$5K worth of gas stolen from Fort Worth gas station
FORT WORTH, Texas - With high gas prices, more gas thefts are being reported around the country.
Here in North Texas Friday morning, the owner of a Chevron station in Fort Worth said thieves, using a box truck and a pickup truck with an extra tank in the bed, made off with some 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline.
An estimated $5,000 worth of diesel fuel and gas was stolen in the middle of the night.
The family who runs the station made the discovery Friday morning, and said they were left speechless after watching the bizarre behavior of the bandits captured on video.
Two thieves were seen on surveillance video early Friday morning at the Chevron on Golden Triangle Boulevard in north Fort Worth.
"This is supposed to be a nice city. You don’t expect that kind of stuff here," said Isaiah Herrera, whose family runs the gas station, along with the H Express store. "We saw them just going around in circles, just doing weird things that no one would do," Isaiah Herrera said.
When they showed up Friday morning, they noticed the gas wasn’t pumping normally.
"We were like, what’s wrong?" Herrera said.
They checked the inventory and noticed about 1,500 gallons missing from their underground diesel fuel and gas tanks, then they checked the cameras.
"I was hoping they were just customers, you know?" Herrera said.
Just after 1:30 a.m. Friday, surveillance footage shows a large box truck pulling up to a pump on one side of the station.
Minutes later, a white pickup truck pulled up on the opposite side of the same pump.
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"You can hardly see them, but you could see something, like one of the guys talking to the other guy in the bigger truck," Herrera said.
About 15 minutes later, both trucks moved to the other side of the station, again parking by the same pump.
The driver of the pickup truck got out for a few minutes and then drove away.
Just after 2 a.m., the box truck changed positions.
Herrera speculated that they were filling a tank in the back of the box truck.
The box truck finally drove away around 2:30 a.m.
Then, minutes later, the white pickup truck returned.
The driver placed a fuel nozzle in a tank in the bed of the pickup, before finally leaving just before 3 a.m.
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It’s unclear how the thieves were able to activate the pumps, but Herrera thinks they used some kind of new technology.
Still, he’s puzzled by some of their behavior.
"[They were] cleaning their windshields!" Herrera said. "Who would even think of doing that while you are stealing? While you are taking some gas."
He’s hoping the bandits left fingerprints behind that will help investigators make an arrest.
"Maybe if they catch them, they’ll reward us the money that they sold it, or just give us back the gas," Herrera said.
Typically, the store closes overnight, but the pumps are still open.
The station is now considering turning off the pumps overnight to stop this from happening in the future.