{"id":444968,"date":"2026-09-23T09:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T09:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444968\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T09:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T09:06:17","slug":"trail-of-spilled-diesel-fuel-leads-police-to-home-of-central-texas-man-accused-of-drilling-into-county-truck-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444968\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail of spilled diesel fuel leads police to home of Central Texas man accused of drilling into county truck tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kwtx.com\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/kwtx.com\">BRUCEVILLE, Texas (KWTX) \u2014<\/a> A trail of spilled diesel fuel led police officers straight to a suspect\u2019s driveway after fuel tanks on a McLennan County Road and Bridge truck were drilled into and drained early Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jesse Arthur Davila III, 41, was booked into the McLennan County Jail on charges of state-jail felony criminal mischief and theft of property. He also had two outstanding warrants out of Waco, police said. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Jesse Arthur Davila III, 41, was booked into the McLennan County Jail on charges of state-jail...\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/YQG2LHG5OVH6XE73QIGKZJPB2I.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Jesse Arthur Davila III, 41, was booked into the McLennan County Jail on charges of state-jail felony criminal mischief and theft of property. He also had two outstanding warrants out of Waco, police said.(KWTX GRAPHIC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to an arrest warrant, Bruceville-Eddy Police Chief Michael Dorsey received a call around 9:02 a.m. on Sept. 21 from the McLennan County Precinct 1 Assistant Road Foreman reporting vandalism and fuel theft from county equipment parked near the southbound Interstate 35 frontage road and First Street in Bruceville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Chief Dorsey and Officer Jenny Miller arrived on the scene and discovered two damaged diesel fuel tanks on a Precinct 1 water truck. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Holes had been drilled into the tanks to drain the fuel, with plastic containers placed underneath, a rag covering one hole, and an orange siphon hose left on the ground beside the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Road and Bridge personnel noticed that the thief had left a trail of spilled diesel fuel leading from the county truck down First Street. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officers followed the spill line to the driveway of a residence in the 600 block of First Street, where they found a utility task vehicle (UTV) parked in the front yard with its dump bed open and tailgate down. The bed reeked of diesel and held wet liquid residue, the affidavit states. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">At the home, officers contacted Davila, who initially denied any involvement. However, officers located fuel cans, siphon hoses, and a pair of black pants and shoes at the front of the home\u2014all heavily smelling of diesel fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Faced with the evidence, Davila admitted to taking the UTV around 1 a.m., drilling the tanks, and using siphon hoses to steal the fuel so he could fill a white Ram 3500 diesel truck he drives to work, the affidavit states. Investigators noted fresh diesel stains on the truck, including fuel still wet on the rear left rim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">County officials reported approximately $5,000 in damage to the two fuel tanks and an estimated $1,800 in stolen diesel fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Davila was taken into custody without incident and transported to the McLennan County Jail. His bonds total $8,000. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUCEVILLE, Texas (KWTX) \u2014 A trail of spilled diesel fuel led police officers straight to a suspect\u2019s driveway&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153603,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-444968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-jesse-arthur-davila-iii","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}