Reports of Fuel Theft Quadruple in San Joaquin Valley

SACRAMENTO —  Fuel theft in rural areas has quadrupled in the San Joaquin Valley over the last year as thieves, motivated by the high price of diesel, tap into farmers’ storage tanks, the California Farm Bureau Federation reported.

Most of the time, thieves take the fuel -- sometimes thousands of gallons -- and run. But sometimes they take more.

“On a couple of occasions, it was reported that thieves have stolen the tanks that the ranchers use to haul fuel to their fields,” said Bill Yoshimoto, director of the Agricultural Crime Technology Information and Operations Network project.

Farmers like Chowchilla almond grower Ronald Harris of Harris Farms have gone out to their fields to find nothing but fumes in their on-site diesel tanks -- when they find anything at all, Yoshimoto said.

Harris recently discovered that thieves stole about 2,000 gallons of diesel from his property.

Jay Gill of Gill Land Co. in Madera County lost 3,400 gallons of diesel fuel -- a loss he estimated at about $6,400.

“We put locks on the tank so that nobody can insert a pipe or a hose into it to drain diesel out,” Gill said.

Madera County Sheriff’s Det. Dennis Haworth recommended that farmers take steps to curb theft, like installing motion sensor lights or buying diesel that has been dyed red, to identify it as fuel for tractors and other off-highway vehicles.