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Jul 16, 2008 5:29 pm US/Central
Thieves Drain Mesquite Church Buses Of Gasoline
MESQUITE (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Lately we've been hearing about thieves targeting churches for copper wiring. Today thieves found another hot item to steal from an unsuspecting congregation.
The Higher Ground Church on North Beltline Road in Mesquite was the target.
Two buses were vandalized Tuesday night. The thieves weren't after radios or catalytic converters, but gasoline.
The buses are used for Poppy's House – the churches daycare and summer camp. The children had planned a field trip to Forney, but when employees went to fill the gas tanks this morning they found that someone had cut the rubber hoses and drained the gasoline.
"They had went in to fill 'em up and immediately the gas just starts coming out on the bottom," explained Church Pastor James Green.
In all, the thieves got away with about $100 in gas. The church put contingency plans into action and the children were able to take the field trip.
The news isn't all bad; Danny Humphrey, the owner of a local auto repair shop, has offered to fix the gas tanks for free. After looking at the buses Humphrey described how he thinks the thieves took the gas. "They just put up a siphon hose and let it drain into a bucket or jug."
Pastor Green says he understands these are desperate times, but says he's disturbed that someone would steal from church children. "When gasoline is $4 a gallon and they know that buses probably hold a lot more gas than the normal vehicle, easy access because it's easy to crawl underneath one. If I was gonna steal gasoline I guess I'd take it from a bus. I don't think I'd take it from a church, but I hope I never have to steal gasoline."
Humphrey says this is the third daycare gas theft that he has seen in the past month. "It's kind of crazy because they're not really stealing a lot of gas. They're stealing a gallon or two, but they're damaging more than that."
Pastor Green knows what he'd say to the thieves, if he could. "If he'd came to the church and just asked that he needed gas money we would have helped him."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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