Thieves steal $14K worth of gasoline

CLEARWATER - Police say someone was able to steal 6,000 gallons of gas from a BP gas station in a short time window of 23 minutes.

Store clerk Frank Zaitoun said it came as a shock to everyone at the gas station.

"It’s something that’s never happened you know. Never happened," said Zaitoun.

The stations tank monitoring system showed 6,000 gallons were removed Saturday night between 11:12 and 11:35. Police spokesperson Elizabeth Watts said officers were called out hours later.

"There was a heavy smell of gasoline in the area when they went out they found a pool of fuel and also the storage gas caps removed," Watts added.

Clearwater police are trying to figure out who's responsible for stealing the gas but believe who ever did it, knew exactly what they were doing.

"They knew how to get the gas caps off the underground storage tanks and how to get the fuel out so it’s definitely someone who has to know about the system," Watts said.

Frank said when he and his manager arrived to work the next morning, they noticed the gas alarm was going off indicating they were out of gas. When they checked the fuel pumps they realized thousands of gallons of fuel were missing.

Police describe the getaway vehicle as a silver tanker truck. The stolen gas is valued at $14,000.