Gas theft can be deadly

Laclede Gas last year registered about 2,000 cases of people stealing gas through illegal hookups.

The danger of those hookups was dramatically illustrated on Christmas morning, when a gas explosion led to the death of Michael McGee.
St. Louis police said a gas leak in McGee’s second-floor apartment was caused by an illegal hookup. McGee, 50, died Friday at Barnes-Jewish Hospital from burns he suffered from the explosion that rocked his apartment building, at Cabanne Avenue and Hamilton Boulevard in St. Louis.

A lock on a basement gas meter, placed by Laclede Gas after a shutoff, was recently broken by someone, resulting in gas flowing through an uncapped line into McGee’s kitchen, according to detectives with the bombing and arson squad.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch