A man in Volusia County, Florida, was arrested after allegedly stealing approximately 300 gallons of diesel fuel from local Circle K pumps. As per the authorities, he was caught red-handed at one of the locations he had previously visited, and items such as a large fuel tank and a magnet were found.<\/p>\n
According to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office<\/a> (VSO), the incidents detailed above took place between July 6 and July 12. The VSO identified the perpetrator as 40-year-old Yusniel Lara, a Deltona resident.<\/p>\n The man is accused of visiting multiple Circle K stations across Deltona and DeLand and stealing fuel, with other thefts reported in Sanford and Ocala. This resulted in the estimated loss of about 300 gallons.<\/p>\n Authorities began investigating the incidents across Volusia County. They were all linked to a single vehicle: a white Ram 2500 pickup truck.<\/p>\n Suspect Located<\/p>\n Through the use of license plate reader data, they managed to identify the truck. The VSO also came across Lara’s name as its registered owner.<\/p>\n A week and a half after the last reported incident in Deltona and DeLand, the VSO received an alert. They had previously entered Lara’s Ram into a system as a felony vehicle, and they got a hit.<\/p>\n Therefore, on Wednesday, July 22, police officers with the DeLand Police Department responded to a Circle K located in the city. According to the VSO, the station had been a previous target of Lara’s, suggesting he might be returning for a double dip.<\/p>\n Caught Red Handed<\/p>\n DeLand police officers responded to the Circle K and encountered Lara’s white pickup truck. He was immediately placed under arrest.<\/p>\n Shortly after, VSO detectives arrived at the scene to investigate. There, they encountered several items that the sheriff’s office determined to be meant for fuel theft.<\/p>\n These include a large magnet designed to steal fuel from pumps placed on the driver’s seat, the VSO said. The pickup bed had a large auxiliary fuel tank with the cap open, yet empty. Finally, the gas pump had a pried-off access panel, and a pry tool was found in Lara’s driver’s door compartment.<\/p>\n Charges Detailed<\/p>\n Yusniel Lara is now facing multiple charges in connection with the fuel theft incidents. The VSO initially announced multiple counts of larceny, but additional charges remain a possibility as the case continues to be investigated.<\/p>\n Jail records<\/a> show that Lara was booked into Volusia County Jail. He was charged with grand theft (more than $750 but less than $5,000), obtaining fuel through a pump breach, tampering with a fuel dispenser, possessing a device to alter a fuel dispenser, and unauthorized breach\/access to a fuel dispenser.<\/p>\n If convicted of the grand theft charge, Lara could spend up to 5 years in prison. The value of the stolen property determines the severity of the charge. In this case, at an average of $5.213 per diesel gallon, the 40-year-old is accused of stealing $1,563.9 worth of diesel, a third-degree grand theft offense.<\/p>\n If you want more stories like this, follow Guessing Headlights<\/a> on <\/a>Yahoo<\/a> so you don’t miss what’s coming next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man in Volusia County, Florida, was arrested after allegedly stealing approximately 300 gallons of diesel fuel from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[143956,23820,28,30,29,143955,143924,2261,47705,76252,143921],"class_list":["post-352013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-auxiliary-fuel-tank","tag-circle-k","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fuel-dispenser","tag-fuel-theft","tag-volusia-county","tag-volusia-sheriff","tag-vso","tag-yusniel-lara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352013","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=352013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}