Mr Kingelty said he returned from holidays on December 30 to find thousands of dollars worth of tools and household items taken from the unit.

He’s now offering a significant reward for anyone with information about the stolen items.

“It really is a violation. I can’t believe it. I want to know who did it and why,” he said.

Mr Kingelty has offered $1000 to anyone who can give information about the theft that leads to a conviction by police.

“We’re very, very genuine. All we want is the police to charge somebody and get a conviction. We want to pay this reward. We want to know that honest people can be rewarded,” he said.

“This is such a large amount of equipment and household gear that somebody has to know other than the thieves.”

The 74-year-old said there were items taken from the unit he had had for more than 50 years. It also contained new tools such as a welder, grinders, electric planes, drills and power saws.

“You can’t replace them and you can’t value them because you might only use some of these specialist tools once a year,” he said.

“There was probably 50 years of building accumulation. It wasn’t just a builder’s toolbox it was all those little things that you can’t replace.”

As Mr Kingelty and his wife were preparing to move there were also new kitchen appliances such as a deep fryer, slow cooker and rice cooker, as well as trays of cutlery.

“I believe there were three or four very strong men because I had a toolbox on pallets and I had to move it with a forklift, that’s how heavy they were. They had to be really fit strong men to climb over the fence,” he said.

To add insult to injury, the thieves came back.

“After we’d been out here until 9.30pm, between that time and 6am the next morning they’ve been out and cut the locks again. The thief would have gotten 90 per cent of what they wanted, but they came back after we knew and re-locked the place. They came back and cut it again,” Mr Kingelty said.

The Dubbo resident said the theft was devastating.

“When I drove down I saw the gate ajar and I thought ‘that doesn’t look good’. I went down to the bottom block and I’ve got a tractor and a forklift stored down there. They didn’t do anything there but they had a field day here,” he said.

While he doesn’t hold out hope of getting any of the tools back, Mr Kingelty said he believes the reward money may entice someone to come forward.

Mr Kingelty has urged anyone with information on the incident to call 0428 667 133.