Tools nicked? Here's exactly what to do.

You walk out at 5am. The toolbox is gone. The trailer is sitting on its jockey wheel. The site shed is open. Whatever the version — these are the actions to take, in order, in the first hour, the first day and the first week. Most recoveries that happen, happen because the owner did the first hour properly.

This is a playbook to print and stick on the back of the office door. We have written it for the person who has just found out — calm, ordered, no fluff.

First 5 minutes

Stop. Take a breath. The next ten decisions matter — make them deliberately, not in a panic. Do not move anything. Do not pick up the cut lock, the broken bolt, the dropped glove. Police might want it.

1. Is the theft in progress, or do you see the offenders nearby? Ring 000. Now. Do not approach.
2. No live threat? Step away from the scene and ring your business partner or foreman so two people know what is happening.
3. Take wide photos of the scene from your phone before anyone touches anything — the empty tray, the cut hitch, the open shed door.
4. If you have a GPS tracker on the asset, open the app. Note the last known location and switch to live mode if available.
5. Note the time you discovered it. Insurers and police will both ask.

First hour

The first hour is the recovery window. Stolen kit appears on Marketplace within hours; police get the most use out of evidence while the trail is hot. Work through the list, do not skip.

1. Lodge the police report. Online portal for non-urgent reports (see the state-by-state guide linked below), or ring 131 444. If you have a live GPS track, ring 000 and ask for an officer to coordinate — give them the live link.
2. Get the police event number IN WRITING. Email or SMS from the portal is gold. Insurers ask for it.
3. Photograph everything that supports the claim: the empty space where the kit was, the cut lock or damaged hitch, neighbouring property if you think there might be cameras pointing at it.
4. Knock on the closest two or three doors. Ask if anyone saw a vehicle they didn't recognise overnight. Note any answers — date, time, description, plate if they have it.
5. If a security camera is pointing at your driveway or worksite, ask the owner for the footage covering the relevant window. The longer you wait, the more likely it is overwritten.
6. Pull your records together: receipts, serial numbers, the photo inventory you took last quarter, the dashboard PDF from your GPS tracker if you have one.

First 24 hours

Day one is when the claim and the search both start in earnest. Two parallel jobs: making the insurance claim watertight, and making it harder for the gear to disappear into a resale channel.

The insurance side

1. Ring your insurer or broker. Get the claim number; ask which forms they need.
2. Build the claim pack: police event number, photo inventory, receipts, GPS history PDF, written narrative of what happened (write it once; reuse it).
3. Re-read the policy schedule. Know the excess. Know any per-item caps. Surprises in week three are expensive.
4. If you have a GPS tracker, export the location history and tamper timeline for the relevant window. Attach to the claim.

The search side

1. Tell the crew. One message to the group chat: "These items are stolen — do NOT buy any version of these on Marketplace before checking with me." This stops you accidentally buying your own gear from a fence.
2. Scan Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, eBay and any Telegram channels relevant to your trade. Search by brand and model, not just generic terms.
3. If you have serial numbers, ring the brand's local theft register if they have one (some power tool brands keep records). Some scrap-metal yards now require ID for non-trade scrap; ringing one or two locally cannot hurt.
4. If you find a listing that looks like your gear, screenshot it (URL, time, seller profile), and report it to police via the same event number. DO NOT message the seller pretending to be a buyer — that's a job for police, not you.

First week

Most recoveries either happen in the first 72 hours or they don't happen at all. Week one is about closing out the paperwork, returning to work, and making sure the next theft is harder.

1. Follow up your insurance claim by Wednesday. If the assessor hasn't been in touch by then, ring. Polite, persistent, pin them down on next steps.
2. Pay the excess if it comes up — keep the receipt. It often forms part of the loss calculation.
3. If you replaced any of the gear to keep working, photograph and itemise the replacements (date, supplier, cost). The insurer needs this for the payout.
4. Update the police report if anything new comes to light — a doorbell-camera video from a neighbour, a Marketplace listing, a witness statement. Add it via the event number.
5. Hold a 30-minute crew debrief. What we lost. What stops it next time. The honest answer is usually a combination of locks, lighting, parking choices and a tracker.

What NOT to do

• Do not confront whoever you think has the gear. This is the single biggest mistake we see, and the one with the worst outcomes for the tradie.
• Do not arrange to "buy back" your gear off Marketplace. It is technically illegal in some states, it can compromise the police case, and it puts you in a meeting with someone you do not know.
• Do not post on social media naming the suspect. Defamation risk is real, and you make the police job harder.
• Do not delete the police event number out of your inbox. Pin it. You will need it for months.
• Do not skip the photo inventory step on your remaining gear. The same thieves often come back.

If the gear is recovered

Maybe it gets recovered — by police, by a third party, by you spotting a listing that ends up legit. Three things to do.

1. Ring the insurer immediately. If they have already paid out, the recovered items belong to them; the recovery process changes from there.
2. Photograph the recovered gear in the condition it comes back — broken locks, scratches, missing pieces. Repair quotes feed into the same claim.
3. Update your serial-number records. If a tool came back with a sanded-off serial plate, photograph the damage and note it.