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Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

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191–200 of 338 posts

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#191
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want gold-plated, there's Hilti, but you're paying a lot extra for a marginal increase in reliability. Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, and DeWalt are all in the same range, ie contractor/prosumer (and all mostly are manufactured in China). Ryobi is slightly lower but generally fine, ie consumer / price sensitive. Below that is Harbor Freight / no-name electric drill you'd find in am Amazon Basics "essential tools" k…

festool is up from hilti, maybe

And Mafell can be better than festool. Though different manufacturers tend to have different advantages.

Hilti makes some very large tools that if needed Festool does not have alternative. I have also seen a comparably priced Hilti drill/driver give up where a Makita kept going.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#192
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

festool is up from hilti, maybe

WOW I've never heard of festool and hilti but simple googling has turned up amazing stores of their customer service. Unfortunately it looks like they don't overlap completely in the types of tools Ryobi offers. I really like Ryobi's 18V and 40V 'ecosystem'. Every time I am browsing Home Depot or their website, I come across new items that are compatible with these two ecosystems. Just recently I saw everything from…

It’s probably Ryobi’s No 1 advantage, particularly as a lot of stores seem to stock a lot of the range (at least here in Europe).

Makita also has a large range but I usually have to order the less popular stuff but when I get it, it’s usually worth it.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China exports lots of stuff to the USA and those containers go back empty. They can easily be filled up with stolen iPhones and catalytic converters for recycling, so that they aren’t all empty. Power tools probably not though.

I thought the empties carried all of the stolen cars to their new homes.

That’s way too much trouble, and Chinese customs is really serious about their 100% tariff for DIY car imports. Stolen iPhones and cats are much easier to smuggle in, and have little value outside of Chinese recyclers.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#194
post #11

> He called police, who got a search warrant Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance. I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway". Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as a…

Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as an anti-theft device. The word "theft" doesn't appear even once on … As well they should. The last thing Apple wants is some parent tracking down their kid’s stolen bicycle using an AirTag and wind up getting killed by the thief. They want people using these things the way my dad uses them: to find his car keys (or whatever else he might lose)!

Which is perhaps why they have the anti stalking sound.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#195
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the brand with the best reputation these days?

If money is no object for most non-specialized tools the best brand is unequivocally Festool

I would say Festool is a brilliant system, but different manufacturers can make better tools for certain jobs. Mafell’s jigsaw is excellent, Metabo for grinders etc, Hilti SDS plus and Max.

Festool domino system I hear is probably the best, but that is rather specialized.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#196
post #11

> He called police, who got a search warrant Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance. I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway". Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as a…

I shamelessly contribute to the local sheriff's association in the hopes i'll get better treatment if i ever need them, not the best deal ever but i've seen it work elsewhere so :shrug:

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#197
post #77
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the brand with the best reputation these days?

Tools are weird like text editors where people get religious about some brands over others. But if your hustle is fencing the most reputable and easy-to-move tools, you would probably want to acquire the standard ones you see in Home Depot and Lowe's, such as Dewalt, Milwaukee, Craftsman, etc. Reputation-wise they're all about the same. Personally I like Makita.

> Tools are weird like text editors where people get religious about some brands over others.

That’s because time is money.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#198
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and then people act like the flea market is some precious cornerstone of the local culture. In my city there is a flea market that has dozens of freshly stolen bikes every week. There's a fund where people buy back the bikes and reunite them with their owners. Unfortunately, there's no fund supporting violence against these bike thieves.

Violence for property crime is a bit 18th century, no? I've been robbed, and wanted to inflict violence in the heat of the moment, but cooler heads... prison would be fine, and you know, civilized.

are you kidding? Serious theft could easily result in death by lynching in the early 20th century, and in some places, later.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. Since there's less crime in affluent areas, the police actually have time to investigate what get's ignored in other areas. By also solving these crimes, it tells the criminals to avoid those areas, it's kind of a feedback loop.

Is there a map of police response times somewhere? Sounds like this would make a good proxy for a map of affluent areas and would be useful for getting directions and stuff that avoid bad areas when you’re in unfamiliar places.

Useful for criminals too. Come to think of it, a serious large sized criminal org would probably have such a map internally. And since there are more orgs like that, there is probably such a map-as-a-service somewhere for those in the know.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple can't acknowledge that Airtags are an anti-theft device, because if they do, they would also be implicitly acknowledging that they are a stalking device. The only reason why they can sometimes work against theft is because thieves do not realize they are being tracked. That's because Apple's anti-stalking measures are sometimes insufficient.

The fact that police aren’t going after stalkers anymore also doesn’t help. But ya, it’s impossible to tell the difference between a stalker and someone just trying to recover their stuff.

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