Gas Thieves Steal from City Vehicles
By: Lisa Carr
Updated: July 17, 2008
As gas prices continue to pinch normal folks dry, thieves are now resorting to whatever means available to get their hands on more fuel. Most recently, it seems they're targeting the city vehicles, you pay for with your tax dollars.
In just the last month, gas thieves have hit in the City Hall East Parking Lot twice. Each time, they've only made off with about 5 gallons of gas, by puncturing the gas tanks and draining the fuel, but the damage they've caused to the vehicles has ended up costing the city a whopping $1,200 to repair.
Asst. City Manager Mark Yearwood says he's convinced high gas prices are directly causing these problems. He says in his fifteen years with the city, he's never heard about thieves stealing gas from city vehicles, until about three weeks ago. That was the first time a city worker walked up to their car, saw a puddle of gas on the ground, and found a hole in the gas tank. Then the same thing happened again Thursday morning, and Yearwood says they're working on upgrading their parking lot security. He says, "Increase police patrol. We're looking at maybe some surveillance cameras, which we've never needed before, but one of the things we're going to start doing ... is moving all our municipal vehicles into a fenced, secure area."
Usually, stealing gas from a car is considered criminal mischief, which is a misdemeanor, but with thieves these days causing so much damage to the cars by punturing the tanks, police say it's possible more serious charges could be filed in certain cases. So far, no arrests have been made in the gas theft cases at City Hall.
