I have a friend who lives in Ft. Mill, SC who's work van containing quite a few mechanic's tools was stolen from his driveway Thursday night. The van is a 1999 Toyota Sienna, and a lot of the tools are Volkswagen specific, such as a VAG-Com interface for programming the dash clusters on VW/Audi products. There was also a nearly new battery jump box and an iPad mini he got for Christmas. According to the police there's been a rash of people checking door handles in the area at night hoping to get lucky. Unfortunately his spare keys were in the center console.

He is normally very security conscious and had a very attentive GSD roaming the property, but as the ultimate kick to the groin he had returned to town because Baron was very ill and ended up having to be put down yesterday. In all my years of friendship I have never heard him cry (so much as sniffle) until he told me that.

I know it's a long shot, but it never hurts to put the word out. He's checking the swap meets and pawn shops in the area on Saturday, but he's got to be back here in Greensboro this week for work. This is not the actual van, but it is the same color and model year:

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We're hoping that history is on our side, that these thieves aren't very smart, and that things turn up.

Good luck to your friend.  Thieves suck.

That they do. He had no luck scouting around yesterday. Talking to his neighbors, a few more cars on his street had been rummaged through. He changed all of his locks yesterday as well.

The van was recovered yesterday evening, in Columbia SC, about an hour away. According to police, there were 4 cars stolen Friday from Ft. Mill, 3 of them have been recovered in the same area.

Everything from inside was completely cleaned out, but there was a pair of shoes, a NC driver's license, and some joint residue left in the van, none of it my friend's. It had some slight damage as if they were driving through the woods, but it's otherwise okay.

Hopefully some of the tools will start turning up.

Good to hear the update.  Had a van stolen once and recovered after having been ran into a wall.  It was apparently used for a party of some sort, based on the residue on the inside.  I normally keep my cars empty of valuables and visibly so.  I also started using the CLUB on the steering wheel.  Had one break-in (again, completely empty... they were just trying to steel the van) but heard them and ran to the porch with a my S&W Model 66.  They ran hard and dropped a cheap folding knife on the ground in their wake. No shot justified.