

A New Twist on Gasoline Theft

By: Doug Korstanje Email
By: Doug Korstanje Email

It's a new twist on gasoline theft.....and it involves a portable drill.
While Jesse Mannon and his mother were asleep this weekend at a home in Altizer.....someone was outside using a power drill to tap their tanks.

Mannon woke up with empty tanks in all of the family's cars...and shock soon turned to anger. Jesse Mannon was ready to head back home to Morgantown over the weekend after visiting his mom.

The car started o-k, but despite a fill up the day before....the gas gage read empty.....Jesse thought someone had siphoned his gas, so he tried to fill up again. That's when gasoline began to pour out the bottom of his car. He drove the car home and that's when he noticed the puncture holes from a drill......and not just on his car.....the gas tanks on his mom's van and truck had also been drained.

Huntington police are investigating and this is a new one for detectives. Now that most cars have locked gas caps and anti-siphoning devices in the tanks...there's another crime to add to the list as the criminals look for new ways to target their victims.

A local church also had gas stolen this weekend.....when the driver of the van for Twentieth Street Baptist church got in.....he found the tank had been siphoned the old fashioned way....that has a lock on it.

powered by Disqus