NEW ALBANY, Ind. — A contractor from southern Indiana is asking for help and working to get back on his feet after he says thousands of dollars worth of tools were stolen right from the home he was working to repair.
Sterling Hargrove, who created Supreme Contracting just last year, has been working on a project inside a home in New Albany over the last few days.
"Installing a new front door, I know we did some window repair in there," he said.
But on Monday, that work was halted when Hargrove says he showed up to find all of his equipment gone.
"Pretty much put me out of work," said Hargrove. "All of our nail guns, our air compressors, all of our drills, power equipment, saws. We had a big storage box for our job with bits and stuff like that."
He said every tool has his initials, "S.H." written on it.
"I would say altogether about $10,000 worth of stuff that's been stolen," said Hargrove.
Months worth of work are now hanging in limbo.
"I had to call all of my customers. Right now I'm booked up until March but I had to call every single one of them and let them know I can't work for a while until I find a way to recover," he said.
Hargrove said he's filed a police report and has looked at nearby pawn shops. Now, he's asking the public for help.
"I would just like to get my tools back," he said. "I'm hoping that someone in the public knows who did it. Maybe they stole it because they needed the money, needed help to get back up on their feet, and I get that 100 percent."
He's hoping for help to keep his business up and running.
"Now I'm just going to have to wing it, try to recover, get as many of my tools back as I can," he said.
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