Shell station reports theft of 7,300 gallons of gasoline

Local Arizona News ^ | Jan. 11, 2004 12:00 AM | Valley News Brief

[Calpernia]

PHOENIX - The theft of 7,300 gallons of gasoline was reported Saturday by the owner of a Shell station in the 5800 block of North 27th Avenue.

"I've never heard about this kind of thing," owner, Chevy Sarna, 53, said. "It was a very big theft."

[blackdog]

It is not so simple to pump gas out of holding tanks. When the tanks are filled, it's a huge gravity drop and not a pumping. All 10,000 gallons of a tanker trucks load is emptied into the holding tank in about a minute. It's like flushing a huge toilet.

Now getting the gasoline out is a slow process. I would suspect it was just stolen at the retail pumps with the assistance of employee/s. Each pump has a mechanical counter which can be jammed with a strong sewing needle temporarily.

[Orangedog]

Agreed. Underground gasoline storage tanks are designed to rule out the chance of a catastrophic failure like that.

[Delta 21]

Ive heard of this kind of thing only with smaller amounts. There was incidents in New Mexico of Hazardous waste companies using two trucks. One empty, to pump out all your good gas so they could steal it....another truck with a few thousand gallons of waste oil or some other liquid hazardous waste they didnt want to pay to dispose of, that they replace in the now empty tank. There are probably a lot of old abandon gas station underground tanks that are supposed to be empty but are not.

[Cvengr]

Cash comes from sales in the desert to independent operators by the tanker operator. Just don't deliver, get a signature, and you're home free. Might look at nearby AZ state scales to see if the last truck had a weighin before and after the last set of deliveries.

Of course, the gas station probably had 10,000-100,000 gal storage tanks and the error might not have happened immediately if they hadn't been reliably logged or measured.

A fella just got out of prison in the high desrt last year who had hot tapped a liquid petroleum pipeline. Was known by locals to drive his 2-1/2ton truck out to different remote customers delivering diesel at a very competitive price,.....at least until the pipeline tracked down which segment of their pipeline always seemed to come up short.

[Teacher317]

Rather than stealing an empty tanker and filling it from a service station, why didn't they just steal a full tanker?

[sistergoldenhair]

Too many problems keeping that amount of cash in the store.

I would think the tanker company wouldn't want the driver to have that much cash either.
Selling the gas to a third party could net the driver a little money.
As long as the company got paid for the load no one would be the wiser.

[stboz]

I'm more concerned about whether Mustafa bin Yo-Mama can get his hands on enough gas by trickery/theft to go out and hurt some of us infidels. The gas seems to be missing, so where 'd it go?

[blackdog]

Seems to me to be an issue of urban free enterprise. Jacked loads of gasoline in New York don't even make the local news. It happens regularly.

[Cobra64]

It's a Dick Cheney conspiracy since he was CEO of Haliburton.

[blackdog]

In my high school gas pumping job days circa 1976, I used to do the daily sheets. Every night when I had to stick the tanks and give inches measurements, I used to wonder why some moron with an attitude never just dropped a road flare down the fill port in the midnight hour.

I have 1000 gallon Avgas tanks here on my farm. One holds diesel, one holds mogas, and one holds avgas. The mogas and diesel are cheaper at the local gas station than if I buy it in bulk. I'm sure that there are large user customers out there able to empty the load in one day.

[alloysteel]

Or maybe it was a series of drive-offs, all huge RVs, each taking 60-100 gallons of gas. Still, it would be hard NOT to notice that many passing through on just one shift....

[Sean Osborne Lomax]

Thatnks for the ping... saw this last evening.

Seems to me somebody is prepping to repeat the OKC bomb.

[Sean Osborne Lomax]

EPA would be on site, the station shut down and digging up the tanks would be ongoing.

Overnight almost 8,000 gallons does not disappear unless a catatrophic failure of the tank occurs. Chance of this imho: slim and none.

I smell terrorism and I think they need this fuel (read:explosive) for another OKC type of bomb blast.

[TaxRelief]

Would all the tanks leak at the same time?

[mtbopfuyn]

Three things come to mind:

1) Hoover Dam - an explosion would not be a good thing

2) Mexico - $$$

3) Indian Reservation - they have their own LE

[solitas]

Would all the tanks leak at the same time?

One HELL of a long tunnel from Mexico, maybe? :D

[Libloather]

The only thing the thief has going for him is that one gallon of gasoline is indiscernable from another.

And if it fills another station's tank right down the road, it's all profit baybee!

[Calvin Locke]

It would be difficult to pump out the tanks and not be noticed.

Ever read "Steal this Book"? Abby Hoffman had a technique for filling up his automobile.

Granted, his method and 7300gal. would take a bit of doing.

[Tunehead54]

The only thing the thief has going for him is that one gallon of gasoline is indiscernable from another.

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Actually for some reason "SHELL" gas has always "stunk". I do not know why but if it was Shell gas I could pick it out. ;-)

[JustPiper]

See, this report and the one revel posted today are more disturbing than any so-called 'big' news