It was a lousy way to begin the day.

Pamela Greener went out to start her car at about 5:30 Wednesday morning and saw that the 2003 Honda Civic was propped up on cinder blocks and had been stripped of its tires and wheels.

The car was parked just 12 feet from her home at 2168 Millersville Road, which is across the street from a popular roadside produce stand called The Corn Wagon in Pequea Township.

Neither Greener nor her boyfriend, John Kelley, heard a thing while her car was being stripped, likely very early Wednesday.

"I lived here my whole life," Kelley said. "I've never had anything stolen before."

"I'm shocked," he said.

Kelley said the thieves were not only quiet, they were slick. It takes a special lugnut key to remove the factory rims and tires from that model of Honda, he said.

"They were definitely good at it," he said.

Police were in the area at about 2:30 a.m. and a relative of Kelley, delivering newspapers, passed by at 3:30 a.m. Neither noticed anything amiss, Kelley said.

He noted that the thieves ignored a bucket truck with tools that also was parked in the driveway.

"They were after the car parts," he said, which he thinks will be sold on the street for drug money.

Southern Regional Police are investigating the theft. Anyone with information about it is asked to call 872-0352.

E-mail: cstauffer@lnpnews.com