A fuel tanker truck stolen at gunpoint from a fueling station in South Baltimore this morning has been found in Washington, D.C., police said.
The truck, loaded with 7,100 gallons of diesel fuel when it was stolen, turned up unoccupied in a Southeast Washington about 1 p.m., authorities said.
The discovery came eight hours after a man brandishing a semi-automatic weapon forced the driver from the truck at a Curtis Bay fueling station, then fled toward Interstate 95, police said.
A manhunt continued for the thief, described only as a black man wearing a blue jumpsuit.
The truck, owned by Baltimore Tank Lines of Glen Burnie Inc., had stopped at the fueling station in the 3100 block of Vera Road. Its driver was not injured.
Police said they did not suspect terrorism as a motive.
“The case is being investigated as a robbery,” said Sterling Clifford, a Baltimore police spokesman. “It appears [the thief] was going to try to sell the fuel.”
Law-enforcement agencies from Philadelphia to Washington were put on alert.
But police would not say which agency found the truck on 2nd Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Washington or whether any fuel was missing.
A woman who answered the phone at the trucking company?s headquarters said the robbery was being investigated internally and declined to comment further.
“I?ve never heard of anything like this happening before,” another employee said. “This is a first.”
