Houston police are investigating a series of thefts in which burglars stole more than 1,000 gallons of diesel from a local gas station.
Police officials claim that a group of burglars robbed a Fuqua Express of gas by driving and reportedly sucking hundreds of gallons into the vehicle three days in a row.
“People are trying to make a buck,” Jerry Thayil, the manager of the targeted Fuqua Express, told Fox 26. “This is not the way to make a buck.”
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The thieves reportedly stole the gas directly from the tanks beneath the station, police claim. The thieves appear to have a lookout car setup at a nearby gas station, based on released surveillance footage. A large van approaches the station and parks above the gas caps.
“You wouldn’t see anything,” Thayil claims. “There’s only an 8-inch clearance from the van, to the [ground]. They have a trap door inside their van. They pull up the trap door, break the lock of our tank cap, insert a tube there and start the pump. It took them about 15 minutes to get roughly [350 gallons] of diesel.”
The vehicles did this on three consecutive days in broad daylight without anyone noticing. It was not until the fourth day that Thayil saw the thieves return to make another attempt at stealing gas.
Fuqua is not the only station to report similar thefts. A Chevron station in Spring, Texas, also reported seeing several thieves stealing thousands of gallons of gas directly from their tanks.
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The thefts are occurring consecutively with steadily rising gas prices. National gas prices hit $4 a gallon on March 6, the first time it has gotten that high in over a decade.
