School Superintendent Peggy Hinkley said whoever took the batteries got in through the northeast corner of the bus lot's chain-link fence.
It was an unusual way to start the week for Warren Township High School student Dillon Trumpey. He is on the swim team, so he had practice before school. After he got out of practice he found out school was cancelled. He had to call his mom.
"I let her know that I had to get picked up," said Trumpey.
The problem of theft on school grounds is not new to Warren Township. Six months ago someone took catalytic converters from a number of the buses as they sat in this very same parking lot. Hinkley said these two thefts are forcing the school to take action.
"We will look at further security measures that we must take," said Hinkley. "Absolutely this is an important facility and our ability to run school is dependent on making certain that vandals can't get in and destroy buses."
For now the security issue will have to wait. Getting batteries back in the buses, and getting them back on the road is the school's top priority.
"So now we have the entire day and will probably be working through the night to ensure we can start school," said Hinkley.
As far as who the battery bandit is, school officials don't know, but at the school, everyone has an opinion.
"The rumor going around is that a senior pulled a prank and took 200 batteries from the buses in under two hours," said student Trumpey.
Hinkley doesn't buy that theory, she says whoever did this deed had help.
"I think it's fair to assume that it would be difficult for a single person to remove this many batteries. We would anticipate that the vandals were more than one."
