Southwest Philadelphia -
The super Wawa gas station on Bartram Avenue out near the airport is a busy place where parking is at a premium, so when a bread delivery truck pulled up and parked over the underground storage tanks, no one got suspicious.
"Nothing unusual, it's a Stroehmann bread truck, it's marked , there's another Stroehmann bread truck actually making a delivery at the time," explained Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives.
Police say surveillance tape shows this was no ordinary delivery truck.
After the driver went inside for a cup of coffee, he returned to the box truck opened up a false bottom, reached down and unscrewed the cap for the in-ground diesel fuel tank. And you got it, started siphoning off diesel fuel from the underground storage tank.
Diesel fuel here is $4.05 a gallon.
"Five hundred thirteen gallons, a little over $2,000 is what it's worth," Walker told FOX 29.
Police say this costly caper went on for about 45 minutes. Once the diesel bandit topped off his 500 gallon hidden tank, he simply pulled away. Hours later, store employees figured out they had been robbed.
"Somebody realized they needed to order more diesel fuel, when they checked their records they realized there was 500 gallons missing," Walker added.
Southwest Detectives recovered the truck in Camden late Thursday afternoon and put the word out to surrounding communities and local gas station to be on the look out for this kind of scheme.
"This is a person who's very crafty, we believe it was clearly for economic reasons gas prices are what they are today," Walker said.
Detectives believe the suspect may have been doing this at other stations, purely to make money selling the diesel to independent truckers. This was a used bread truck sold by Stroehmann's to an unidentified person. He equipped it with an electric pump, two big fuel bladders and the hoses.
Police tell FOX 29 they may have identified the thief. An arrest is expected tonight.
Police say a Stroehmann bread truck pulled up to the Wawa and parked over the underground storage tanks.
This cap marks the spot of an underground diesel fuel tank.
