VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A Deltona man is facing multiple larceny charges after Volusia County Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives say they caught him in the act of stealing diesel fuel from Circle K gas stations across Central Florida.<\/p>\n
Yusniel Lara, 40, was arrested after detectives say a weeks-long investigation tied him to a string of fuel thefts at Circle K locations in Deltona and DeLand.<\/p>\n
Circle K stations in both cities reported multiple thefts on July 6 and July 12, with a combined loss of about 300 gallons of diesel fuel. Surveillance video from each location captured the same suspect vehicle \u2014 a white Ram 2500 pickup. Detectives used license plate reader data to identify the truck and trace it back to Lara.<\/p>\n
Yusniel Lara (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n
Similar thefts were also reported in Sanford and Ocala during the same period.<\/p>\n
Investigators say they entered Lara\u2019s truck into the system as a felony vehicle. On Wednesday, a license plate reader in DeLand flagged the tag, prompting DeLand Police Department officers to locate the truck at the same Circle K where fuel had previously been stolen.<\/p>\n
DeLand PD detained Lara, and VSO detectives responded to the scene. They say what they found painted a clear picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the driver\u2019s seat, detectives found a large magnet commonly used to steal diesel fuel from pumps,\u201d according to the Volusia County Sheriff\u2019s Office. \u201cIn the pickup bed was a large auxiliary fuel tank with the cap open, but not yet filled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detectives also discovered that an access panel on the gas pump itself had been pried open. A pry tool was found in the driver\u2019s door compartment of Lara\u2019s truck, according to deputies. <\/p>\n
Lara now faces multiple counts of larceny. The Sheriff\u2019s Office says additional charges are possible as investigators continue to look into similar cases in the region.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A Deltona man is facing multiple larceny charges after Volusia County Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23820,28,30,29,2261],"class_list":["post-351366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-circle-k","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}