Gas station loses 1,500 gallons to thieves

… It was a somewhat surprising heist, considering that gasoline theft in the United States typically has been limited to people siphoning modest amounts out of parked vehicles and storage tanks or driving off without paying. But at a time when gas has surpassed $4 a gallon, larger-scale theft has been increasing.

The crime cost retailers $122 million in 2006. It jumped to $134 million in 2007, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.


The owner of the Lafayette station, Gus Shahidi, doesn’t know how many times the thieves struck but knows that they made many overnight visits to his pumps. Between March 31 and April 7, he noticed large disparities between what his fuel counters were showing and what was actually sloshing around in his station’s underground storage tanks.

Normally, Shahidi expects a variance of no more than 35
gallons, the result of evaporation and shifting weather conditions. But one day his measurements showed he was 160 gallons short. On another day, a few hundred more. By the weekend of April 5, when he discovered a 500-gallon shortage, he was missing 1,500 gallons.

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