"My driveway was long and straight, and usually I parked up front, near the street, rather than pull way in to the back of the property. I came out one morning to start my 1972 Dodge Van and it was dead. I turned the key a few times but got nothing. Finally, in desperation, I got out and opened the hood. There was little I could do, but opening the hood is a requirement if your car won’t start. I was shocked to see I had no battery!
It took a moment to realize someone had opened my car and taken it! Violated my space! I was dumbfounded."
The Battery – Part Two
It was 1982 or so, six years after the home battery experience and it hit again. Not in a small way, but in a big one.
The car and the battery were not mine, but instead belonged to one of our faculty members who had pulled his car onto the paved area of the school, so he could get close to the building, in order to remove art work from the studio on a Sunday. He parked, and as it was a patrolled area left his car open so he could bring out work easily without having to worry about opening and closing doors, etc. His station wagon back was open to accept art work.
The building was patrolled, 24/7. by a security agency. We had guards roaming the buildings and manning the entrance doors at all times. We chose to use armed guards as a preventive measure and were told to always hire guard services, so as not to have the guards as school employees, increasing the schools liability just in case something weird were to happen.
A criminal type person snuck up on the station wagon when he saw the instructor go into the building. He reached into the vehicle and released the hood latch and was able to raise the hood and remove the battery. He took the battery and put it under his arm and made his way across the paved area to the parking lot. When he crossed the paved area he came into the view of one of the guards. The guard, quick to respond, jumped up, ran out the door, yelled at the man to stop and gave chase. The man did not stop, and ran off of the school grounds and into the neighborhood. The guard, doing what he assumed was correct, shot the fleeing bandit!
The results of this action did stop the criminal, did get the battery returned, and not unlike the first battery story it had a street value of about $2.50. The criminal was sent to jail for a variety of crimes, including this one, and from his cell obtained a lawyer. The lawyer filed suit against the guard service and secured for his client in jail, $25,000!
I can only guess it’s like football; the guard was penalized for unnecessary roughness!
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