Crooks Knock Over A Truck And Hit The Gas

By Dan Rattiner

Not long ago, if someone told you about a "heist" where the bad guys "knock over a truck," the truck they would be referring to would be a Brink's truck filled with money just after it had been loaded up at a bank.

Not anymore. Last Tuesday, some thieves stole a truck fully loaded with fuel oil from the All Island Fuel lot in Hauppauge in Center Moriches by crashing it through the gate. It contained 1,500 gallons of oil, and when it was found on Wednesday afternoon in Islandia about twenty miles away, it was empty. The oil stolen was worth $5,250.

On Thursday evening, employees of Hirsch Fuels in Hauppauge reported that a 1999 International Harvester truck filled with fuel was stolen from their lot that morning by someone who simply drove it off the lot. It was found later that day, but its 2,100 gallons were gone. The loss was $7,350.

Then, on Friday at 11 p.m., a truck filled with 2,800 gallons of fuel was stolen off the lot of Consumer Comfort Group in Bohemia. And it was caught on a video surveillance tape, which Tony Esposito, the owner, turned over to the police.

It shows three men in a small car waiting in the lot behind his office, as his driver pulls in with the fully loaded truck to leave it there for the night. The driver gets out, climbs into his car and goes home for the night - tomorrow is another day - and then two men get out of the white car, jump start the truck and drive it off the lot with a third man in the white car following.

The truck was later found in the area, but without all the fuel oil, of course.

The police are particularly concerned about these heists, which they say are a new development, and have apparently been sparked by the increase in the value of a barrel of oil, which touched $100 three days ago. The total worth of the oil stolen this past week on eastern Long Island is in excess of $20,000.

"Liquid gold," Esposito told a reporter. "I'd like to get them before the police. I'm going to renew my gun license."

The police also said that whoever is doing this knows the business. It is not easy to operate an oil tanker filled with fuel. And it is not easy, unless you know how, to turn all the proper valves, to drain the tank.

I've noticed for some time that people are taking a very different attitude about oil spills. Not long ago, everybody would protest the environmental damage being caused and would go into paroxysms of sadness, seeing oil covered sea birds waddling up the sand. Yesterday, I saw footage on a news channel of some natives in India running down to the water's edge with sponges and rags to happily mop up every drop of oil that washed ashore from an oil spill caused by a breach in the tanks of a big oil tanker just offshore.

And then yesterday, filling up with gas at the self service pump at Hess in Wainscott, I noticed this guy at the next bay - a very swarthy looking fellow with a pickup truck - fill up, then grab the metal top of the rear cargo bed with both hands, and give it a vigorous little shake side to side. Then, he pumped in a little more, shook it again and, satisfied, drove it away.

He seemed very happy with himself for having thought of this. But I don't get what he was doing.

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