More than $1,000 worth of vehicle batteries stolen from P.E.I. shale pit

The owners of a local excavation business are hoping to find whoever stole some batteries from their shale pit in the Tryon area.

Sometime between the evening of Oct. 2 and morning of Oct. 6, someone had gone into the pit in the woods and cut the cables off the batteries for equipment owned by JJ’s Bobcat n’ Backhoe Service.

“It must be five kilometres into the woods,” said manager Blake Jurkowski. “Nobody knows those machines are there except local people.”

Four batteries were taken, two large ones and two regular-sized truck batteries, valued at more than $1,000. Dealing with the whole ordeal, acquiring new cables and buying replacement batteries, cost around $2,000, Jurkowski estimates.

The batteries were discovered missing when employees showed up to the pit ready for their shift. Without functional vehicles, Jurkowski said, they had to go home for the day.

He was surprised, but said this wasn’t the first time the company had something like this happen. About seven or eight years ago, there was another instance of stolen batteries, alongside stolen fuel.

“But this time, they didn’t take any fuel, they just took the batteries,” he said. “We’re pretty angry. It kinda messed up our whole day and cost us a lot of money for someone to make maybe $200 off recycled batteries at some disposal place.

JJ’s Bobcat n’ Backhoe Service aren’t the only people in central P.E.I. impacted by theft lately. Jurkowski said he’s heard from a number of farmers around Tryon, Borden-Carleton and Kinkora that they had their equipment’s wires cut and batteries and copper taken.

Scott Ferris, a senior communications adviser with the P.E.I. RCMP, confirmed that the RCMP is investigating a number of instances of vandalism and theft in the area.

“There’s been, oh gosh, at least probably six or eight reports to RCMP of farm equipment being vandalized, whether it’s in fields or at the farmer’s properties,” said Ferris. “It appears that thieves are trying to steal copper wire from these machines. The copper wire that would be on these machines is not terribly valuable, because there’s not a lot of it.”

He added that the theft also damages the machines, such as cut hydraulic lines, which is an added concern for farmers during the harvest season.

“Things like these hydraulic lines are very expensive to replace. We’re hearing that they’re in the multiple thousands of dollars to replace these hydraulic lines,” Ferris said. “All for trying to get what could amount to maybe 25, 50 bucks worth of copper.”

Security measures can be tough, he said, when not all equipment can be stored in a locked building. He suggests doing so where possible, or otherwise store them in well-lit areas with cameras, as well as having pictures and recorded serial numbers of the equipment.

Anyone with information or who sees any suspicious activity can call the RCMP, or submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

After the theft, Jurkowski posted to Facebook hoping someone might be able to help find whoever’s responsible, and offering a reward. He’s heard a few names, but nothing’s panned out and he has little faith in any resolution or recovery.

“Obviously, they’re not gonna just say, ‘Oh yeah it was me, here you go, here’s your batteries,’” said Jurkowski. “There’s not much we can do, other than get some better security in the pit and hope it doesn’t happen again.”

Kristin Gardiner is a reporter for the Journal Pioneer in Prince Edward Island. She can be reached at kgardiner@postmedia.com.