BRADFORD, Vt. — A recent string of gasoline thefts have hit residents and businesses in the Upper Valley.
In mid-September, employees at Route 5 Auto in Bradford, Vt., discovered holes had been drilled into the plastic gas tanks of four vehicles and their fuel stolen, owner Mike Gherardi said in a phone interview last week.
When employees arrived at the shop on Lower Plain the morning, of Monday, Sept. 15, “we could smell gas,” Gherardi said. At first, an employee suspected the fumes were coming from a Chevrolet El Camino that he was working on.
“After I was outside for a while, I was like, ‘It’s way too pungent’,” Gherardi recounted. He started crawling under vehicles parked in the lot and “saw the holes drilled in the gas tanks.”
Three of the vehicles that were hit were pickup trucks and one was a car.
“Luckily some of the vehicles were old enough that I didn’t have to replace the tank, I was able to repair them,” Gherardi said. If he had to replace them entirely, the cost could rise to a couple thousand dollars, he said.
Gherardi contacted the Bradford Police Department, which is investigating the incident, according to a police news release issued Sept. 18. Police Chief Russell Robinson could not be reached by deadline.
Gherardi’s business wasn’t the only one hit.
Wells River Chevrolet, located on Railroad Street, also had gas stolen from vehicles parked on its lot in September.
The Hartford Police Department had one report of a possible gasoline theft within the last month at the Wilder Park and Ride, Lt. William Furnari said.
On Monday, Oct. 6, a Topsham, Vt., resident reported that gas was stolen from a vehicle on Powder Spring Road. Vermont State Police’s St. Johnsbury Barracks are investigating the incident and have asked those with information to call 802-748-3111.
Ted Cooper, senior sales consultant at Wells River Chevrolet, said the fuel thefts have been happening on and off for a couple of years. He could not recall similar thefts previously taking place during his more than 12 years working at the dealership.
“Now we try to put everything inside we can, but obviously we can’t put our entire inventory inside,” Cooper said in a phone interview.
Over the past couple of years, Wells River Chevrolet has spent about $15,000 to replace fuel systems of the vehicles with damaged tanks, Cooper said.
The most recent thefts, which affected a few pickup trucks, occurred in mid-September. Employees discovered them after noticing a large puddle of gas spreading over the pavement under a truck, Cooper said.
A security camera picked up footage of a suspicious vehicle at the business in the early morning hours, but it was too blurry to make out an exact vehicle model or license plate number.
“We are in the process of greatly enhancing our video surveillance equipment and it’s going to be much harder to evade because there are cameras now mounted in relatively invisible places and at lower angles in order to be able to see things like plate numbers, faces, etc.,” Cooper said.
In the nine years he has owned Route 5 Auto, Gherardi said he has had vehicles broken into and even stolen, but gas thefts are new.
“It’s dangerous,” Gherardi said about the thefts, adding that gasoline had run out of the vehicles and into the road. “What if someone is driving down the road and decides to toss a cigarette out?”
Even though the gas tanks are plastic, the drill used to get the gas could still have created a spark, Gherardi said. “It wouldn’t take much for it to blow up.”
He is also puzzled by the crime in general because of the cost of gas. The average cost of a gallon of gas in Orange County is $3.17 per gallon, according to AAA.
“I think it’s crazy,” Gherardi said. “I just wouldn’t think it’s worth it.”