A rural petrol station owner says it was hit three times on the same night by fuel thieves, taking about $3000 worth of fuel.
By Sammy Carter for RNZ
In the middle of the night last Sunday, a red Mazda arrived at Rongotea Garage in Manawatū, a family-owned branch of Allied Petroleum.
Owner Kim Good said CCTV footage shows the car parked on top of the underground fuel storage tank, moving back and forward a few times.
The camera did not observe the occupants of the car getting out of the vehicle.
At some point, Good said footage showed one of the car doors opening before fuel spilt out onto the forecourt.
Good believed the thieves must have extracted the fuel up into the car through a hole in the floor.
The next day, Good was shocked to find over 400 litres of 91 and diesel respectively were not accounted for.
She said the storage tank was not locked.
The same car came back the next night, but locks had been installed by then.
Last month, police said there had been 100 extra fuel thefts per week since the price of filling up spiked earlier this year.
Manawatū Area Prevention Manager, Inspector Phil Ward said police received reports of three thefts over the same night at the commercial premise in Rongotea.
They were believed to have happened on May 17 between about midnight and 3am.
"Enquiries are underway to understand what occurred," Ward said.
He asked if anyone had information or footage that may assist with police enquiries to reach out.
Good said the thieves may not realise that they had stolen from a family-owned business, not a large corporation.
"We get a few cents per litre — that's it.
"If we lose fuel, that's our profit gone completely."
Good said the station's profits had also taken a hit from the rising price of fuel.
"We're having to outlay more money for the fuel than we ever have, its like doubled for us."
The station had put the fuel pumps onto prepay since the price of fuel went up, and had been debating about whether to install locks on the tanks before the theft occurred.
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