CRIME WATCH: West Seattle Food Bank van damaged by gas thief

| Crime | How to help | West Seattle news

Right in the heart of an extra-busy season for the West Seattle Food Bank, they’re dealing with an extra expense and hassle. A reader who volunteers at WSFB tipped us that the food bank was down a van because of damage done by a gas thief. We asked the WSFB’s Breanna Bushaw for details:

Someone used a tool to cut a hole in the gas line and siphoned gas out of the van. This happened in our parking garage around 2:30 am on Sunday morning. This was not noticed until the van stopped running (Monday) during our food rescue runs. We know we have incurred towing and repair costs of at least $3,500 plus rental of a replacement until the van is back in action.

We rely on the WSFB vans to transport our food rescue donations from local stores, food drive pickups, mobile food bank deliveries and more. The van is at the auto shop for repairs; we hope to have our second van up and running soon.

We asked Breanna how the community can help – she replied, “Any donations from the community to help with repair costs would be tremendously appreciated – westseattlefoodbank.kindful.com.” Also, as noted yesterday, WSFB will receive all proceeds from tonight’s soft-open (4-9 pm) at GH Pasta & Pizza (7500 35th SW).

bolo November 22, 2023 (12:58 pm)

For sure a dastardly deed done to a treasured local essential beneficial community organization.

But also I am having difficulty imagining how a cut fuel line and towing adds up to $3500. Is there time to get a second opinion?

Jeff November 23, 2023 (9:40 am)

Maybe a cascading failure to injectors, or fuel pump, or something like that? Seems like a lot though I agree.

Peter S. November 22, 2023 (8:12 pm)

Nothing says classy more than stealing from a food bank.

D-Mom November 23, 2023 (5:08 am)

Well said! How low can people go? Sad thing is, maybe if the thief asked, they could have gotten funds for gas at the same organization. A much cheaper solution.