Black market fuel: Dallas police say raid turned up hundreds of gallons of stolen gas
An Oak Cliff house had a solution to the rise in gas prices, but Dallas police said everything about it was illegal, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA reported.
Police said a house in Oak Cliff was raided, revealing hundreds of gallons of gas in the backyard and an actual gas pump being used on the property, according to WFAA.
Police said they wouldn’t be able to release any information to the Star-Telegram about the raid or the crimes the department alleges until Monday.
A neighbor, who did not share his name, told WFAA the garage door of the home would open, a hose would be brought out and the suspects would begin pumping gas. It’s unknown how much the gas was being sold for, if it was being sold at all or how they were advertising the fuel that Dallas police said had been stolen.
The suspects were using card skimmers on gas pumps to create fake credit and debit cards they would then use to go and purchase gas, filling up large containers and pumping the gas from a tank in the house’s backyard, police told WFAA. During the raid, police found a truck with a large plastic tank in the back that they said was filled with stolen gas.
Police advise paying inside a gas station instead of at the pump to prevent your card information from being stolen.
Dallas police told WFAA they have received calls from gas companies reporting millions of dollars of fuel lost to theifs, and not just by this method. In Houston, a gas station manager said thieves stole 350 gallons of fuel from the station’s underground tank. The manager, Jerry Thayil, told WFAA a van will pull up and stop over one of the fuel tanks and then open a trap door inside the tank and steal the fuel without ever leaving the vehicle.
Dallas police confiscated a device used to break the gas tank lid in thefts like that recently, they told WFAA. There have even been reports of people siphoning gas out of cars, WFAA reported.