High River RCMP are looking into the theft of batteries from a rural location just west of Blackie on 224 Avenue and Highway 23.  

They say someone gained access to heavy equipment being used to repair the road and removed the batteries.  

Constable John Rotheisler says there's a market for the stolen batteries.

"They're good batteries from Caterpillar equipment so they're a heavy duty industrial battery not like your typical car battery," he says. "They are of value, they're approximately $300 each so on the black market I'm sure they'd be worth a few dollars."

He says the total value is about $2,000.

Constable Rotheisler says this is the third such incident. In the others, batteries were taken from electronic signs warning drivers of road work ahead.

"There was a case the week before in the same area where they had one of those electronic road signs on the side of the road warning drivers of construction and somebody had come in in the evening and cut the locks off and taken the batteries off that particular display sign, I believe there was eight batteries taken," Constable Rotheisler says. And then as I was investigating that file, trying to link them together I did find that that investigator had spoken to someone out of Okotoks and it sounds like Volker Stevin had made a complaint as well about the same style of incident where someone had cut the locks off a sign on the road and taken those batteries as well."

Batteries from a sign similar to this one were also taken

He says because it's in a rural area thieves are less likely to be seen, but urges anyone who lives in the area and sees activity of people they don't think should be in the area to give the RCMP a call.

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