Five cases of tool theft are being reported every single day in Scotland. One in three tradespeople say they have had equipment stolen from their vans in the last 12 months. These are not minor inconveniences. For a self employed plumber or electrician, losing their tools can mean losing their livelihood.
The Scale of the Problem
The numbers are staggering. Five reports a day means the real figure is almost certainly higher, because plenty of tradespeople do not bother reporting thefts they believe the police will never investigate. The frustration in the trades is palpable. These are people who start work at six in the morning, who load their vans with thousands of pounds worth of specialist equipment, and who return to find the locks forced and the van stripped.
A set of professional tools is not cheap. A good cordless drill costs £200. A plumber’s pipe freezing kit costs £400. An electrician’s testing equipment can run to £2,000. When someone breaks into a van and takes the lot, they are not stealing objects. They are stealing someone’s ability to earn a living.
Why Nothing Changes
Tradespeople have been complaining about this for years. The response from the authorities has been predictable: use better locks, install alarms, do not leave tools in your van overnight. This advice is technically correct and practically useless. A tradesperson’s tools are in the van because that is how the job works. You cannot carry a full toolkit into your flat every night and back out at five in the morning.
The real question is why tool theft is treated as a low priority crime. The answer, I suspect, is that it falls into the category of volume crime that police forces have quietly decided they cannot resource. There are too many cases, too little forensic evidence, and too many other demands on officer time.
What the Trades Deserve
I have spoken to tradespeople who have been hit three or four times in a single year. Some have switched to cheaper tools because they cannot bear the thought of losing quality equipment again. Some have left the industry entirely. That is not just a crime problem. It is an economic problem, and one that affects anyone who needs a plumber, an electrician, or a joiner.
Scotland’s trades need a dedicated response: tougher sentencing for tool theft, investment in police resources to investigate these cases, and a national database of stolen tools that makes it harder for thieves to sell what they take. Five thefts a day is not a statistic. It is an epidemic.