HAMMOND | Police are investigating the theft of nearly 2,500 gallons of gasoline from three filling stations over the weekend.
A clerk at the BP station at 2300 Indianapolis Blvd. told police a man posing as a delivery driver said he needed to check the fuel level of the station's storage tanks and left with 2,142 gallons of regular gas in a tanker truck.
The station's manager said Saturday that due to recent contamination problems with BP gasoline, it had not been uncommon for trucks to pump fuel out of the storage tanks to be replaced with fresh gas. However, this was an unscheduled withdrawal, police said.
Some $8,546 worth of gasoline was taken in a truck marked "Environmental Waste Inc.," police said.
Employees of the BP station at 10850 Indianapolis Blvd. said someone tampered with the mechanism on two pumps there about midnight Saturday and made off with 270 gallons of gasoline, worth $1,000, which had been pumped into several vehicles, police said.
Ten minutes later, workers at the GoLo station at 4450 Calumet Ave. reported a similar tampering. An estimated 80 gallons of gasoline was pumped into four vehicles that left the station without paying, police said.
Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call the Hammond Police Detective Bureau at (219) 852-2906 or the nonemergency police line at (219) 853-6490.
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