A Perthshire garage is in shock after a man allegedly stole an apprentice’s tools as he changed a car tyre.
CCTV footage appears to show a man picking up a Milwaukee battery gun from the Blair Atholl Garage forecourt on Thursday June 5.
The tool is worth around £350 and belonged to an apprentice who was helping a tourist change a tyre at the time.
Police are probing the alleged theft, which has been condemned by the garage.
A garage worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We’ve doubted from the word ‘go’ that we’ll ever see the gun again.
“It’s just disappointing it was a young apprentice who spent his hard-earned money to buy the gun.
“He was working on a job just outside our tyre base. He was in doing a tyre and the gun was sitting beside the car he’d just taken the wheel off.
“These guys saw the gun and got away with it.
“It’s bad enough being one of our guys, but when the lad has worked hard to buy good, quality tools and it’s just disappeared like that, it’s disappointing.
“In towns and cities you may be more vigilant, but in rural Scotland everyone knows each other and are very welcoming with tourists.
“You have that level of trust, maybe a bit too much trust.”
Apprentice’s tools ‘stolen’ from Blair Atholl garage
The local community has rallied around to support the garage after they shared footage on Facebook.
The worker added: “Through the Facebook posts we’ve had an amazing response.
“We were given information on the vehicles that I will pass to the police.
“One of the vehicles was purchased just an hour ago in the Highland village north of us.
“We have also been given addresses which will be passed along.
“What has been quite impressive is the offers to buy our apprentice a new gun.
“There have been several people who have offered money towards a new gun.
“There’s one man who has just retired and has still got his tools, he has offered to give them to the apprentice. Another garage offered to buy a gun outright.
“It wasn’t the point of the post, and we weren’t expecting that, but it has been overwhelming.
Community rally around after Blair Atholl Garage ‘theft’
“We are going to buy him a new gun, and someone gave him a spare gun to help him out yesterday.
“It has been amazing. It’s always nice to see that there are good people out there willing to help out.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We received a report of a theft at a premises in the Bridge of Tilt area around 11:25am on Thursday.
“Enquiries are at an early stage.”
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