Cheap electrical and building tools

So hubby had van broken into, stolen, crashed and ransacked today. He has been a sparky for 45 years, the majority of the tools he uses every day were taken (they knew what they wanted). If anyone gets offered cheap or free stuff, please feel free to post, direct us to the auctions or facebook. We know, we don't anticipate getting anything back as they obviously knew what they were doing. But some things are pretty recognizable, all the equipment was in a perfect set up of boxes, drawers, bags. Power tools, testers, stock. You name it. The van was locked, parked and taken in broad daylight. Police called within minutes, by then it had already been in a crash. We will be watching marketplace etc, but know we probably won't see the stuff, but it doesn't hurt to keep an eye out.
This was in Central Christchurch, today at 12.30 midday.

when ours was stolen we found our tools for sale in the pawn shops (and on trade me) and on facebook marketplace.

When my van got robbed, the police weren't interested in investigating and I only got the fingerprints done because I knew a cop at the local station who knew the fingerprint guy, who would dust it if I took it around.

The consensus at the time was a lot was the gangs, who shipped the stuff out of town or to the other end of the country where it is clean and can be resold.
I had good descriptions including custom made storage boxes but they never turned up. I went around all the pawn shops with a list

Ah that's no good, still probably faster to get new tools via the insurance than waiting for leads.

Alot of it ends up in the islands. They fill a 20 or 40ft container with stuff and send it over.
Sorry to hear you got done though, hard pill to swallow for sure.

Oh what a bummer. no insurance is going to be able to compensate for the loss of you “bestist” pair of pliers. you have had them for 45 years and your boss gave them to you as a present for completeing your Appentiship.
I got a set of screwdrivers as a “welcome to the company” gift 45 ish years ago. just a nice set of Stanley ones in a plastic carry case. I would be heart broken if I lost them or worse had them stolen.

Probably a bit late to say this (and no offense intended) but it's a lesson to us all that a rowdy alarm and/or a tracker system might be a good investment. If you are able to tell the cops exactly where a vehicle is, they are far more likely to pay a visit.