Long Beach, CA: Organized Fuel Thieves Detected In Southern California

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Security video captured a group of thieves at a Chevron gas station in Long Beach as they allegedly stole hundreds of gallons of fuel.

They are very organized, hopefully, the FBI or somebody will take it seriously and look at that one,” said the gas station manager, who did not want to be identified.

The manager added that the suspects were after diesel gas which is currently about $6.26 a gallon in Los Angeles, about 40 cents more than regular gas. He believes they are after diesel because it is less flammable and easy to sell.

“Sometimes they have a construction truck, inside is a tank,” he said. “Nobody notices it. Or you see a big one with four plastic tanks, each tank holds almost 500 gallons. And sometimes they have van too, inside the van is a complete tank.”

The video shows that the suspects used three large vehicles parked close to one another to hide them from the cashier. And while they may look unsuspecting from the outside, according to the manager, inside there is sophisticated equipment the suspects used to pull off this heist. The manager believes the thieves pick a pump that is not very visible to the cashier and pay only a small amount to get the gas flowing.

“As soon as the pump starts pumping, they break the pump and they have some equipment,” he said. “That means nobody notices they’re pumping at the cash register and the pump doesn’t stop. I believe they have some pump that makes it drain the pump faster.”

Police arrested one of the suspects, who was from Nevada and also towed the three vehicles used. The vehicles are now part of an ongoing investigation into a series of gas station heists.

“I don’t know what to say,” the gas station manager said. “Shame to them, that’s it. And hopefully, they arrest them.”

The manager said he has heard of at least four other gas stations that were hit. Long Beach Police Department urged gas station employees to look out for truck or any large vehicles that are parked at a pump for a long time or vehicles stopped over the gas intake cover on the ground to prevent these types of thefts.

CBS Los Angeles

KTLA5