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Security nabs man stealing gas from tanks www.privateofficer.com
Security nabs man stealing gas from tanks http://www.privateofficer.com
Officers said Shawn LaFollette, 37, of Silverton, had parked his goose neck trailer over a tank at the Pacific Pride Station at 205 Columbia St. NE.
When the security officer approached him, LaFollette had been pumping fuel out of an underground storage tank, police said.
Authorities said LaFollette told the security officer he was at the gas station to pressure-wash the lot, but the officer spotted the hose leading to the tank and notified police
LaFollette was taken into custody on charges of theft, criminal mischief and criminal trespass. He was booked into the Marion County Correctional Facillity.
His truck and trailer, which had the capability of storing more than 1,000 gallons of fuel, were seized as evidence, police said.
Chet Foster — who works at a nearby Salem Texaco — said his station has installed very tight security to keep thieves at bay.
“We’re not really too concerned about it. We have locks on ‘em now and we got security coming through all the time, but the way prices are going it will keep happening,” Foster said.
Gas prices leads to violent thefts www.privateofficer.com
Increasing gas prices leads to violent thefts http://www.privateofficer.com
Have you looked at the price of gas in your neck of the woods today? In the past seven days gas in many parts of the country has risen by more than fourty cents and it’s still going up with no end in sight.
As with other hugh jumps in gas prices that has come our way over the past ten years, so comes the rise in thefts.
Gas station owners say that this time because gas prices are nearing the four dollar mark, drive-offs not only are increasing but they are being violent.
Just before the Christmas holiday in a small town in South Carolina just across the line from Charlotte, a man who had pumped about thirty dollars in gas was trying to leave without paying. The cashier, fearing that her boss would get mad at her and make her pay for the gas or be fired stood in front of the car to prevent him from leaving. He gunned the engine, knocked the woman over the hood of the vehicle and she was hospitalized in a coma for nearly two months.
Another incident happened in Georgia with a different driver, this time the driver stabbed the clerk as he fled with his stolen gas.
A man in Birmingham Alabama and South Texas were arrested after they rigged up storage tanks in a trailer and siphoned gas out of the gas station’s fuel tanks.
Police say that a woman in North Carolina told the clerk that she wanted a fill up and gave the clerk a credit card to hold while she filled her SUV tank with almost seventy dollars of gas. The clerk soon realized that the credit card was stolen and as she made her way outside, the SUV driver hopped into the drivers side and sped off knocking the clerk against a gas pump and striking another vehicle as she fled the area.
What would have been simple theft charges are now quickly escalating into robberies a state trooper said. I wonder if they even care he said. It’s almost like a drug. They’ve got to have it and don’t have the money to pay for it and they’ve set out to get it any way that they can.
I can also see it getting worse, George McFadden, an owner of two gas stations in Alabama said as he rang up a cusatomer’s purchase. When gas gets to five dollars a gallon, what will they do for it then, shoot us he asked?
The AAA office stated this week that gas prices will continue to climb at least through the summer and then level off by early fall. They advise consumers to use your vehicle’s cruise control as much as possible as it allows the car to take fuel evenly and to stop and go less and to avoid fast starts, sudden jerks and keep a steady pedal on the highway.
In the meantime, security and law enforcement experts say that store owners must protect their precious commodity in these times and should keep all gas pumps on a controlled access system allowing purchases by approved credit or debit card or good old green cash.
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