NutLoose, that certainly puts your reaction rather more into context. Someone helping themselves to the property of others in the way you describe certainly deserves to be challenged very firmly. No matter who they might be.
Doubtless those were 'aircraft spec.' fatseners and probably accountable?
Did he ever explain why he wanted them?
Tool control! I took my car to the local M-B dealer for a routine service. When I collected it, on the way home I noticed a rattle. Under the bonnet I found a 10" screwdriver left in the engine bay - it could have shorted the battery, fallen into the poly V-belt or punctured any one of 4 cooling radiators..... I had words with the dealer about tool control; it seems that there is no system of tool tags, shadow boards or the like at such places.