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Dealing with abandoned tools

Heavey Metal

Banned
Joined
May 10, 2011
Location
Texas
Several years ago a machinist quit no notice just drove off left his tools his last paycheck and a $1,200.00 (materal price) shaft with a .030 undercut on it in the lathe.

My question is what to do with his tools?

I have tried to contact him with no luck.

Had the boxes opened looking for contact info. and removed the obvious things that where mine inserts drillbits etc.

Dont need any of the tools but they are good stuff and seem to be in the my way often.
 
I was always told possession was 9/10th of the law. Should be a time frame to legally considered abandoned just like abandoned vehicles. Then you could sell them or whatever.
 
Each state deals with abandon property differently - I'd contact the local PD or Attorney General's office for guidance.. Most likely you will need to send certified mail or post a message in a local newspaper - wait specified amount of time for a response then do what you wish with the stuff..

Jason
 
I had a fellow ask if he could take a little extended vacation to visit his father in INDIA...
sure.. no problem... have a good trip...
He never came back... I sold the place and everything in it later on...
 
Each state deals with abandon property differently - I'd contact the local PD or Attorney General's office for guidance.. Most likely you will need to send certified mail or post a message in a local newspaper - wait specified amount of time for a response then do what you wish with the stuff..

Jason

This here....

If no laws in place, send a certified letter to his house stating the items will be sold for the storage costs after 30 days if they are not picked up.....make the storage fee something rediculous like 15 bucks a day....then after 30 days, have the business sell you the tools (with reciept) personally for like 40 bucks.....and if you really crunch the numbers, you can even show a loss on the tools and right them off....but that's strething it

Your call to actually charge him by the day if he picks them up before 30 days......

Also....in the future....it is a good idea to photograph each drawer before removing your drills, inserts, etc....and also take an inventory of his tools....when he picks them up, make him sign that he received everything on the list...keep that signed page...that way he can't come back later and say you stole something....

Always CYA
 
I seriously doubt those tools were truly the employee's tools.

How did he get the job? I suspect he was an imposter; when he trashed the shaft, he realized he wasn't "cut out" [pardon the pun] for the job, and checked "machinist" off his resume.



Recently, I was visiting a break room at one client's site, the (steel) double door jamb was created out of two jambs, to have each door's stops enforce traffic flow; i.e. traffic had to use the rightmost door. The jambs were loose in the wall, and the paint had failed at all the door jamb's joints.

A maintenance person was scabbing the top section together, using a 3" by 8" piece of 3/8" aluminum with self-drilling sheet metal screws. We ended up talking about the repair, and part of what he said was this:

Millwright for decades.
Buddy recently got him the job.
He talked managment into $18,000 of welding equipment.
Skilled at TIG, he can run a bead between two Coke cans.
Employer issued him a 'permanent' hot work permit.
Blah, Blah, Blah.


Okay, all right, you must be setting the jamb up for welding? No, this is the repair.

I move on.


Some time later I walk past the door, the patch is missing, all tools are removed, ladder is removed.

Huh?


Another bluffer?
 
Wish you were my boss

It is great that you are being so conscientious.

The shop I was in when I cut my thumb off left my box on the shop floor, and when I came in 3 weeks later it had been picked over and I lost about $500 worth of tools. Needless to say, I was a might piqued about losing my thumb and this was salt (a lot of it) in the wound. Asked everybody who might have taken them, did you see anything, and even the supervisor that bumped the table saw causing my thumb to run through the blade shrugged his shoulders and said tough crap.

Maine is a bad place to work for "people from away". :angry:
 
I have no interest in selling the tools.

The current crop of meat heads that work here have no use for them.

The ones that do have a use for them already have them and are like me (unable to use them for fear of bad vibes.).
 
Having an employee sometimes makes one more responsible than with strangers or friends.
If you don't need the space throw a chain around the box and roll it into the corner

google his name every once in a while
 
I have no interest in selling the tools.

The current crop of meat heads that work here have no use for them.

The ones that do have a use for them already have them and are like me (unable to use them for fear of bad vibes.).

Donate to a local trade school and take the write off. Everyone wins then.
 
Several years ago a machinist quit no notice just drove off left his tools his last paycheck and a $1,200.00 (materal price) shaft with a .030 undercut on it in the lathe.

My question is what to do with his tools?

I have tried to contact him with no luck.

Had the boxes opened looking for contact info. and removed the obvious things that where mine inserts drillbits etc.

Dont need any of the tools but they are good stuff and seem to be in the my way often.

How many years have the tools sat there........?

If he was an employee of yours, didn't he have to fill out some form with "in case of emergency contact.........so and so"?
 
Maybe he went out to take a couple courses in welding and how to build up a worn shaft.

A local shop was machining some fancy Inconel gun turret ring awhile back. The setup took days and the part was scrapped in short order. Something like a $20,000 raw blank, no welding allowed... :bawling:
 
I tell you what. You can pack it all up and send it to ME! :D Then you won't be trippin over the stuff. LOL I'll pay the shipping. haha

In all seriousness, I think you've waited long enough. Check your local laws, I'm sure the stuff's yours by now.
 
We have this issue come up quite often. We cant get HR to give us guidelines and we cant get the people to come get there belongings or even return a call. We have 4 boxes sitting in our shop right now that have been abandoned.
 
I posed this to my attorney. He had said that after about 90 days and repeated attempts, it's yours. Naturally, CYA applies here, like sending letters registered/return receipt. But after a while, figure that he doesn't care.

This thread brings something else to light. There are a LOT of fakers out there. I've noticed that salaries have been rising, and with it, the number of fakes who think they can talk their way in and then learn the rest on the fly.
 








 
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