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Published June 22, 2015
California police are searching for four suspects who avoided rising prices at the pump by allegedly stealing 528 gallons of gas from a Pasadena Mobil station early Monday morning.
The suspects activated the station’s pumps with a type of card or other mechanism before pumping $2,465 of supreme unleaded gas into containers on two flatbed trucks, said Lt. Kelly Evans, head of Criminal Investigations at the Pasadena police department.
Pasadena authorities believe the suspects – shown wearing hooded sweatshirts in a surveillance video – are affiliated with organized crime.
The white trucks seen in the video are “very similar,” Evans said, to vehicles used in a theft two weeks ago at a Mobil station in North Hollywood where suspects took off with 1,700 gallons of gas.
“[This crime] seems to have been more prevalent since gas prices have started to rise,” Evans told FoxNews.com.
Evans said federal investigations have uncovered cases in which stolen gas – in large quantities – has been sold to smaller gas stations.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/thieves-steal-more-than-500-gallons-of-gas-in-california-heist