Gas thief caught on camera
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — A local gas station discovered surveillance video of a man pulling up to the pump and syphoning thousands of dollars worth of gas from it.
Gina Pena is the general manager at the Chevron at Mesa Marin.
She showed Eyewitness News surveillance video from a few nights ago.
The video shows a driver pulling into the gas station, and getting out of his pickup truck, before apparently syphoning gas from the station.
"Their snapping the padlocks and opening it and going down into the tank and syphoning it," she said.
According to Pena, the driver of the pickup truck has gotten away with $14,000 worth of gas.
The owner of the station doesn't have insurance, so the money comes right out of the employees' pockets.
"It's affecting our families," said Pena.
The pickup truck is light blue. The first three digits of the truck's license plate are 7-S-8.
You can cash in, if you can contribute info to catch the culprit. Pena said they're putting out a $1,000 reward for anybody that can find the suspect or help with information.
She said the thief needs to get a job, before the Chevron workers lose theirs.
"This is a job for seven or eight people. If we can't afford to pay them, we're not gonna have a store, and there won't be any gas to steal anymore," Pena said.
If you have any information helpful to the investigation, call Bakersfield police at 327-7111.
Gina Pena is the general manager at the Chevron at Mesa Marin.
She showed Eyewitness News surveillance video from a few nights ago.
The video shows a driver pulling into the gas station, and getting out of his pickup truck, before apparently syphoning gas from the station.
"Their snapping the padlocks and opening it and going down into the tank and syphoning it," she said.
According to Pena, the driver of the pickup truck has gotten away with $14,000 worth of gas.
The owner of the station doesn't have insurance, so the money comes right out of the employees' pockets.
"It's affecting our families," said Pena.
The pickup truck is light blue. The first three digits of the truck's license plate are 7-S-8.
You can cash in, if you can contribute info to catch the culprit. Pena said they're putting out a $1,000 reward for anybody that can find the suspect or help with information.
She said the thief needs to get a job, before the Chevron workers lose theirs.
"This is a job for seven or eight people. If we can't afford to pay them, we're not gonna have a store, and there won't be any gas to steal anymore," Pena said.
If you have any information helpful to the investigation, call Bakersfield police at 327-7111.
This story is too funny for words! They really should offer more than $1,000 since it seems that they are making out like bandits. And why wouldn't they insure their biggest money maker? That just doesn't make sense, forget the thievery what about explosion concerns?Â
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1: the gas couldn't be syphoned from an underground tank. It had to be pumped out.
2: That pickup isn't large enough to hold 3,500 gallons of gas not even with an external tank in the bed. The photo doesn't show an extra tank in the bed..
3: 3,500 gallons of gas would weigh about 24,500 pounds. That weight would break the axles and flatten the tires on any pickup.
4: Law enforcement should consider charges against the person filing the theft report for greatly inflating the loss if there was a loss..
 $14,000 buys you a lot less gas at that station than just about anywhere else in town (except the ones at Stockdale and I5 next to the CHP ... hmmmm). The Mesa Marin Chevron is the ultimate ripoff and always has been. I wouldn't even fill up the lawnmower there.
It looks like a late 90's/early 2000's F-150.. There's apparently something in the bed of the truck that could be some sort of tank... But 3500 gallons would be a LOT of weight even for a dually, let alone the POS in the picture..
 I would think a news agency would know how to correctly spell THIEF!!!
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And on the 6 o'clock broadcast, the headline above Curt Riveria for this story read "robbery". It's not a robbery you nit wits, it's a theft.
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And if the station has lost $14000.00 worth of gas, at $4 a gallon, that is is 3500 gallons. Assuming the Chevy pick-up has a 25 gallon gas tank, that's 140 tank fulls of gas. Something doesn't make sense.