Police Arrest Farm Diesel Theft Suspect After Months-Long Investigation and 500 Gallons of Missing Fuel

As someone who runs a Kubota tractor almost daily, it’s hard enough to keep diesel in the tank without someone stealing from you. Farms around Merced and Madera counties in California were having an even more difficult time as approximately 500 gallons of fuel went missing from their properties. The disappearance prompted a two-month investigation by the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, and now, they’ve arrested a local 55-year-old suspect in connection with the thefts.

There’s no telling at this point if the crook worked alone or collaborated with a crew, but stealing 500 gallons of fuel takes work. Odds are, they had a large holding tank somewhere to store it, but imagine if that weren’t the case. Collecting 100 five-gallon jugs would probably be pricier than just buying the diesel yourself (that is, assuming they didn’t steal the storage containers, too).

Farm diesel was the specific fuel in question, which is dyed red to indicate that it’s tax-exempt. That makes the total cost a little less—up to 90 cents cheaper per gallon than on-road diesel—but it’s not nothing. AAA reports that average diesel prices around Madera County are $6.73 per gallon, which puts farm diesel somewhere around $6 a gallon.

“Agricultural fuel thefts have a direct financial impact on local farmers and can disrupt critical farming operations,” the Merced County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “This investigation remains ongoing, and additional charges or arrests may follow.”

While a potential $3,000 in stolen materials might not seem especially horrendous, considering the thefts that sometimes make headlines, it goes further than that. Small-scale ag operations don’t print money the same way that some high-volume farms do, and California is neither a cheap place to live nor a cheap place to run a business. Downtime can be just as impactful to ag workers as it is to truckers, so that makes these thefts even more egregious.

Don’t steal from anybody, and especially not from the mom-and-pop outfits.

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