By Alex Myers
Connecticut residents can breath a bit easier these days. A serial golf ball thief has been arrested. Phew.

Joseph Kolenda, 58, turned himself into police after a search warrant executed at his home in August turned up more than 2,500 golf balls, according to Fairfield Citizen Online. Kolenda is currently out on $10,000 bail, which, ironically, is about the value of the golf balls he’s stolen since 2017.

A police report says Kolenda stole 20,800 golf balls from the Patterson Club in Fairfield. And no, he didn’t just horde them in his home. Kolenda sold the golf balls to a nearby driving range for 73 cents a pop.

Kolenda, who is expected to appear in court on Oct. 23, was caught when a Patterson Club member saw golf balls with the club’s logo on them at the driving range. And after a detective investigated by buying a bucket of balls at the range — sounds like a fun assignment — it was easy to obtain where the range had purchased the balls.

Kolenda was also charged with stealing golf balls in two other Connecticut areas (Stamford and Brookfield) as far back as 2001. So yeah, we weren’t kidding about the whole serial golf thief thing.

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