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Gas Siphoning Thief Passes Out From Fumes During Heist

By Tanya Roth, Esq. on March 05, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

One tip for criminals who want to siphon gasoline -- bring a gas mask.  Cops found a criminal passed out in his van while trying to siphon gasoline.

Three men in Phoenix, Arizona were arrested for the gas heist. Robert Jeter, Jarad Desanti and George Brabakos were all in their mid-30s and had allegedly siphoned gas from another Arizona gas station this month. 

Their plot went something like this: The three men would arrive near the gas station's underground fuel reservoir with a white van and another car. The hood of the other car would be open, to give the impression that the van was "helping" the car. 

After all, a white van parked randomly over the underground fuel tank is a little too weird, isn't it?

The white van had a fake floor, from where the siphoning equipment would be lowered into the underground fuel pod. The van also had a massive gas tank of its own -- it was capable of holding 450 gallons of fuel. 

The clerk at the Circle K received an alarm that the station's gas tank was losing a large amount of gas and called the police immediately, suspecting the suspicious white van parked over the underground fuel supply.

When the police arrived, they found Robert Jeter passed out from the gasoline fumes in the back of the van. They rushed him to the hospital.

One minute, he was siphoning gas; the next minute, he's in police custody at the hospital. What a rude awakening that must have been for Jeter.

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