Theft Awareness
VAN TOOL THEFT BEWARE – TRADEPOINT HELPS VICTIM Over the past year or so we have given extensive coverage to the problem of tool theft from vans but until now we haven’t had the opportunity to speak to someone directly affected. This changed recently when eagle-eyed BiKBBI Communications Officer, Nicole Mercer, noticed on ‘Linked-in’ that one of the BiKBBI’s members, Tommy, had been robbed of his tools, from his van, on three different occasions in little more than a year! After discussing the matter with her colleagues at the institute, she contacted the friendly team at Tradepoint to see if there was something they could do to help.
Nicole then contacted The Installer Magazine and put us in contact with Tommy’s boss, Irvine Bowie of INM Building Services who runs two installation businesses, one dating back as far as 2009 for the oldest one. Based in Leicester and Essex, the company covers the entire UK and employs eight full time fitters who use several vans on a day-today basis that he supplies.
Each theft had the same ‘MO’ in that it was broken into via the rear doors."
Irvine has throughout his entire business history had to deal with tool theft but he has noticed a definite acceleration in thefts in recent years and has unfortunately endured an increase in thefts recently.
People say don’t leave your tools in the van but that’s not always possible when our guys are staying in hotels when away on projects and then what if you live in an apartment where it’s not easily accessible to carry all your tools every morning and evening?" 22
