Tool theft is a growing problem. A 2016 report conducted by the National Equipment Register in conjunction with the National Insurance Crime Bureau found that construction companies face losses between $300 million and $1 billion annually due to equipment theft. The same report also suggests that, beside the expense of losses of materials and equipment, tool theft can often lead to construction project downtime (time spent filing police reports and insurance), resulting in costly project overruns as onsite productivity and project progress screech to a halt.
Tool theft is also a global threat; for instance, reporting in England the Construction Index, citing police data, revealed £17.5 million worth of tools were stolen in London in 2020, representing a value of £57,000 stolen each day. What’s worse, only about 1% of stolen power tools were recovered, they note. A tool had been stolen from a tradesperson every 17 minutes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland since March 2021, according to analysis of police data from Direct Line business insurance. Direct Line reports that £83 million worth of tools have been stolen across England and Wales between 2017 and 2019, while £245,893 worth of tools have been reported as stolen from vehicles every day across the UK since the easing of lockdown in April 2021, according to a more recent report. What’s more, the same study found that 4 in 10 (38%) had fallen victim to tool theft in the past, a growing threat with 56% reporting they leave equipment in their vehicles overnight, and 59% not carrying specific insurance to cover the event of tool theft.
Preventing stolen tools is thus ever important to keeping budgets in check and projects moving along as expected.
But what do you do when tools are stolen?
In this article, we discuss power tool theft protection, how to protect your tools and stop tool theft, as well as what to do when tools are stolen and how to track stolen tools.
Reported in the above-mentioned Construction Index report, thieves are 10% more likely to steal powered hand tools than non-powered hand tools, they report, accounting for 32,067 (power tools) from 2019 to 2021 when compared to 2,993 hand tools.
On the other hand, WCC TV ranks the most commonly stolen construction items as:
A critical question is, what do thieves do with stolen tools? The NYU Dispatch notes that thieves steal the tools from hardware stores, then sell them in exchange for money or drugs to people known as “fences,” criminals who will then list these products online at much cheaper prices than in-store, on websites like Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Letgo. Those caught involved in these kinds of activities can be charged with “receiving stolen goods” and “larceny with intent to sell,” they note.
If you do find yourself unwittingly in the hands of items you suspect to be stolen, we offer the following policies. We find the old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” to hold true; we therefore recommend approaching the second-hand power tool market with intense scrutiny. Furthermore, we encourage you to report suspected fraudulent websites, which will help prevent others from falling victims to scams.
Below, we discuss some anti-theft devices for power tools, both in the crib and in the field.
Direct Line reports that 28% of tools are stolen from vehicles. It takes around 10 seconds for a thief to break into a van, they note. Therefore, it’s critical to lock all doors and make sure your windows are closed, even when loading and unloading.
Some of their tips for keeping your van secure include:
Equipment Tagging can help maintain visibility as you deploy your equipment to the jobsite:
Smart tools can provide Bluetooth tool tracking functionality out of the box, in addition to (on applicable models) customization features to help tradespeople optimize their installations in virtually any application they may encounter.
Standard tool security features allow the entire line of Milwaukee Tool compatible smart tools to be locked out. If you find you must leave your tools onsite overnight (such as a cumbersome table saw or miter saw), we recommend locking your tools out at the end of the day—that way, if they are stolen, they will be useless to thieves. In fact, we’ve had customers whose stolen tools have been sent to Milwaukee Tool authorized service centers (the thieves thinking these locked out tools were broken), allowing for service techs to reach out to the tools’ rightful owner and reunite them with their tools! If you do end up encountering tools that become lost or stolen that you previously hadn’t locked out, you can mark them missing—the next time the tool passes within range of a device with the app installed, it will become locked out and unusable to the thief.
IMPORTANT: A common misconception we have to dispel is that our tools are tracked by default. In order for our smart tools to be tracked by their owner, they need to be put into that person’s inventory, which notifies to One-Key that person is the rightful owner of those tools. Why? If a thief does walk off with their tools, there’s nothing stopping them from downloading the app, adding them to inventory, and locking you out of them. That’s why we recommend adding your One-Key smart tools to inventory straight away.
Using a cloud-based digital inventory app can help contractors maintain continuous visibility to their equipment as they send it to the field.
Some features of our app, for example, include:
Important: Here’s how to properly configure tool tracking settings in the One-Key app.
We’ve documented our procedures for assisting you should you find your tool has been stolen.
If your tool ends up in one of our service centers or we’re informed by a buyer they suspect the tool is stolen, one of our service representatives will contact you directly and begin a resolution process. We will never provide personally identifiable information about you (or the buyer). You can also reach out to us by calling 1-800-SAWDUST.
Resolution Process
We will ask that you file a police report for your stolen item with your local law enforcement department.
- If a police report cannot be provided, you should contact your local police. You’ll have 30 days to provide a police report to us or the tool will be released.
- If a police report can be provided, we will alert the police and assist as needed.
- We’ll also inform the possessor of the tool that your tool was stolen or lost, a valid police report was provided, and the tool was returned to its rightful owner.
- If you do not reply or a police report is not provided, after 30 days:
- The tool will be released by removing it from your inventory
- The service center will unlock, fix, and return tool to the new owner
- If, on the other hand, you did sell the tool and forgot to remove tool from your inventory:
- We can remove the tool from your inventory for you
- We can unlock, fix, and return the tool to the buyer
If it’s a One-Key compatible tool, we recommend marking it missing to ensure it will lock out the next time it comes within range of our Bluetooth tracking network.
Tool theft is on the rise. Taking proactive steps is key to preventing stolen tools.
Furthermore, we hope you don’t encounter theft, but should you encounter an unfortunate tool theft situation, the above procedures are in place to help make you whole should you ever find yourself a victim of jobsite thievery—what's more, we continue to add in-app features like Tool Location History to improve the item locating experience and which can help assist law enforcement locate your stolen property in tool theft situations.