Neighbors are putting out a warning of a gas thief leaving car tanks empty
By Jamie Kennedy
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ATLANTA (WGCL) — Some Kirkwood homeowners have been running on empty, but not because they forgot to fill their gas tanks. Instead they’re finding their cars tanks emptied by someone else.
“I got in the car, started it up, and noticed the car was empty of gas. And I was thinking to myself I thought I filled up prior to leaving, but maybe not,” said Nick Trujillo. “So I stop at the gas station, start filling up with gas and gas just starts spewing everywhere. Got underneath the car and looked at it and there was a hole in the bottom of the gas tank, and I wasn’t sure how that happened.”
Luckily Trujillo was around the corner from his house in Kirkwood and there was enough gas to get home. He looked where he had parked the truck and found drill shavings and gas stains.
“Pretty apparent that it was a hole drilled in the tank.”
Curious, he said he posted about the incident and found other gas victims.
“My wife went to drive off and there was some weird noises from the engine. Long story short, it turned out somebody had drilled a hole in the bottom of the tank,” said Christopher Wyczalkowski.
Wyczalkowski’s gas theft happened a couple of weeks ago and only a 3-minute drive from where Trujillo’s truck was parked.
“It’s highly annoying. It feels like a crime against your property and your person, and we have kids.”
Another neighbor, again only a couple of minutes away, said she was also a victim when her car ran out of gas on the highway. And after having her car towed, AAA told her a drill hole had drained her gas tank.
The high price of gas has been a hot topic and means all three are even more out of pocket than just a trip to the gas station.
“I understand it hurt pumping 19 gallons in the car, it’s like $60 or whatever. But I feel like drilling holes in peoples tanks is not the best way to get gas,” Trujillo said.
He plans to park his car permanently in the driveway in the hopes of preventing it from happening again.
“I don’t know what else to do, how to really prevent it.”
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