Community steps up after $10K worth of business owner’s tools stolen from trailer

By Gabriela Vidal

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — A Denver business owner is learning an expensive lesson after police told him he likely wouldn’t ever see more than $10,000 worth of tools that were stolen. Now the community is stepping in and helping out.

For Steve Beam, his storage trailer is more than just a home for hundreds of tools. It is also what facilitates his passion.

“This is my whole business,” said Beam. “I started doing remodels, and I just kind of loved it. I loved taking something and making it look better.”

Beam says he started Denver Remodels Inc. back in January, and it was starting to pick up business in the last few months. On June 12, however, sometime after he left the trailer at a job site overnight, thieves struck.

“One of my guys called and said, ‘I got some bad news,'” said Beam. “He told me that someone had broken into the trailer and stolen all my nail guns. That was kind of just the beginning of it. There’s been a lot more than that.”

A total of 30 batteries, all of his nail guns, plumbing, electrical, and hand tools were taken.

“All in all, I think it’s about $10,000 or $11,000,” said Beam.

Police told Beam the spray paint on the lock was used to mark that valuables were inside the trailer for someone to come back later and break into it.

“And he said that happens a dozen times a day,” said Beam.

Denver police say people who own trailers should use multiple locks and consider investing in an alarm system that can detect if someone moves a trailer or tampers with its locks. It is also important to make sure tools have a unique marking and or serial number to be able to track them down once they are stolen.

“I didn’t catalogue my tools,” said Beam. “If I had serial numbers on my tools, I’d have better recourse, but I didn’t do that, so that was an expensive lesson.”

It was an even more emotional experience for Beam after people in his community and even former clients stepped up in the days following this incident to help crowdfund and keep his business going.

“Everyone has offered their tools to loan to me. Everyone has offered to buy me stuff. To be honest with you, I’m amazed at how not put out I am,” said Beam. “I feel spoiled by it.”

Now, with the tools he needs to continue work, he hopes others will also pick up on ways to keep their tools and other stored items safe.

“You work 50-60 hours a week. You don’t think that someone’s going to steal from you because it’s kind of the lowest of the low, but it happens, so be cautious,” said Beam.

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