'Time bomb': Thieves steal petrol from underground fuel tanks, station owners say it's dangerous

RNZ News

2 days ago

Photo:
RNZ / Dan Cook
Service stations in the North Island are raising alarm bells about thefts from underground fuel tanks, with two stations saying they pose a danger to the community.
A G.A.S Station in Northland and another station in Hamilton both say thieves have taken petrol from their underground storage tanks, and say they have concerns with how their cases were handled.
The Kaihu G.A.S station is in rural Northland, about 23 minutes from Dargaville.
Mani Kaur runs the station with her husband, and said they were struck by thieves twice earlier this month. They said roughly 2000 litres of fuel was syphoned from their underground tanks.
Kaur said during one of the of the incidents, police told them no one was coming, so she and her husband confronted the thieves themselves.
"I just went near to him to say 'don't take it, don't take it'," she said.
Her husband smashed the rear window of the car before the thieves were able to flee the scene.
Kaur said the thefts were putting the community at risk.
"This is a dangerous crime," she said. "They're holding the fuel in their car, anything can happen."
She wanted someone with authority to see first-hand what they have to deal with.
"They should have to come and to see us, and to feel it," Kaur said.
Hamilton petrol station owner Amit believed the same thing happened to him last October.
"One day I figured out that my tanks are showing a thousand litres of fuel missing, and I was like, 'Where could this fuel go?'"
He looked on his CCTV and found a car pulling up and parking by the fuel points on the ground.
"It's uncomprehendable [sic] that somebody's got the equipment to come and take fuel out of there."
He too believed the underground fuel thefts were a danger to the wider public.
"We're talking about a crime that can blow half the city up," Amit said.
"If anything goes wrong, there's like more than 80, 90,000 litres of fuel that'll just blow up, and it'll take not only the thief's life but the surroundings as well. It's like a time bomb."
Amit said the police had failed to take enough action and he was so frustrated he considered taking matters into his own hands.
"Commonsense says you're the police, you've got a plate number, you've got a car that is reported in similar offending, go and pick up the owner."
Police in Hamilton said while they were able to identify the vehicle believed to be involved in Amit's case, they were unable to identify the driver or prove beyond a reasonable doubt an offence had been committed. They said they were open to looking at his case again if new information came to light.
Meanwhile in Northland, Whangārei-Kaipara area commander Inspector Maria Nordstrom said they were following up with Kaur and her husband, and continuing to investigate.
"We ask anyone in the community that has information on the offending, or the blue Toyota Hilux Surf to contact police."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.