Reward offered to catch tool thieves

When one of his engineers at gas service firm Gastech discovered that his company van had been broken into on Wednesday morning, his boss David decided enough was enough.

"This is getting stupid," said David. "It seems like something is happening all the time.

"The vans always seem to be getting broken into."

In the latest incident all of engineer Ray Eagle's tools and his radio were stolen from his van.

The van had been parked on his driveway in Hanson Close, Shaw.

This meant that on Wednesday Ray could not complete his day's work and David lost out on about £1,500 of business.

"This is such a mindless crime," said 40-year-old David.

"These thieves have stolen a man's livelihood. We had to cancel many jobs on Wednesday, which was an inconvenience to our customers and to us."

Many of the tools had great sentimental value to Ray, but were of little retail value. "For a service engineer, those are the tools of life," said Ray, 37,who fixes boilers and services them.

"It's really rotten. Those tools aren't of any use to anyone other than a service engineer."

He believes that the theft occurred on Tuesday at around 10.25pm.

He thinks the thieves blew a fuse while stealing the radio which caused the clock in the van to stop.

The back door lock was forced open and a large tool box containing all of his essential tools were taken from the back of the van.

"I didn't see or hear anything," said Ray, who has lived in Shaw with his wife for six years. We've never had any problems like this before and neither have our neighbours."

David Watts is offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible and the return of the goods.

He has worked at Gastech in Newport Street, Swindon, for eight years.

In that time, his vans have been broken into five times.

He has nine service engineers working for him throughout the town.

Anyone with any information should call 01793 528111.