Help - all kit stolen

[carbine]

Hi all, I thought it would be worth posting this, as you never know.

Yesterday at Debden London underground station, some scum drilled my van and stole:

Sealey supermig 185 and argoshield gas
Sealey Helmet (Blue with stripy / tribal art on it)
Bosch 115 grinder and a Sealey 100mm grinder
Bosch Drill
Rage Fury Mitre saw
and
£300 worth of tools
They left everything else that I guess they didn't deem as any value.. at least I have my gauntlets and some wire left!

So if anyone is offered this kit off the back of a lorry, first smash the guy in the face, and then PM me!

So angry, this was all worth in the region of £1400. Scum..
The gas was chained to the welder, and to get it out of the van you had to remove the tank and padlock. So I guess they must have cut the chain as well.

Probably the end of my welding as I can't really afford to replace all this.

No I didn't have tradesman insurance, was going to get it and public liability in one when I get some more welding work. And I highly doubt my insurance on my van will cover the kit inside.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Sorry to hear that Carbine, I'll keep an eye out on ebay for it.

 

[pedrobedro]

Tools would have to be insured separately from your vehicle for trade use. My brother in law looked into this as he has a groundwork business and had a few vans broken into and Stihl saw and whacker plates stolen but the cost of the tool cover policy was more than the cost of replacement with new tools, somewhere in the region of £4000. No consolation to you I know but if I had that much in my vehicle I would never leave it unattended.

 

[NeilH]

was this just a chance, oppurtunist theft, or does your van have glass in the back doors?

cant imagine what your going through mate. i worry like hell about my tools getting stolen. not like im attached to them or anything, but because its my livelihood.

gutted for you mate, especially this time of year.

 

[Shedendman]

No cctv around the station,might be worth enquiring?
Sounds to me someones been watching your van or worse still someone knows you

 

[superls]

kick the door off your shed and tell the house insurance it was stolen from there. a friend of mine did this when all his kitchen fitting gear was nicked a few years ago

 

[breezer]

and then get done for insurance fraud as well.

 

[mike os]

worth checking with your van insurance... I have a couple of thou iirc as long as its not overnight,

 

[carbine]

Thanks for all the replies!
According to the British Transport Police, this isn't the first at a station on the central line that has been hit. Apparently there have been loads these past two weeks, and there is a special response team or something assigned to try and get these people. Same thing every time. So if you have a Peugeot Partner or Citreon Berlingo, be warned, thieves clearly know how to get into them. I was shocked at how easy it was. Screwdriver and hammer and they were in. Had forensics out today to take prints and they actually got some that were not mine that were less than 48 hours old. They have been targeting vans at stations in Essex / north London.

The windows were blacked out, you can't see inside and there was mesh behind the blackout too that I welded in!

There was CCTV too, which the police are going over. I know nothing will come of it, but I would love to find they got the scum!

Yea pedro, I know! I won't be leaving anything in my van again. Will have to move house though so I can have a garage!

 

[rockjock620]

and then get done for insurance fraud as well.

and contribute to putting up everyone else's insurance too.....................

when will lazy folk ever learn that vans are NOT safe.....................

 

[carbine]

and contribute to putting up everyone else's insurance too.....................

when will lazy folk ever learn that vans are NOT safe.....................

Easy.. I don't have a garage or anywhere to store my kit. Not Lazy.. maybe you should ask 'why don't lazy folk get a job and stop stealing our hard earned kit' Not as if I was being stupid, I did a job the day before, and figured my van would be ok, in a well lit, CCTV carpark with security guards!!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Carbine, I understand you're upset but having a dig at another member won't help and I'm sure rockjock didn't intend his comment to sound like he was having a go at you.
There's not much you can do to thwart a 'professional' thief, they know all the tricks in the book and unfortunately, vans are very easy to get into and the majority probably have items of value in them.

 

[rockjock620]

Easy.. I don't have a garage or anywhere to store my kit. Not Lazy.. maybe you should ask 'why don't lazy folk get a job and stop stealing our hard earned kit' Not as if I was being stupid, I did a job the day before, and figured my van would be ok, in a well lit, CCTV carpark with security guards!!

Put it in the house then! Vans are never safe. Lights? CCTV? Guards? Nobody else cares about your kit except you. Never trust someone/something else. It's a shame but thieves are opportunists - or cunning.

