Toyota Repair: car eating batteries

Question
Expert:
I have a 1995 Toyota Celica that has been having intermitten but continual problems with ? electrical.   
Late last autumn, was great shape.   After driving, I activated the alarm and locked it up.   Next day, battery totally dead.  Replaced the battery.   Same thing happened.   Took in to the shop, assumed it was the alarm system, so had the alarm system removed.   Seemed to be OK.   Drove about 450 miles without problems, then water pump went out.   Replaced, mechanic failed to secure the alternator after replacing the pump, and it shorted out.   Replaced, then seemed fine, got it home without incident.   No problems driving locally for a few days, then first start one morning, it started right up, a loud bang, engine died.   Hard to restart, ran for a few minutes, shut it down.   Next morning completely dead.   Towed in, mechanic claimed dead battery, replaced, seemed fine.   Drove about 3 weeks, about every other day, now same thing is starting - hard to start yesterday so just shut it down.
I had a mechanic who claimed to have done the work asked when all this started, but did not.   He claimed he replaced the battery cables, then after replacing the battery and having it dead again, he claimed a bad cable and 'replaced' the bad one.   I doubt he replaced them at all, since he also claimed a lot of work done on my truck was discovered not done at all by my current mechanic.
Is it possible a bad cable here????   I am at a loss since every mechanic focuses only on the battery and I am tired of replacing them only to have the same problem.

Answer
Hello, what should be done is to have the alternator/charging system tested, most auto parts stores do this at no charge, if the alternator is charging the battery ok then there may be an excessive current draw on the system and it should be checked for that using an amp meter, if current draw is excessive the cause may be due to lights staying on, trunk light, stop lights, tail lights or dome light. It could very well be a bad cable or connection either at the battery or the battery ground cable. I would recommend that you have another mechanic that sounds more trustworthy check the things I mentioned.