MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (WRIC) — On Monday morning some Mechanicsville residents woke up to an unpleasant surprise; thieves stole several batteries from various vehicles on Elliott Drive.
Andy Marchetti said he knew it was going to be a bad day when he noticed his hood was propped open. Marchetti said thieves used a screw driver to pry open the rear window of his pick-up truck and then took his battery. “About 8 o’clock I come out and that was half open and then I knew I was in trouble,” Marchetti said.
The frustrated Mechanicsville man added his thoughts about the criminals who not only took his battery, but he said the thieves also took two lawn mower batteries from his son. “Just people who don’t want to work, I think… Yeah I work real hard all my life,” he said.
A neighbor across the street also acknowledged the thieves took two batteries from his vehicles. Another resident right next door said he also fell prey to the thieves. Tim Shaffer admitted he left the door of his SUV unlocked because the key was broken inside his ignition. Shaffer added the one time he left his door unlocked the criminals stole a practically brand new battery he left on the floorboard. “It was better than brand new, 850 cold cranking amps!” Shaffer exclaimed.
Shaffer tried to be sympathetic with the thieves, however he is very disappointed. “Times are hard, I try to understand to a point but you know you work all day long out in the heat and stuff, you get tired of people doing stuff like that, that’s money gone that could’ve been used for something else,” Shaffer said. He added he planned to watch Robert Griffin, III at the Redskins training camp but instead he spent his Monday shopping for a battery.
In the meantime, investigators said people could possibly prevent becoming victims if they lock up their vehicles and that although it was unusual for the criminals to hit several people in one residential area it is not unusual for them to steal batteries to make a quick buck.
