Want Gas? Cut Out the Middle Man!

When I first saw this, I was kinda shocked:

Washington [D.C.] officials were worried about terrorism on Tuesday night when someone stole a tanker truck and drove it toward D.C.

The truck was stolen from Pennsylvania and ended up in Northeast Washington. However, police said it appeared that the crook wasn't interested in terrorism.

The fuel truck that was the subject of a nationwide terrorism alert was found on a residential street in Northeast Washington a few miles from the White House on Tuesday night...

...Investigators called for officers from the bomb squad to make sure that the vehicle was not rigged with any explosives or booby traps.

They said they think whoever stole the truck did so not for terrorism, but for profit.

"We don't see any nexus to terrorism," said D.C. police Sgt. James Manning. "We believe it was probably stolen for financial gain of some sort."

By the time the truck was tracked down via a GPS system, some 3,500 gallons of diesel fuel had been pumped out and presumably stolen.

Then I caught this story, about a similar incident that occurred only a week ago:

Suffolk [in New York] police said Friday that three - not just two - fuel tanker trucks were taken recently over a two-day period.

Det. Sgt. Bryan McMenemy of the Fifth Squad said the third tanker went missing sometime between Monday and Wednesday from All Island Fuel on Wading River Road in Center Moriches.

McMenemy said he did not know how much fuel was in the tanker.

Thursday morning the owner of Hirsch Fuels on Wheeler Road in Hauppauge reported that a 1999 International Oil tanker truck containing 2,131 gallons of home heating oil had been stolen, Suffolk police said.

The same morning, the owner of Consumer Comfort Group on Central Avenue in Bohemia reported the theft of a 1995 oil tanker.

Police did not know how much oil was in the second truck.

The thefts took place between midnight and 8 a.m., police said. Police found the Bohemia truck about 1 p.m. Thursday on Wurz Street in Brentwood, while the vehicle from Hauppauge was discovered in Mastic at about 6:15 p.m. that day.

You would think the fuel companies would be all over this, but:

None of the fuel companies returned calls for comment.

Now here's what's really freaky. In the first story, the police had this to say:

Police said there has been an increase in thefts like this as fuel prices continue to rise.

Got that? Gas prices are such an issue that people are stealing oil tankers...and for the time being, the oil companies don't seem to care.