My work van and my garage were broken into while I slept in the comfort of my own home 20 feet away. I had the windows closed in the house and the air conditioning was on. I never heard a thing. The truck and the garage were both locked. The truck window was smashed and the garage door was pried open with a large crowbar.    
    An honest estimate was about $10,000. For a one or two man shop that is a lot. Power tools, battery tools. Hand tools, air compressors, automotive car jack, radios. One year old tools, day old tools, tools I had since I was 16. Tools my Dad had given me, tools retired people I worked with had given me, tools customers had given me, mostly tools I bought and paid for.   
    I lost about three days of work dealing with cops, insurance, new locks, alarm systems, tinted windows, mini-storage rental, truck repair.--Bill Nye

    It’s old news that copper is at the top of thieves’ must-have list. But also coveted are the contents of a contractor's toolbox. As Bill Nye’s story attests, you. can’t be too careful. And when it comes to protecting your stuff, there are a few options out there.    
    They start small with “hockey puck” padlocks and go up to sophisticated LoJack-like alarms and job site video monitoring systems. Since insurance may not cover your loss without first requiring a hefty deductible, the rule of thumb is to take everything with you whenever possible, and lock things up.
    Vacant properties and remodels are especially susceptible to burglary, of everything from tools to newly delivered fixtures and just-installed appliances. Bill Pugh, director of marketing for Security Business Group, a division of DeWalt, advises using flood lights if electricity is available, and notifying neighbors to keep an eye out. “Some guys build relationships with the police,” Pugh said. “At least let them know there’s a job site there with high value stuff.”
    Pugh said he thinks thefts from the big commercial sites are more likely to occur during the day because there are so many people around and job boxes open. “When nobody’s looking, people are picking them up.” For residential sites, he said, “there’re camera systems out there, but it depends how motivated the builder is to really doing something. There are solutions out there as simple as the tool that we have, which is a small portable alarm system with a motion detector or a GPS built into them.
    "A lot of it is buttoning up the house as tight as they can,” Pugh said. “And that’s why we have our solutions: the thought is you can put a portable alarm system in there that you can get phone calls on if somebody enters the place. We keep an eye on it.”

To Protect and Discourage

DeWalt's MobileLock uses GPS technology to allow contractors to locate stolen property using the Internet. Photo courtesy of DeWalt.

DeWalt’s MobileLock is a monitoring device about the size of a deck of cards with a built-in battery, sensors and a siren. It’s designed to be mounted on the precious cargo you want to protect. Pugh said most people hide it inside the equipment, where a thief wouldn’t notice it. “So if you get a pallet of something you can put it inside the pallet. If you’ve got an air conditioning unit you can mount it on the air conditioning unit—it’s got magnets and stuff—and that way if you’re worried about it walking off, you can at least keep an eye on it while it’s there.”   
    Pugh admitted the device is more likely to deter a theft than prevent it, but he said it’s also about catching the culprits and getting your belongings back. “Because that’s really what they care about. A lot of guys say, ‘Look, I know I’m going to lose stuff. I want to be able to find it.’ That’s the reason we built our product that way because that’s what the builders were all telling us. ‘I want to be able to find my stuff when it’s gone.’”   
    DeWalt also produces the SiteLock, which operates the way a more conventional alarm system in a home would. It’s designed to protect an entire jobsite and comes with a keypad to program sensors into it.   
    “There’s no one-size-fits-all,” Pugh concluded, “and we try to figure out ways to make it convenient for a lot of different people and adaptable to different applications.”   
    But wait, here’s more.    
    How about a 21st century solution with down-to-earth prices? It’s called the National Equipment Register. Begun in 2001, the company collects ownership information and theft data for heavy construction and farm equipment. “We’re a huge national database that law enforcement and other agencies are able to tap into to help reduce or to help the recovery rate of stolen equipment,” Michael St. Hill, NER’s director of insurance services, explained.    
    “We have an awesome program with law enforcement in which we go out throughout the country and we train them and we make them all aware of the equipment theft problem,” St. Hill said. 
    The NER works with the insurance industry, which funds the operation, St. Hill said, “because the idea of recovering a stolen piece of equipment that has already been paid for—when we help to return that, that’s found money that they get to put back on their books.”
    How it works: Equipment is pre-registered before a theft occurs. The owner receives a theft deterrent decal, and the information is entered into a national database, which can be accessed by police throughout the country.
    “With this, we have several insurance companies now that offer up to a $10,000 theft deductible waiver for all insureds who have their equipment registered with us,” St. Hill said. “And we also have different organizations that either pay for this registration up front or provide their equipment owners with a 20 percent discount because of the affiliation with NER.”   
    A lifetime registration is $40, whether you’re securing a generator or a jackhammer, and additional items cost less. St. Hill said most registrations they receive are for smaller mobile equipment like a mini-excavator or a skid steer. “Those are the more commonly stolen items because they’re easier to transport. They can be thrown in the back of a pickup or single axle trailer.”   
    And gear can be registered after a theft. According to St. Hill, equipment is often found before its absence is noticed, particularly heavy equipment that can be left on a site for weeks at a time. “We have the ability, with the help of law enforcement, to catch a lot of these items and inform the equipment owner before the actual theft is reported, which is fantastic for them,” St. Hill said.

Is crime paying less?

Since the boom in new house construction certainly increased the amount of goods out there to steal, could the current downturn in the housing market translate into decreased thievery as well? Maybe, maybe not.    
    Pugh of DeWalt agreed crime correlates with activity, but also noted that today’s slumping market could change who the criminals are. “Now that things aren’t getting finished or things are partially done and it gets a little bit tougher for some people you see crime there too,” Pugh said, “because at this point they’re scrapping to get anything they can and steal it.”   
    Police also have a warning regarding larger construction equipment. Units such as uniloaders and skid steers made by some of the big manufacturers are all keyed alike. Unless contractors install special security devices on the equipment, one key will operate the same machinery at a construction site.   
    Pugh said there’s definitely a black market for residential appliances. “You may have somebody go steal something off a jobsite and go sell it to another builder.”
    And watch out for inside jobs, Pugh added:  “You can have guys come dropping off appliances, then coming back the next day and picking them up with a different truck. I think what it comes down to, anything that’s easy portability, of high value that people can get their hands on and resell quickly is a target because they’re easy to turn over and make a profit from.”   
    Bill Nye went out of business about a year after the theft. He now works for Ed’s Garage, Inc., a fuel oil dealer in Canterbury, Conn. His 20/20 hindsight advice?
    “Out of sight, out of mind," Nye said. "Keep tools out of the open. You should keep receipts, record serial numbers, and photograph and inventory your tools. My tools could have been insured but my ex-partner did not want to spend the $250 for the tool rider.”   
    They say security measures only keep out honest people, but there’s something to be said for frustrating the dishonest ones. You may not be able to stop a thief, but sometimes just discouraging him is enough.