Furious business owner confronts tool thieves

The confrontation between Steve and the suspects was captured on a security camera

A man who owns a security company said he felt "angry, very angry" when he confronted thieves who were stealing his tools from his truck outside the family home in Caterham.

Steve Piller said the men used a large screwdriver to break the lock, and had already loaded thousands of pounds worth of his equipment into their van.

"That day was completely written off," he said. "There was no work for the day. It's the damage to the vehicle as well."

Surrey Police said inquiries into the reported robbery were ongoing.

Steve Piller and his dad Simon believe they will never see the tools again

Mr Piller said police used automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to track the van into Kent but it had not been spotted since 11:00 BST on 21 October, about 30 minutes after the incident.

The thieves are understood to have used cloned number plates to evade detection when they made off with the equipment.

In text messages seen by the BBC from a Surrey Police officer investigating the incident, Mr Piller was told Kent Police were looking for the vehicle but the number plates may have been changed again.

In a statement, Surrey Police Insp Lyndsey Whatley said: "We take all reports of tool theft seriously and we understand the impact this can have on people who rely on them to make a living.

"We continue to work with bordering forces and share intelligence at every opportunity as we know criminals can work across multiple areas."

'Protecting your livelihood'

Mr Piller said he didn't have much hope that he would see his property again.

He added that he used invisible UV marking on his tools to help police retrieve them but the precaution was only useful if he found his equipment at car boot sales, where many stolen tools are sold.

CCTV footage of the confrontation appears to show one of the men holding a large screwdriver, but the business owner said during the confrontation safety wasn't on his mind.

"When the adrenalin's running I don't think you think about that at all," he said.

"It's your property isn't it? You're trying to protect your livelihood."

'Significant challenge'

Tens of millions of pounds worth of equipment is stolen each year, according to recent research by one insurance company.

Figures show that in 2023, of all the incidents of tool theft reported to the police, about half were taken from a vehicle.

A bill is going through Parliament, tabled by Amanda Martin, MP for Portsmouth North, which seeks to impose harsher sentencing for tool thieves.

Dr Amy Burrell, a research fellow specialising in forensic psychology at the University of Birmingham, said tool theft was a "significant challenge" for the police.

"If you've got groups of people who are working together and they are stealing in some areas and moving them [the goods] across borders, you've then got to link those offences together," she said.

"It's then harder to identify perpetrators, and also to identify who the owners might be because those tools are actually travelling quite a long way.

"So that makes it really difficult, for the police to put all of the puzzle pieces together and work out what's going on."