Tanks Under Attack: Gas Theft Evolves

Thieves Thirsting for $4-a-Gallon-and-Rising Gas Tap Into Gas Tanks

Dale Fortin is getting a new kind of customer at his Detroit auto repair shop, customers who have not just been in a fender-bender or had a windshield smashed by a rock.

The soaring price of crude oil has turned gas tanks into a cache of valuable booty, and Fortin has replaced several tanks punctured or drilled by thieves thirsting for the nearly $4-a-gallon fuel inside.

"That's the new fad," he said. "I'd never seen it before gas got up this high."

While gas station drive-offs and siphoning are far more common methods of stealing gas, reports of tank and line puncturing are starting to trickle into police departments and repair shops across the country.

Some veteran mechanics and law enforcement officers say it's an unwelcome return of a crime they first saw during the Middle East oil embargo of the early 1970s.

Gasoline prices surged just before the long Memorial Day holiday weekend and crept a hair higher overnight Monday to a new record national average $3.937 for a gallon of regular, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Given their height, Fortin said pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles are more vulnerable to the thieves who puncture the tanks and use a container to catch the fuel.

Plastic tanks are typically the target, he said, since there is less chance of a catastrophic spark, and they are easier to drill into.

A design change may also be contributing to the preference for a drill rather than a syphoning hose. The tanks in many vehicles now have check balls, which prevent spills in a rollover accident. They also make siphoning more difficult.

In recent weeks, police in Denver arrested two suspects in connection with about a dozen cases of damaging tanks and stealing gas.

Denver Police Det. John White sees this "new way of siphoning gas" as a bigger problem.

"What made this particular method so dangerous and concerning for us was the way in which they were doing it — using cordless drills to puncture holes in these tanks," he said of the rash of cases his department has investigated this spring. "The heat, friction generated could have easily sparked a fire. It just made for a dangerous situation for the suspects and the community."

Duo granted bail over Aroaima fuel theft

Two men, who were allegedly involved in the stealing of a quantity of fuel from Rusal Bauxite Company, were each granted bail in the sum of $75,000 when they appeared before the Georgetown Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

Marlon Harris and Adrian Fordyce were not required to plead to the indictable charge of simple larceny when it was read to them by Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton.

It is alleged that on July 13 at Aroaima, Berbice River the men stole a quantity of diesel worth $188,000.
Both men were each placed on $75,000 bail and the matter was transferred to the Kwakwani Magistrate's Court for August 15.

A third man who was supposedly involved in the alleged robbery, Vergil Leacock, fell off of a pick-up he and the others had been using to steal fuel at Aroaima, and died of a crushed chest bone.

According to a statement from the Aroaima police, the vehicle transporting the fuel had been driving away and Leacock tried to grab onto it when he lost his grip and fell. A barrel of fuel had reportedly rolled out of the truck and onto him, killing him instantly.

A resident in the Aroaima area had told this newspaper that the men had gone to the area to steal fuel from the bauxite company's truck that was expected to enter the compound. They reportedly parked their vehicle on the road, not far from the security checkpoint they knew the truck would have had to pass before entering the compound and waited to strike.

Reports are that the men were in the process of stealing the fuel when the security officer at the checkpoint who had been tipped off about their action, fired warning shots into the air to scare them off.

Though it is not clear what method they were using to steal the fuel, in their bid to escape the driver lost control of the vehicle and ended up in a ditch. He then tried to drive off without Leacock, forcing the man to run behind the vehicle and grab on to it.

 

Victoria, Australia - fuel theft on the increase

Crime statistics released on Monday by Victoria Police show that Victoria is seeing an increase in fuel theft, much like Sydney has recently experienced.

In the past year, petrol drive-off offences have increased by 41.6%, from 5,038 in 2004-05 to 7,135 in 2005-06. There has also been a large increase in number plate thefts, 31.9% in the past year. These thefts allow concealment of vehicle registration numbers during the commission of drive-off offenses.

Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, has said that new initiatives are being introduced to control the growing problem. "In particular we have recently introduced the 'safe plates' initiative which encourages the use of one-way screws on number plates", she said.

The slotted head of the screw allows an installer to turn the screw tighter for fastening the license plate in place, but the screw cannot be backed out with a screwdriver because the slot is shorn off in the direction needed to loosen the screw.

 

Man shot while investigating possible fuel theft

HUDSON, COLO. (AP) -- Weld County authorities say a man investigating a possible fuel theft from a turkey farm was shot and wounded, but the injuries aren't believed to be life-threatening.

Undersheriff Margie Martinez says 38-year-old Jacque Crawford of Hudson went to investigate headlights at the next-door turkey farm at about 5 a.m. Wednesday because he knew someone had recently stolen fuel from the farm.

Martinez says a man fired at Crawford twice with a small-caliber handgun. One bullet hit his right shoulder and the other was deflected by a tool in his pocket.

Crawford's daughter called 911 and he was taken by ambulance to a Greeley hospital.

The suspect fled.