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

Put it in the house then! Vans are never safe. Lights? CCTV? Guards? Nobody else cares about your kit except you. Never trust someone/something else. It's a shame but thieves are opportunists - or cunning.

I have to second that , had to end up lugging all my gear up five flights of stairs every night and morning to kep it safe.... six trips up and six down every workday .

I was so happy to move out the flats into a house with a garden and a securish prefabbed concrete shed .

Even though the Ford van was viewable as empty, it did not stop some darling having a go at the laser key holes with a battery drill and lathe center point . Though they might have been after the road fund disc or battery and diesel

 

[carbine]

Yea.. lesson learned the very hard way :-(

Going to get very portable stuff this time around! Small inverter, etc. Maybe sell the van and use a car! I've had cars for 12 years, only one was broken into on an industrial estate by kids that smashed the windows. As vans seem to be targeted by scum, maybe having one isn't such a good idea..

Thanks all, I've stopped crying now!

 

[Wedg1e]

We had £180,000-worth of pipe inspection kit lifted from a pickup in a hotel car park near Ellesmere Port. The guys concerned intended to remove it from the truck but went to get cleaned up and have a beer first; CCTV showed that five minutes after they entered the hotel, a van pulled up, pickup windows were smashed and away they went. Looked like a cut-and-dried case of the scum knowing what they were after... except they left half of the kit, without which the bits they did nick do nothing other than look expensive.

The box of tricks was subsequently advertised and sold via the US Ebay site and when the buyer emailed the UK manufacturer asking for help with it, the serial number helped the Police to have it returned (dunno how the Yank buyer stands, guess he's out of pocket). Cleverly, the kit is designed so that it won't work without an ID dongle unique to each operator: the makers wouldn't give the buyer a dongle so the gear was no use to him.

So we got it back by pure fluke; the Police reckon they know who the scrotes are but of course can't prove anything...
It seems that even the thieving gyppos are now computer-savvy.

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

We had £180,000-worth of pipe inspection kit lifted from a pickup in a hotel car park near Ellesmere Port. The guys concerned intended to remove it from the truck but went to get cleaned up and have a beer first; CCTV showed that five minutes after they entered the hotel, a van pulled up, pickup windows were smashed and away they went. Looked like a cut-and-dried case of the scum knowing what they were after... except they left half of the kit, without which the bits they did nick do nothing other than look expensive.

The box of tricks was subsequently advertised and sold via the US Ebay site and when the buyer emailed the UK manufacturer asking for help with it, the serial number helped the Police to have it returned (dunno how the Yank buyer stands, guess he's out of pocket). Cleverly, the kit is designed so that it won't work without an ID dongle unique to each operator: the makers wouldn't give the buyer a dongle so the gear was no use to him.

So we got it back by pure fluke; the Police reckon they know who the scrotes are but of course can't prove anything...
It seems that even the thieving gyppos are now computer-savvy.

More like some computer savvy thieves have undertaken the travelling style of life so as to be less traceable.

 

[StockEngineer]

Im my opinion, if a thief wants something. He will get it. Its all about deterrent... MASSIVE air raid klaxon if the alarm is broken may be enough.

Haha!


Seriously though, try scouring gumtree.com for it and something might come up, I will too keep my eyes on ebay/gumtree/local paper ads.

 

[StockEngineer]

Also Debden is where the LUL signalling engineers keep the spare signalling cable, this is made from high grade copper which you guessed it, makes for a major problem with pikeys stealing lengths of the stuff, so try to keep your van away from any station which is like this.

Generally MOST external CCTV systems are pretty crap for facial recognition. If you where going to store your kit in your van, weld up a nice 1/4" thick steel box, bolt the f**ker into the chassis and buy yourself a bloody expensive padlock, also conceal the hinges for the lid of it.

I seen a contractor at my work do this after he had his van AND machine shop cleaned out.
B****ds took lifting gear in with them to hoist out the lathes!!
£350,000 worth of gear gone in an hour. Never caught either!

 

[anto]

It seems a tad coincidental that a month after carbine has mentioned on this forum that he has a van filled with a mig, drills etc that its stolen from him.

Be careful what you say on the net.....