My Toolbox

My Toolbox is a website that protects tool owners (tradesmen etc.) from theft of their tools. This is an ever growing problem in Ireland and can be devastating for it’s victims.

Every electronic tool in the world has a serial number etched into it. This is a unique identifier  for the tool. My toolbox allows you to sign up for an account and create a virtual toolbox of your physical tools. Upload photos, a description and most importantly the serial number.

This creates a database of online tools that can be searched by anybody before buying a tool on the second hand market – protecting the genuine owner of the tool and the buyer – while thwarting the efforts of the thieves.

So let’s say for example John is a carpenter and has an expensive drill with serial number 1234567. He can sign up for an account, add his drill (and all other tools) to his online toolbox. He can add to his toolbox and edit details over time. Unfortunately for John his van gets broken into and all of his tools are stolen a few months after registering.

A few weeks later Peter is in the market for a second hand drill. He visits a local market and there he sees the perfect drill for him. Unknown to him – this is John’s drill and has been stolen. Before buying the stolen drill, he can locate the serial number on the drill (1234567), open up the My Toolbox website and enter the serial number to search the online database. If no match is found, he can proceed with caution. If a match is found, Peter will receive a warning immediately to say that this tool is registered to somebody on the database, he can view photos of the tool to verify that this is indeed the same tool and he will have the ability to alert the rightful owner – in this case John. John will receive that alert and can alert the police to the sale of stolen goods at that market.

This protects John in that he has a better chance of recovering his stolen tools, protects Peter from buying stolen goods and most importantly deters any thieves from stealing tools and sellers from passing them on. If a big enough percentage of tradesmen signed up for this system – it would reduce theft and resale significantly as the risk of getting caught would be too high.