Not just catalytic converters: Thieves punching more holes in gas tanks
Jul. 2—Worrying for the security of your catalytic converter is bad enough, but lately there's added reason to be concerned about leaving your car unattended: thieves punching holes in fuel tanks to steal gasoline.
Statistics gathered by the Bakersfield Police Department show a 187 percent, year-over-year increase in the number of gasoline thefts in the city from January through June, to 43 reported incidents, roughly coinciding with a jump in fuel prices.
Though not a new crime by any means, the surge has caught the notice of auto mechanics who see the frustration vehicle owners experience when they realize someone has stolen their gas and left behind an expensive repair or replacement job.
"It's a nightmare," said Rob Northam, who, as manager-owner at Eye Street Automotive in Bakersfield, has worked on six perforated fuel tanks in the last three weeks. "It's getting worse."
A local company that delivers auto parts recently had metal shields installed to protect the plastic fuel tanks on its truck fleet. Thieves had gone truck to truck taking fuel.
Now the parts company parks its trucks closer together, side by side, to make them less accessible to thieves, said the office manager at the company shielding the tanks, Tec Repair Services.
"You see it a lot with, like, places with fleets that don't have a yard to put them in at night," Alison Blake-Lobb added.
Parking vehicles next to each other like that isn't a bad idea, because thieves generally gain access from the side of a vehicle, Shop Manager Kenny Morales at Darrell's Automotive Repair said. It's not a perfect solution, though.
"Thief's going to get there no matter what," he said.
It's less common these days to hear about fuel thieves siphoning gas with a hose. It leaves behind fingerprints, Morales said. He added that carmakers largely switched in the 1960s to plastic tanks from metal, which are harder to drill into or punch through.
Sometimes fuel tanks can be repaired. Otherwise, local mechanics say, replacing one can cost between $200 and $800.
"Some of these cars you can't even get the gas tanks anymore," Northam said.
Jim Burke Ford Lincoln has one or two cases at its service bays on Oak Street, President Joe Hay said by email. Recently there was a Lincoln Navigator with a punctured tank that came to the dealership's Automall store, he noted.
"My take would be that it has happened, but rarely," Hay wrote.
BPD records may be a little surprising: Not only does gasoline theft happen dozens of times every year across Bakersfield, but it's been seven years since it happened as frequently as it did during the first six months of 2022.
In all of last year, the crime was reported 38 times in the city. Already this year there have been 43 reports. That's still 12 shy of the peak over the last 20 years in Bakersfield — 54 in the first half of 2015, according to the BPD.
As Northam said, "It's getting worse now, but it's been happening."
A lot of the time, insurance pays, he said.
But the frustration isn't covered. He said vehicle owners typically don't know they've been a victim until the next morning when they get into a car or truck that wasn't empty the night before.
