Thieves steal 200 gallons of fuel from local station
By ALEXANDRA BISSONNETTE Special to the Daily Press
LINCOLN BLVD. With the price of gas inching higher every day, people are searching for ways to get around the fuel crunch. Some are even resorting to theft.
Three crafty thieves went so far as to swipe 200 gallons of diesel gasoline from a Union 76 station on the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Pacific Avenue late last month — the total value estimated at $1,200.
While the station was the first in Santa Monica to be the target of this type of robbery, a string of similar cases has been occur-ring throughout Los Angeles due in part to the steady rise in gas prices.
As of last week the average price of regular gas in California had reached a staggering $4.43, leaving residents scrambling to make ends meet.
“A friend of mine at a Chevron station in Carson had 4,000 gallons stolen in one weekend,” said Bill William, operations manager of the burgled 76 station.
On May 31, 2008 at 5:15 p.m., William received a phone call from the cashier on duty.
The cashier called him to report that a credit card transaction on pump 13 had stopped at $10.70, but the three men who had made the transaction were still filling four empty drums in the back of their pick up truck.
“I told him not to call the cops until I got there,” William said. “I didn’t know if the meter was broken. I was not one hundred percent sure what was going on, so I just told him to take the license plate number and I was on my way.”
By the time William got to the station 15 minutes later, the men and their truck were gone and he could see the broken locks at the base of the pump.
“They used a screw driver to break the meter, so the gas kept pumping,” William said. “They stole diesel because it pumps faster than other gas.”
William had much praise for the detective assigned to the case.
“Michael Bambrick is a good detective,” William said. “He said, ‘Bill, I’m going to get them. This is the last time this kind of crime will happen in Santa Monica.’”
Within 48 hours, Bambrick had arrested the three men who committed the robbery and impounded their truck.
“They were selling diesel gas to truck drivers at the harbor for half price,” William said.
Since the robbery, William has taken steps to ensure that his station does not fall victim to this type of crime again.
“I ordered steel tubes for all 14 pumps to keep people from breaking the meter,” he said.
The total cost of damages to the gas station came to $6,100, including the $1,200 worth of stolen fuel, $3,500 to replace the broken meter, and $1,400 to protect all the pumps from future theft.
William proudly reported that his Union 76 station has been the cheapest in Santa Monica for a long time, but he said that “profits have gone down since gas prices have peaked.”
While William is not taking any chances with a repeat incident, a sergeant at the Santa Monica Police Department said that fuel robberies are “not something that has been common as of late.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 12, 2008. Read the original PDF.