closed] Just had all my tools nicked !

finally someone who has experienced it for themselves.

Yep me too - happened during my 10 o'clock teabreak, my car was parked by the site gate, they smashed a window. They took my Elu mitre saw and Hitachi circular saw. This happened on a friday but luckily I found my tools for sale the next day in a local tool shop which sells second hand tools.

The shop owner had the passport details of the person he had bought them off, I'm pretty sure it was a British passport, there were no significant foreign workers on site - it was before EU enlargement. The guy who was arrested was local to the site, he denied all knowledge and the case was eventually dropped.

It's worth mentioning that a while back I went to use my Bosch jigsaw on site and couldn't find it anywhere (I thought my mate had it). Seriously pissed off I walked around the site asking if anyone had seen it. Eventually a couple of Albanians said that about a week or two earlier they had found a jigsaw on the scaffolding near where they were working, they had put it in their lock-up for safe keeping. It [i]was[/i] my jigsaw - my mate had forgotten it on the scaffolding, the ****er.

I still have my Bosch jigsaw thanks to two Eastern Europeans, I used it this afternoon in fact. The OP needs to address his baseless prejudices. Some Eastern Europeans are absolute diamonds, some Brits are tossers, and vice versa. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

BTW, check Cash Converters.

ernie_lynch +1,000,000

You have much recent experience of construction work on site?
It doesn't sound like it.

Area of work is not relevant, judging people based on nationality (or race, which I didn't accuse tony24 of) is morally reprehensible.

Give the lad a break, if you've nothing helpful to say then why bother. your pc critism is not relevant, helpful, or wanted.

Give him a break? No. You don't get to be bigoted just because something bad has happened to you.

Have you read 'to kill a mockingbird'?

Was the father of the raped white girl right to accuse and press for the execution of the black guy because "hey, his daughter has been raped... give him a break!"?

Prejudice is bad m'kay, no matter what the situation or the underlying reasons. If you're seriously going to flame me for pointing it out, then you need to have a word with yourself.

As for 'pc criticism' - bugger off back to daily mail la-la land and don't come back until you've found out what 'political correctness' actually is.

Dave

ps As an aside, I have been waiting for a violation of Godwin's Law on this thread - well done all for steering clear 😀

pps I still remain sympathetic to tony24 for the loss of his tools, but his attitude to other humans needs some serious work

Curtisthecat - only a d**khead would slate a guy for his spelling / grammar when he has just posted that his tools and effectively his livelihood have been stolen. Were you bullied as a child?

Well put Ernie! Finally somebody speaking some sense! OP needs to get over his borderline racism and not blaming foreigners before getting his facts straight. It might have been somebody from Slough or somebody from Poland, who cares? The nationality of the thief is not the issue.

Come work with me curtis ill soon change your mind mate. You wait till you see them stealing, spitting, smashing your stuff up just to make a buck it might change your mind.

Who is "them"? Have you never seen an English/Welsh/Scots/Irish person stealing,spitting,smashing stuff up? Or do only "them" do this?

You wait till you see [b]them[/b] stealing, spitting, smashing your stuff up

Can we at least agree that 'them' refers to the people of whatever nationality who have this attitude?

If that is a subset of 'foreign' then fair enough, but can you honestly say that you've never met a nice, honest foreigner? ernie_lynch has.

Dave

Tony as a fellow worker on the tools, not riding a desk every day as some do, i think you meant theat the foreighners who possibly nicked your tools where from another area, or part of the site, DIDNT YOU.

Oportunist theft is on the increase as is targeted theft, and if they want it , they will get it, no matter what security you have sadly.

What needs to happen is those that are caught with stolen stuff even if thyve bought it and give a real receipt for it they should be jailed, and if it was bought from a shop selling s/h stuff then the manager should be jailed if they cant prove they did all reasonable checks to make suere the stuff wasnt nicked, eg cctv of the seller, and photocopy of Id, checjked with Google earth Streetview.

IF PEOPLE DIDNT BUY STOLEN STUFF THERE WOULD BE NO MARKET FOR IT.

Given the seemingly massive amount of theft, vandalism et al that everyone claims is rife in these environments, and how the loss of your tools has ruined your livelyhood and cost you work,

Why weren't they insured, you penis?

Surely, [i]surely,[/i] that should be front and centre on your list of priorities. Does your vehicle insurance or home contents insurance not cover it, even?

IF PEOPLE DIDNT BUY STOLEN STUFF THERE WOULD BE NO MARKET FOR IT.

There would, I'm sure plenty of people could do with improved tools, a new drill to replace their dead one. A better bike. I'm sure re-sale is not the only reason for theft, across a range of items.

