The problem is how soon you will get them back if they find them. And then the condition. I would probably look around in neighboring towns and casually stay on top of the police but not hound them. Then I would replace the tools myself just so you can keep on working. If you get them back and they are in working order you have a second set. At the end of the day $1,500 is not a ton of money and I would pretty sure you will not see them return in time to continue the projects.

I am so sorry to hear your tools walked off. We have had a few incidents over the years but most involved folks we know. I once had some copper pipe stolen and we are fairly certain we know who did it. Another time we had some electronics show up in the pawn shop and my partner gave the culprit the suggestion to leave pronto and he woudn't need to talk to the cops. 

Being in a small town does have its advantages and chances are the local miscreants know who ran off with your stuff. Do you have a connection with someone in that community or a place to post a flyer?  Tak to the police about how to offer a no questions asked reward for return of the tools. Many addicts will sell their mother for a fix and if they can do it on the quiet, even better.  Do pawn shops in your area take photos of people bringing in items? If so the tools will probably go to another town or get sold on marketplace or Craigslist.  

Are your tools marked? I write my name on everything and also write the year on batteries and such to help me track them. Most guys aren't going to show up at a job site with tools marked with a girls name. One carpenter I know paints her hand tools with pink spray paint. I use aqua since most people use red or yellow. We also have some red and white tape I put on big items since it is easy to see at a distance.  

We had one job site broken into where the person didn't steal anything  but cut power cords on everything and destroyed our lighting. After that we went to the recycling guy and bought several 2x5 feet metal grid store fixture. We installed them to protect every window and screwed a board over the back door when we left the site.  At that time, security cameras weren't as cheap as now.

My son had tools and golf clubs stolen from his garage. He called the cops and then pawn shops in the area. One of them is owned and managed by my son’s golfing buddy.

When the culprit walked in that pawn shop with my son’s clubs, the owner told one of his employees to drag out the pawning process while he slipped out to call the cops. Nabbed him red handed AND got a search warrant for his house and got his tools back too. 😆

When you get your new tools, also get an engraver and add your phone number to every piece of equipment. Then check pawn shops a litte farther along. A sober thief will know not to go to the closest spot. And did you leave your contact info with the first shop?

Next, figure out someway to better secure your property. Take the tools with you every day, for one thing.

This happened at our house while it was under renovation. Someone definitely scoped it out based on the contractor bin and dark windows and came back at night with a van to collect the goods. Our contractor lost a bunch of tools. He's a pro who'd experienced this before, and he didn't even bother trying to get them back -- just figured they were all a write-off.

We do have a connection with a local miscreant that has done some intermittent labor for us on the house. He's a druggie that is trying to get clean, and appears to be on the right-ish track, but still rubs shoulders more than he should with the other unemployables in town. We passed his info along, as well as a couple buddies he said he suspected, and the police were looking for all of them. No word yet.

I didn't speak with the pawn shops. Are they good/cooperative about rooting out thieves?

I've been watching FB and CL, and no sign yet of anything of mine.

I had stuck labels with my first name on all my Dewalt tools, mostly so Mr. Weedy wouldn't confuse them with his and steal my batteries. But I don't suppose they'd be too hard to peel off. I understand NOW that they all have serial numbers, so when I get new ones I'll record all those. I'll think about painting or engraving on them, it's just hard for me to deface beautiful tools. :-(

Thankfully they didn't vandalize anything, or steal any hand tools. Or the big rolls of Romax in the basement.

Never leave anything that is worth money on the job, that is your bread and butter.

If some of these guys can steal a track-hoe or a backhoe from the job site, water heaters, and furnaces, tools are always an easy target.

The same goes for trucks... never leave your truck open while getting supplies, they sit in parking lots and look to score... It happened to my painter, he ran inside to get some sandpaper, left the truck open, came out his sprayer was gone, happen to a few guys when they went to get coffee.

In NY if you leave a truck running, they will take the whole truck, go a few blocks and load everything from it to another car.

Back in the days, some guys use to hit large jobs, they would run in and ask to borrow a tool, like a saw, a drill, etc saying they working next door and see-ya say bye-bye to your tools.

I hope you recover...Good luck

Well, the plot thickens a bit. Our miscreant contact gave us a name of someone that's got some tools to sell and reportedly entered through a basement window. I passed his name on to the detective's voice mail, along with the general vicinity he stays. Fingers crossed they'll act on it.

Get back in touch with the contact and he might pass along the message that he knows someone who is looking to buy tools and try to get a picture or list and a price. You can probably drag it out a day by saying you are getting some money together.  Give your guy a twelve pack, bottle, or pack of smokes...most druggies are smokers. A pack of cigarettes helps some people's memory.

South side of Chicago has some interesting neighborhoods too. One version of job site theft was guys who would walk up to a worker on an extension ladder and tell him to throw down his wallet or he would kick the ladder over. 

I know you don't want to mark your pretty new tools but the newer and cleaner tools are easier to sell. Ugly tools aren't worth as much. I like having 20 year old hand tools in a battered tool box because no one ever wants to borrow them Same reason I like a 12 or 16 ft tape measure...they don't have to be marked and they never walk off. 

My partner is famous for being better at borrowing than returning...tape measure, pencil, knife, charged batteries, speed square and whatever other useful item I have in my bag. I took care of the battery issue by switching to Milwaukee 12V and he is now solely responsible for the Dewalt tools.  Now I just shrug my shoulders if he doesn't bring the right tools or charged batteries.