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With gas prices in Florida flirting with $5 per gallon, we knew it was only a matter of time before fraudsters would start figuring out a way to steal the precious commodity.
Four Florida have been arrested for installing homemade devices inside gas pumps that plunged prices down to pennies a gallon. Officials say, this trend will only grow with the soaring fuel costs.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the suspects used sophisticated and homemade “pulsators” inside pumps to rig price and fuel flow.
The thieves pulled off the scheme at two separate Circle K stations located in Lakeland and Lutz, Florida.
Rogelio Llerena and Yulier Garcia-Martinez were the first to be busted on March 12 while the men were topping off a gas tank in Lakeland.
Officials said Garcia-Martinez had a remote device used to manipulate the pulsators.
Next, Tampa resident Yordian Diaz-Benitez was arrested at the Lutz location for stealing diesel fuel. Marlon Rosel-Rodriguez was arrested just two days later for attempting to place the device inside a pump at the very same gas station.
Officials say the schemers pull up to gas pumps with large trucks containing oversize tanks and fill up on the cheap fuel before reselling it at a much higher profit.