 

curtis are you this argumentative in real life or just behind your monitor? 🙄

wow cougar real grown up you make me laugh. i assumed the insurance on my commercial van insurance covered my contents hence the insurance on the goods carrying. This have never happened before so no need to dig deeper into it.

Now i have had to i realise i should have looked into it more but my crystal ball only works now and then !

claiming on the house insurance would make a yearly increase which would outweigh the tool loss.

People really need to learn the difference between Xenophobia and Racism.

People really need to learn the difference between Xenophobia and Racism.

Really? I think I've been very clear about the difference.

curtisthecat - Member

Well put Ernie! Finally somebody speaking some sense! OP needs to get over his borderline racism and not blaming foreigners before getting his facts straight. It might have been somebody from Slough or somebody from Poland, who cares? The nationality of the thief is not the issue.

Quite so, but I was referring to this - though his point is generally valid. Just being a pedant I'm afraid. Saying it was foreigners is not racism.

wow cougar real grown up you make me laugh.

Ok, the name calling was maybe a little mean, but I'm sure you've heard plenty worse on a building site. No malice was intended, I was only teasing, but I guess you weren't to know that.

I was making a serious point though. Are you [i]sure[/i] that it's not covered? Does a worker on a site not have personal insurance? Are you [i]sure [/i]that it wouldn't be cost-effective to do it through the house contents, or are you assuming?

I'm sure re-sale is not the only reason for theft

It's the main cause of theft - by far. And Project has a very valid point. I have known people who will willingly buy tools which they know to be stolen because they are so "cheap". And yet they will create a song and dance if their own tools are stolen.

The [i]"tools have already been stolen therefore if I don't buy them then someone else will"[/i] is a crap argument. In fact it's no argument at all. Stop buying stolen tools and people will stop stealing for a non-existent market.

.

People really need to learn the difference between Xenophobia and Racism.

And some people need to stop playing with words. Besides, many Eastern Europeans such as the Poles are Slavs. The Slavic people are generally considered to be race with distinguishing physical features. They are certainly considered to be a race by racists.

Instead of tools lets put bikes as the subject nicked, anyone want to buy a nicked top of the range bike or parts for a miniscule amount compared to new, if you say yes, then "You" are the problem.

Tool insurance is eye wateringly expensive! Last few years all my agency labourers have been poles, all been sound, the last one made me feel uneasy when asking him to do the grafting jobs as he was similar to marious pudzanowski 😯

anyone want to buy a nicked top of the range bike

Going out on a limb, I'd like to think that no-one here is advocating the purchase of stolen goods, whether they're bikes or tools.

Tony: I am not a keyboard warrior, I can handle myself very well in real life. I initially had sympathy with you for having your tools stolen but this has evaporated with your attitude. I can not abide by casual racism/xenophobia.
As regards to leaving tools in your van, would you leave your bikes in it?
PMK2060: thanks for asking, but no I wasn't bullied. The point I was making was that I thought it a bit ironic that OP was slagging off foreigners when he was making loads of mistakes.

Lol well i cant call them english workers and they are from all over the place dont speak a word of english so forein no?

I blame the Spanish. Coming over here and taking our jobs and our women, cos we can't.

OI im Welsh and disgusted.

Curtis if i had just finished a trail centre loop and was going to have a cuppa in the cafe yes my bike would be put in the back of my van as thats safer than outside the cafe where most leave them. I have been cool the whole way through this even with you trying to get me to bite at your lack of sympathy.

When the english guys on site try and get out the gates with stolen goods i will hold my hands up until them i am afraid the foreign labour ( as thats what they are ) i will blame.

when he was making loads of mistakes

What mistakes ? He didn't make any mistakes as far as I can see. Leaving tools which you are not using in your van is perfectly correct. Besides, there is no guarantee that your tools are any safer on site than in your van. Insurance isn't an option, if you can get it, and that I doubt, it just wouldn't make any economic sense - the cost would outweigh any likely return.

The best option is to become totally obsessed over your tools getting stolen - like I have. I've had a van totally cleared out of [i]all[/i] my power tools, and it's the main reason why I no longer have a van. I take all sorts of precautions to minimise theft, including never having a hi-viz jacket or hard hat visible in my car so not to give any clues to what might be in the boot.....lots and lots of little precautions like that.

I blame the Spanish.

OI im Welsh and disgusted.

When the english guys on site try and get out the gates with stolen goods i will hold my hands up until them i am afraid the foreign labour ( as thats what they are ) i will blame.

So there was no theft of "goods" from sites until "foreign labour" arrived ?

FFS

OI im Welsh and disgusted.

You also can't spell "disgusting."

Im welsh as said above and cant spel 😳

Don where in wrecksam you from, thats where im from

Smithy Lane.

Well done mate! Nice to see your true attitudes are being exposed. Maybe we should get foreign labour banned and then there won't be anymore thefts?

