Men Charged In Miami Gardens Gas Theft
MIAMI GARDENS (CBSMiami) – Two men accused of stealing several thousand dollars in gas from Miami Gardens businesses were taken into custody Tuesday when they returned to the scene of the crime.
On July 17th, police were sent to the Hess Gas station at 20901 NW 2nd Avenue to check out a report of purloined petrol. The manager told them after watching surveillance video from outside the store he noticed a Mitsubishi Gallant parked over the cover of a diesel reservoir for a long period of time on two different occasions.
A check of the gas inventory found that nearly $2,500 was missing from the underground tank. It appeared that the vehicle had ciphered gas into a fuel cell inside the vehicle.
About a week later the officers returned to the gas station to fill up their patrol cars when they noticed a Mitsubishi Gallant, which matched the description of the one on the surveillance video, parked over a diesel reservoir cover.
When the officers went to talk with the driver, they saw a second men lying in the backseat. After getting consent to search the vehicle, the officers found a large fuel cell in the truck. Also, there was a long hose coiled up beneath the seat along with a hidden trap door on the floor board.
Both men, 28-year old Andy Lorenzo Machado and 36-year old Rigoberto Hastie Veliz, were taken into custody and charged with grand theft and improper conveyance of fuel.
