As oil prices rise, are gas thieves damaging cars in Tri-Cities?
An unusual theft left a Pasco driver facing potentially thousands of dollars in damage.
A driver recently left his truck at the Tri-Cities Airport for about a week. When he came back, he discovered someone had drilled a hole into his gas tank to steal gas, a post on the Facebook group All About the Tri-Cities said.
This type of gas theft is relatively rare and involves someone drilling directly into the tank to get to the gas. They take that route because most modern cars are designed with ways to stop people from siphoning gas, including locking gas caps and fuel doors.
Instances of gas theft do tend to rise alongside gas prices, according to reports from The Washington Post. The last increase happened in 2022.
Pasco police reported that only two of these cases had occurred at the airport this year, Lt. Tom Groom said. One happened last week and another occurred at the end of February.
It’s not clear if there were others that happened in the city.
Groom said he didn’t believe the thefts were part of a larger trend.
“The initial event occurred before the current spike in gas prices ... so I don’t believe that to be the cause either,” he said. “Likely this is a repeat offender who was successful in the February attempt and then made another go at it in April.”
Kennewick and Richland police have not responded to a request for information on whether they have seen an increase in thieves drilling into gas tanks.
Several commenters on social media shared similar experiences. One person said it happened in their apartment complex parking lot in Kennewick.
Pasco police and Tri-Cities Airport officials have said they are being more vigilant.
Along with working with police, the airport contracts with Parking Concepts to manage the parking lot and has its own security that monitors the area outside the airport.
“We are always vigilant,” said Buck Taft, the airport director. “We want to make sure that people have excellent experiences around the airport.”