MISSOURI CITY, Texas — A family-owned gas station in southwest Houston is blaming stealthy thieves for a recent diesel supply interruption after more than 1,000 gallons of fuel were filched from its underground storage tanks.
“The way they did it was very sneaky. They were doing it in front of so many people, so many different customers,” Jerry Thayil, who operates the Fuqua Express station, told KENS.
Fortunately, surveillance video outside of the gas station, which Thayil provided to KHOU, captured footage of a green van, whose occupants are believed to have committed the crimes over a three-day span, he said.
“They had a trap door in their vehicle, and they would put a hose down there and suck it out with the pump,” Thayil told KENS.
According to KTRK, daily inventory checks of the underground tanks confirmed the discrepancies.
“The first day, I saw there was 360 gallons that was missing. Then the next day, same thing, so we started looking at the cameras,” Thayil told the TV station, noting that he also believes someone in a Porsche SUV was standing as a lookout for the alleged thieves.
“The lookout and the van that is pumping the fuel out, they come at the same time. The van drives on top of the fuel tank, and that’s all you see. Nobody comes out, so they have a trap door inside their vehicle which is crazy. They have to have another man inside (the vehicle) to open our fuel tank, stick a hose in there,” he added.
After noticing the pattern, Thayil told KENS that he happened to be in the office on Friday when the same green van returned, and he chased it off his property.
The thefts to date have cost Thayil and his family an estimated $5,000, KTRK reported.
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