$20 million fuel theft on Harbor Island

(photo from state Ecology Department website)
Posted at the P-I site tonight: An estimated $20 million in diesel is missing from the BP terminal on Harbor Island (1652 SW Lander; map), and police are investigating. ADDED 8:41 PM: As Scott points out in comments, there was a multimillion-dollar fuel-theft case on Harbor Island just a few years ago. Different fuel depot, according to this story about the resolution of that case. (A little more background on that case here.)

11 Replies to "$20 million fuel theft on Harbor Island"

  • Scott January 11, 2009 (8:38 pm)

    AGAIN??? This happened several years ago!

  • p January 11, 2009 (8:40 pm)

    Ok, HOW can you take that much fuel without getting noticed??????

  • Scott January 11, 2009 (8:43 pm)

    Yes, AGAIN!
    Who’s watching this place?
    http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20051207&slug=fuel07

  • Gina January 11, 2009 (9:00 pm)

    and with the fuel prices down, that is one heck of a lot of fuel!

  • WSB January 11, 2009 (9:26 pm)

    As I posted above, fwiw, apparently a different company, but still Harbor Island.

  • What The January 11, 2009 (10:55 pm)

    Somali Pirates?

  • huh what January 11, 2009 (11:10 pm)

    This took place over about 10 months according to the PI. So basically somebody was swiping just under 1 million gallons per day. Nobody noticed that? Holy crap, how do you NOT notice that?

  • huh what January 11, 2009 (11:11 pm)

    doh, 1 million per month, not day

  • bolo January 12, 2009 (12:08 am)

    The fuel thefts seem to correlate w/ tanker trucks flagrantly/aggressively speeding on the east leg of the bridge. Mostly at night. Last time (few years ago) it was the Harris tankers– the aggressive speeding stopped when they got caught that time.

    I had noticed the same tanker speeding behavior again and wondered if they were stealing fuel again but figured “no, there must be better security now…” (fool me once…)

    Trucks making a quick getaway?

  • alki_2008 January 12, 2009 (1:33 am)

    Wow, the previous case was only ~$3 million over 5 years – and now they go ~$20 million in less than 1 year. Even with the ~4x increase in prices now than during the previous case, then this one must be a lot more organized and involving many more players. Yikes!

  • Ron Burgundy January 12, 2009 (10:57 am)

    That’s one big gas tank.

Sorry, comment time is over.