Wondering why focussing there? I worry about talkative people as they all have families who also talk and a casual remark can reveal so much.
It’s amazing what some people you might not even know well, will tell you here about the doings and movements of people you don’t even know, in conversation.
I was advised when young always lock up your own tools when workmen on the premises but from what happened to you it seems like putting them out of sight even if secured a good idea as well.
Our keys to a property with half-done works and tools and parts lying near the work (had to be away suddenly) were left with two trusted locals. One a tradesman who also maintains the village landscapes and the other someone in a profession requiring trust.
Very expensive tools were taken and the “rubbish” left. Like your place, they had time to pick through everything and choose. The parts including some valuable ones not touched but when I came upon it on a flying visit I literally cleared everything out including a concrete mixer, to my current place for safekeeping. It was bl**dy hard work getting that concrete mixer into the van I accidentally had with me on my own that same afternoon, I can tell you. As I figured if left they’d come back for the rest.
Mysteriously the yard of the landscaping tradesman opposite the property was burgled and every machine taken 3 or 4 months later – must have been a massive insurance claim.
So I think I know what happened to us but there are also other possibilities.