Mount Cotton local Gayle Neville creates Tool Protect app to help tradies and police fight back against thieves

Gayle Neville has spent her spare time creating Tool Protect to help police fight back against crooks who steal from hard-working tradies.

It comes as police report a spike in tool theft at Cleveland and Redland Bay and urge locals to lock up their cars at night.

It has also been a significant problem in Logan, where thieves broke into building sites and vehicles to take valuable power tools and home appliances.

Ms Neville spends most of her day working full time at Redland Hospital and runs Tool Protect on the side.

She said she came up with the app idea after talking to her police officer husband, who detailed how big the problem had become.

"He was getting so many people coming up with thousands of dollars of tools being stolen and asking for help," she said.

"We realised that with tradies it is a real bugbear to copy down serial numbers. The only way they can do it is by making up a spread sheet on their computer.

"I thought they just needed something in their hand that they could use to take photos really quickly.

"A lot of them were saying they didn't realise how much they had lost when they started adding it all up."

The app has a virtual toolbox which allows people to add pictures of their possessions and details such as a serial number, product price and receipt.

Ms Neville said tradies could use the app to ring police and create instant PDFs for insurance purposes in the event their tools were stolen.

She said power tools were often referred to as drug currency and sold at second hand stores for quick money.

The app was launched in June last year and is currently free to use.

Ms Neville said the feedback so far had been positive.

"People say that they love it," Ms Neville said. "I think they realise tools are being stolen left right and centre.

"A few locals have tried it out and they think it is quite necessary."

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