change to a van instead of truck if everything will fit.

I know how it is, I worried about my tools in my truck every day for years. I was lucky and only lost a few things but have friends who lost whole truck or trailer loads of tools. Thousands of dollars worth. Puck locks help but the best thing is to keep your stuff out of sight somehow. People don't want to spend a lot of time cutting locks and chains if they can't see what's in there.

I hate that happened!
I worry about my pack blower and weed eater when I mow my mother's yard. Nothing has ever been stolen but when I'm mowing the back yard I can't see my truck. I would hate to have to replace them because of a thief!

Time to set up a sting or three with some more cameras, crappy yard equipment that doesn't work and nail his butt.

That's what I would do too ^^^^ this^^^^^

Hate that happened

Years back my sixteen year old son worked all summer doing yard work and bought a Stihl chainsaw. He stopped for a second at a local store and someone stole it out of his truck. Really hard to see your kid learn a lesson like that.

Yeah I'm all up for a "sting ". That's why I'm being as quiet as I can at work about it. I've got some old stuff that I'd sit back there so that he'd possibly return. I'd like to watch the footage from the day before or earlier that day to see if this guy or someone else went to my truck and looked around to see what's back there. My truck sits high enough that unless you are in a truck or walking past my truck you wouldn't have even known the stuff was there. Him in his low sitting car cruising the parking lot would not have been able to see my tools back there without getting out and looking. Now by default, you see a commercial mower on a trailer one could easily assume that there is hand tools in the back but he knew to bring bolt cutters in order to remove them so he either pulled up got out and checked it out earlier in the day or did it the day before OR someone I work with checked it out and told him what to bring. I'm kinda over the fact that I'm out $850 but I'd love to see justice served. I told the officer that I know they have much bigger fish to fry than a stolen blower and weedeater but he said they have a special task force for this type of crime and it a felony for "unlawful breaking and entering of a motor vehicle". This is definitely not this guys first rodeo unless he had an inside track on what was there and what was needed to pull it off so easy.

Go to a locksmith and get a lock made from hardened steel. They run about $60.

That was the first thing I noticed as well. But that describes about half the cars the crack heads drive around...

Ihave a weed eater you can have to use as bait if you need it. I'd like to see you get a hold of him, you know just to hold him there until a LEO gets there...

Huge progress made. With a lot of luck I acquired a Positive ID of Tag# and it's good and an up close and personal pic of the suspect. Hopefully Birmingham handles it right as I've given them everything they need to catch this guy. They also have video of him stealing from another business down the road so he's a no good theif who probably spends all day casing places and taking stuff from honest people. I called the original detective and she said "well ok we'll take it from here ". I didn't think that it seemed like a priority after getting off the phone with her. An hour later another detective called me back and sounded a lot more excited about my info. I told him I liked his pitbull attitude and he told me he was a pitbull whose favorite thing to do was putting bad guys in jail. I felt a lot better at that point.

I hope this guy isn't on Aldeer because I probably shouldn't be posting all this but my gut tells me he's not. Also what we thought was a white male turned out to be a light skinned black male. Wish me luck!!

hope they catch the POS!

Glad to hear Brandon! Hope you get your stuff back and in good shape!

I sure hate that happened. I've longed for the day to catch somebody in the act of doing something like that. Keep us posted on how the rest goes. Stay persistent.

YOOOWOOOO !!! Man, thats some great news!! Ive been thinking about you since you posted this up and what a POS this thug is. Glad to know you got some kind of positive ID on this thief.
As Bustinbeards said, I too have a couple old weed eaters that I was going to contact you to see if you wanted to use them in a type of sting/bait. And yes, things like this need to be kept on the downlow until the perp is caught which hopefully will be soon now that Bham has some solid info on this POS.
Jdawg Esquire

Guys this week has been stressful and a lot of time put in to this. Fortunately there were a lot of my coworkers involved and one HARD CHARGING Birmingham Detective. I'm pleased to say that they caught this piece of crap today and he is currently sitting in the Birmingham city jail charged with 3rd degree burglary from another theft down the street from us. After he sees the judge for that then he will be transferred to Jefferson county jail where he will face charges of theft of property 2nd degree for my theft which is a felony. With the evidence we gave detectives and his smooth approach while interrogating him he was able to obtain a full confession for both offenses. Sometime tomorrow he is supposed to take them to the place (not a pawn shop) where he took the stuff so I may get my stuff back as long as they still have it. I'm not holding my breath but it would be a bonus if I did get it back. I'm just happy justice has been served. He said that if I didnt get my stuff back I would get restitution. Not exactly sure how that works. I feel like I've won the lottery just knowing he is behind bars. He has a criminal record of burglary and theft of property a mile long. I'm hoping he's on probation or something. I would think at some point once we've established your a criminal that behind bars is where you belong and keep your butt there forever. HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

Great news...but don't hold your breath on restitution. Our camper was broken into about 10 years back and the guys that did it got caught. They were sentenced and ordered to pay restitution but my dad may have received $10 in restitution since then.

BPS congratulations. I hope they find your stuff. If he has to do any time it's highly unlikely that you will ever see the restitution for it.