A well-planned diesel theft was almost executed by a man in Lodi, California, when things went wrong in moments, eventually leading to him being caught and arrested.
Rising gas prices could push people to adopt desperate measures, such as this man, who filled fuel into an external tank in his truck. Nearly half of the 1,000-gallon tank had been filled, and that was when Michael Kludt, the owner of Kludt Oil & Propane, sensed something was wrong.
The suspect was somehow able to hot-wire the pump into an “unauthorized mode” for an uninterrupted fuel supply. Thanks to the observant bystander who saw everything that was happening. Kludt told CBS News:
“This guy wouldn’t look at him, just seemed kind of odd. He’s like, ‘He’s pumping here too long. Something’s not right.'”
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He added:
“By the time the cops hit the sidewalk, he was hopping out of the truck, trying to pull the nozzle out and it was still pumping and shot fuel out.”
Police Find External Fuel Tank
Lodi police Sergeant Elias Ambriz said that an external tank on the bed of the truck was where all the fuel was going. He said:
“They located a male suspect who appeared to be pumping gas into an external tank on the bed of a truck.
“Upon further investigation, they found that the bed of the truck was actually hollow and that there was gas in the tank as well as in the bed of the truck.”
Lodi police detained the suspect and seized the truck. Fortunately, Kludt was able to retrieve the stolen fuel.
Kludt said the suspect managed to fill less than half the tank, but unfortunately, this was not his first encounter with fuel theft. He revealed an incident from last year when he noticed a 500-gallon deficit. He said:
“Last year, we reconcile our sales and gallons every day, and there was a day we were off 500 gallons.
“We couldn’t find anything wrong and what happened was they hit us that weekend before the [inspectors] could come out. They got approximately 4,500 gallons of fuel and at the time, that was about $30,000 resale.”
Considering the rising fuel prices, Kludt will not be surprised if it happens again. He said:
“They’re probably always stealing fuel but right now, with just how expensive fuel is, it makes it more enticing.
“If they were to come back how they did last year, it would have been really ugly and it would have gotten ugly quick.”
Kludt now plans on improving security measures that can prevent such incidents in the future.