I think when I start my life of crime, I'll start by masquerading as an English brickie. Sounds like easy pickings, I'm automatically above suspicion so long as there's some of them dodgy 'Europeans' about.

Seriously mate, I'm genuinely sorry for your loss, I've been robbed on more than one occasion. But, can't you see how, well, [i]wrong[/i] you're sounding?

alfabus
You have a lot to say, and in a very angry and abusive manner, but never answered my question. You think its not relevant so I'll not push it any further if its winding you up so much.
You've repeated your earlier point "prejudice is bad" but you've had no argument about that from me.
However, we'll have to agree to disagree about the value of you ranting like so towards a stranger who's just had their tools nicked, but you do seem to be familiar with the daily mail.
Its a shame but you appear less familiar with Harper Lee's work , if you honestly believe that in the book that Mayella Ewell was actually raped or that Bob Ewell actually believed that she was.
Now I'm not going to tell you to "B*@@er off" , as you like to say, but perhaps you should go revisit the book you refferenced (highly recomended), or go for a bike ride like I have this afternoon.
Loum

Gutted for you fella!
This has happened to me more than once

I have a spare set of 14volt Makita Cordless drills you can borrow
One drill driver and One impact driver with three batteries
and 30 min charger

Don't know how deep in Kent you are I am 2 miles on the other side of Blackwall tunnel
East London

@loum

Proper lol at that load of twaddle 😆

Where have I been abusive? I admit to being intolerant, but only of a bigoted attitude which is still being displayed.

No, I don't work on a building site (sorry, thought that question was rhetorical), but I still don't see the relevance; prejudice is prejudice.

As for the book, of course she wasn't raped, but that makes no difference to my use of it as a metaphor. Are you saying that if she had been raped (by anyone, not necessarily the guy accused) that her father would have been right to jump to a conclusion based on race and nothing else?

Literary asides not withstanding, do you take my point that you can't jump straight to sweeping generalisations and xenophobia (or racism, not in this case) just because you are having a bad day?

Dave

(written on my phone, so apologies for typos)

I am not sure about poles nicking tools but there are a few poles at work i would like to give my tool to 😀 (schoolboy s****)

We had a spate of petty thefts at work recently and the eastern european workers were automatically assumed to be the culprits. The culprit was caught on camera last week it was the owners son (very embarrassing).

ernie_lynch - Member
So there was no theft of "goods" from sites until "foreign labour" arrived ?

FFS

No theft in 9 month's except for a 2 x group of foreign labour ( as in from another country and did not speak a word of english ) who took it upon themselves to steal dewalt laser levels etc and were caught on cctv.

When the english guys on site try and get out the gates with stolen goods i will hold my hands up until them i am afraid the foreign labour ( as thats what they are ) i will blame.

curtisthecat - Member
Well done mate! Nice to see your true attitudes are being exposed. Maybe we should get foreign labour banned and then there won't be anymore thefts?

No but be nice if said foreign labour could point out when i am in danger or at least understand me if i was in trouble. But tw*ts behind a desk seem to let that 1 go so yeah it if means me being safer by all means... Also people who steal should be banned from working on all uk sites imo english or foreign in this case they were foreign hence my statement.

Cougar - Member
I think when I start my life of crime, I'll start by masquerading as an English brickie. Sounds like easy pickings, I'm automatically above suspicion so long as there's some of them dodgy 'Europeans' about.

Seriously mate, I'm genuinely sorry for your loss, I've been robbed on more than one occasion. But, can't you see how, well, wrong you're sounding?

By all means then when you steal i can say The English worker stole my tools... until said English worker does that then is it not the foreign labour that has stole ?

in this case they were foreign hence my statement.

Can't we just accept that Tonys experience of theft on sites where he has worked has involved people of non UK origin.

He's not said all theft on every site is due to non UK types, just the stuff he has witnessed on his sites.

I'm in full agreement regarding xenophobia/racism but you don't half get our handbags out at times

until said English worker does that then is it not the foreign labour that has stole ?

Presumably the ones caught stealing were sacked. So, everyone who's left on site is equally innocent / guilty?

Maybe the English are just better at getting away with it.

He's not said all theft on every site is due to non UK types, just the stuff he has witnessed on his sites

Has he said that it was foreigners that stole his stuff?

Were the thieves right or left handed?

Those bloody left handers are always nicking stuff out of our stationery cupboards; of course, those ****s on building sites* won't understand.

* joking in response to:

But tw*ts behind a desk seem to let that 1 go

Also people of South Asian, [b]Eastern European[/b], Southeast Asian descent are more left-handed than any other ethnic groups in the world, while people of Western European, Northern European, and African descent are less left-handed..

Based on Wiki, I'd say left handed

ah well this has kept me entertained this evening... 😆