Wayne,
First sorry for your loss and second it might be a long shot but it is worth taking a look at the Craigslist for Reno. There seems to be a lot of Snap-on tools on there lately. See if any of the stuff looks familiar.

Good luck on getting your tools back. I know I would be seeing red and that would be from the blood shed by the thieves.

 

Me too. I'd probably be figuring out how to mount a sawed off shotgun with a string around the trigger above my shop door.

Wayne, it surely sounds like you lost thousands of dollars. Are there any good private investigators in your area? There's none here, but you guys may actually have one that could help. Like the previous posters said, the police will only be able to do so much. My mindset on stuff like that is I'd spend a LOT of money to make it very unpleasant on those people.

 

Hi 52 Merc,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I've had stuff stolen and know it is very violating.
Good luck and best wishes,
old ugly

 

Damn... sorry to hear that. That had to have been a planned hit. To move that many tools in short order...I'll keep my eyes peeled around here. At least you were smart enough to mark them, otherwise I doubt there'd be any chance of finding them. Again, sorry to hear that. I could only imagine what it'd feel like if it happened to me. Hope the loosers are caught and you get justice.... even if it's martial law....

 

This sux! Maybe ask the local repair shops if anyone had offered to sell them tools at a "discount"

 

Some guy in Florida, a few years ago, did just that after a string of robberies. He got the thief and also got years in prison for murder. The only way to get them and not get in trouble yourself is to shoot them yourself while fearing bodily injury or, in some cases, if they have broken and entered.

 

I appreciate all you guy's support and suggestions. I did make the rounds of the pawn shops right away and let them know what happened and to keep an eye out for the stuff if it did show up. The Sheriff's office was supposed to send out letters reporting the tools to pawn shops within about a 50 mile radius. The shops I talked to seemed to go out of their way to be legit. They seem to be pretty well regulated and they take their business serious.

I'm not counting on much help from the insurance company. My agent says I'm covered, but the adjuster wants proof that I owned the stuff, with receipts, dates and prices of purchase, then they would depreciate the stuff for age. I explained to him this was a 35 year collection of professional tools and that I have no way of knowing what I paid for what and when. He said just do the best you can. It really sounds to me like I'm screwed. Even if I had everything they want, they'll give me pennies on the dollar from the purchase price, and the replacement value is 4 times today what it was 20-30 years ago. It's probably not worth the hassle of filling out the paperwork, and now my premiums will go up since I have opened the claim, even if I receive no benefit from it.

I've been keeping my eyes on all the craigslists from around the area and ebay, too. I don't really expect to see them, but I have to keep looking, 'cause you just never know...

 

Don't give all hope Wayne. I don't know if you have swap meets down there, but my friend found some of his stuff every time his stuff was stolen at one of them.

I just PMed you about the seat.

 

Wayne .... that is awful!!! You did the right first steps in hitting the pawn shops. One other unusual type of place to go to is, in fact, jewelry stores. Some operate much like pawn shops and will take all manner of trades. The bad part about those is that they are not required to report like true pawn shops, so for ones with little in the way of ethics, lots of bad stuff goes on. We have family and friends in law enforcement, so hear this a lot. Also some gun shops do such things. Last idea ... some check cashing places also do strange things to get their outstanding accounts paid off. Might be worth looking at those too.

I'll keep an eye on the Spokane ads ... both in the cheapy ad magazines and Craigslist. Lots of activity between Spokane and the Tri Cities.

Regards,

RG in Spokane