A free property registration service has been recommended to Ballarat cyclists and tradespeople alike in the face of continuing thefts in the region.
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Former bricklayer Adam Gillett describes the moment his tools were stolen from an Alfredton work site in 2020 as his "breaking point" and the final push to change his career.
"What I had stolen was wheelbarrows, shovels, my mixer, which was the main thing - that was I think around $1,500 on its own - it doesn't seem like much, but when you've got to go out the next morning and replace everything again it's just crazy," he said.
"I was completely down and out ... I just had enough."
The service, called PropertyVAULT, has been endorsed by Neighbourhood Watch and was started by a former police officer in 2015.
Police Sergeant Dominic Alderman moved to the region last year and said he wanted to introduce it to Ballarat after seeing it used effectively elsewhere.
"The more people that we get involved in it, the easier it is for us as police to sort of track items and locate items that have been stolen," he said.
The service is free to use, and requires a sign up with an email address.
PropertyVAULT was initially called BikeVAULT and solely focused on bikes.
"People, when they bought a new push bike, they would sign up to this site, the site would prompt the owner of the bike for the serial number, some digital images of the bike," Sergeant Alderman said.
"In the event that the bike is stolen, they can re-log in and update the site, but the bike is now listed as stolen."
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Since its beginnings it has opened to record any valuables - from jewellery to power tools and work equipment - but the premise of a digital record of items remains the same.
Sergeant Alderman said the information recorded on PropertyVAULT was invaluable to police when investigating a theft.
"When they're a victim of a burglary, we as police members are asking for, you know, 'what's been taken, have you got images', a lot of the time obviously the answer is no. Whereas if we've got access to images, it makes it so much easier for us for investigation."
The site also has a search function for items online after they have been marked stolen.
Sergeant Alderman has been spreading the word to local businesses tradespeople use.
"I've opened up some talks through some local businesses that sell power tools, just in relation to getting them on board when they get a sale to a customer, introducing that customer to the idea of PropertyVAULT and recording the tools," he said.
"[Theft] is something that is ongoing and it's not going to go away anytime soon. There's a very big market for stolen power tools, unfortunately."
For Mr Gillett, who now enjoys his work building wind turbines as a fly-in fly-out worker in Queensland, he said the service was something worth considering for tradespeople - especially those who could not afford insurance.
"Between paying wages, the cost of living, work cover insurance, public liability - by the time you pay all that stuff over a week or a month, it's just another thing on top," he said.
"I have mates that are still bricklayers and he's just got to pack all this stuff up every day and all that sort of thing when back in the day, every single Bricklayer I knew just chained this stuff up, thinking it's gonna be alright, 'who's gonna come and steal an extra wheelbarrow in the middle of the night?'
"It's definitely worth having a look at it, if it's gonna get you out of trouble in the long run, or you might get your tools back."
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