WESTFIELD – A groundskeeper at a Westfield country club came to work Wednesday morning only to find several batteries had gone missing and two maintenance carts absent, which were later found in the woods near the course.
Police received a call at 6:32 a.m. from Shaker Farms Country Club on Shaker Road reporting the larceny.
This marked the second time that morning that authorities had visited the country club, as an officer was out at the course at 3 a.m. after finding a golf cart on the bike path near the Shaker Farms, along with a garage door ajar at the maintenance shed.
Westfield dispatchers placed a call to the shed’s keyholder, Nancy Kotowicz, who promptly arrived to secure the building and return the cart.
“We had batteries stolen about a month ago and they were brand spanking new in the carts, so someone must’ve known how to take them out of a cart,” said Kotowicz, adding that Shaker Farms owns 48 total carts.
Kotowicz said that the country club receives a scrap fee for used batteries and puts that money towards the purchase of new batteries.
“Someone must have known we had the old batteries ready to go,” she said, adding that new batteries cost about $120 a piece. “Each golf cart has about six batteries on them and they’re only good for three or four years, so we’re buying them all the time.”
Kotowicz said that the 22 stolen batteries are covered by insurance, but the Country Club has a high deductable in an effort to save on that expense.
While Kotowicz said she couldn’t comment on whether she suspected anyone of perpetrating the heist, she said some members of the Country Club’s maintenance crew have an idea of who is responsible for the thefts.
