Lawn care company owner feels targeted after $10,000 tool theft

A Burlington lawn care business owner feels the company was targeted, after thieves stole its inventory of equipment from a shipping container and trailer last week.

Sometime overnight on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 more than $10,000 worth of items were stolen, said the owner/operator, who asked to remain anonymous.

He says thieves even used his own ladders to hike the tools and numerous items over a fenced work yard located near Plains Road and Brant Street.

He reported it to Halton Regional Police, who are investigating, but he’s hoping there is security footage available so they find the culprits.

The owner says the incident has diminished his trust in people.

“Can’t sleep at night; how do you trust anybody?" he wondered.

“It appears that the culprits had hopped the fence, leaving behind my two ladders that they had set up on either side of the fence to get over,” he said. “They would have had to lug the equipment from there through brush and over train tracks.”

He said it looks like he was the only one in the yard who was impacted, so he wonders if it was someone who knew that he parked there.

“It must have been quite a production and there would have been quite a few of them,” he theorized.

Items include a generator, hedge trimmer, chain saw, trimmers, back-pack blowers, power heads, a grinder and a welder.

The owner says he’s had to rent equipment to complete current contracts, and doesn’t know how much insurance will cover.

“The back-pack blowers are $1,000, each,” he said.

Halton police are investigating.