Phony meter used to steal 350,000 gallons of fuel

Seattle police say someone installed a phony meter on a fuel-delivery system at the BP distribution center on Harbor Island, resulting in the theft of 350,000 gallons of diesel fuel over nearly a year.

According to a police report, a manager at the Harbor Island terminal in Seattle reported earlier this month that the thefts had been discovered and were likely tied to similar losses reported at a BP distribution center in Long Beach, Calif.

Police said the terminal manager's staff uncovered a pattern of fuel losses and subsequently discovered that a fake meter had been installed in the facility's pump-delivery system.

The manager reported that the fuel thief had apparently unscrewed a protective cap on the pump system, accessed the legitimate meter, replaced it with a phony meter and replaced the cap, police said.

Officials with BP PLC said about 350,000 gallons, valued at about $1 million, were stolen from the Seattle distribution center.

Truck drivers who were not aware of the phony meter would load fuel using the legitimate meter while the thief would use the legitimate meter for about 5 seconds, then wait for 30 seconds to activate the phony meter, the terminal manager told police. As a result, the thefts went undetected for months.

The thefts stopped when the phony meter was discovered and replaced Dec. 5, according to police.

The thefts aren't the first, nor the largest, from a Harbor Island fuel-distribution center.

In March 2007, an Olympia man was sentenced to three years, 10 months in prison for stealing more than 2.9 million gallons of gas from a Harbor Island fuel depot between 1999 and 2004. Martin Guitard, 48, was a supervisor at the fuel depot and knew a code that allowed him and other employees to pump fuel from the depot without a record, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com

Information from Seattle Times archives are included in this report.