Thursday, May 29, 2008

Yankee Ingenuity...


If only these guys used their energy for good.
They are indeed pretty resourceful. While Invisi-Gal does not in anyway support what they did, one must applaud their stealth-like genius:




Retrofitted truck used to steal diesel fuel from gas station
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This photo from a surveillance camera shows the truck and trailer suspected in the fuel thefts.
Talk about a gas guzzler.
Police believe an Ohio asphalt contractor used a retrofitted pickup truck and trailer to steal thousands of gallons of diesel fuel from a Mercer County gas station.
Heritage Deputy Police Chief Edward Holiga said yesterday that the truck and trailer were used in three thefts dating to last year.
He said the truck was parked above the BP gas underground storage tanks at a convenience store. The trailer was rigged with a trap door along with rubber flaps to conceal the operation.
Someone inside the trailer would siphon diesel fuel from the storage tanks using the pickup truck's engine as a vacuum to pump it into a rigged propane tank inside the trailer.
The last incident was reported April 28. All three incidents were captured on surveillance cameras.
Acting on a tip, police found the pickup and trailer on the property of Larry Donaldson, owner of a small asphalt and trucking company in rural Trumbull County.
Officers observed the truck and trailer around 7 p.m. Tuesday on the property. Armed with a search warrant early yesterday morning, Heritage officers and Trumbull County sheriff's deputies found a wall of straw from the ceiling to the floor of the trailer. It concealed a wooden partition, behind which officers found the siphoning apparatus, along with an empty propane cylinder about 15 feet long. According to Chief Holiga, the tank smelled of diesel fuel.
Officers searching Mr. Donaldson's property found numerous fuel tanks, including a 5,000-gallon storage hold with about 500 gallons of diesel fuel inside.
At least $4,500 worth of diesel fuel was reported stolen after the convenience store checked its electronic measuring devices, police said.
No charges have been filed but authorities continue to investigate.

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