By Matt Wiley,
A man is in custody after being caught stealing fuel with fraudulent credit card information in Wesley Chapel, authorities say.
According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO), Carlos A. Gonzalez, 54, of Tampa, was arrested at 10:30 a.m. on November 5 at the Sam’s Club on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel. Due to a high frequency of recent fuel theft at the Sam’s Club’s gas station pumps, a deputy was conducting surveillance at the time of the offense, along with a Sam’s Club asset protection manager.
The deputy explained that just after 10 a.m., Gonzalez pulled up to a Sam’s Club pump in a 1994 Ford F-150 truck. Minutes before, the deputy received information from another local law enforcement agency about the same vehicle having been used in a fuel theft at a Clearwater Sam’s Club the day before.
By watching live surveillance footage, the manager was able to observe Gonzalez swiping multiple credit cards at the pump, which took approximately 16 minutes. Upon leaving the pumps, deputies pulled Gonzalez over, at which time, PCSO reports, he dropped two Walmart gift cards in an effort to conceal them. An additional gift card was found in his wallet.
The PCSO report says that, with the help of the U.S. Secret Service, it was discovered that the gift cards had been encoded with stolen Chase Bank credit card information from customers in Washington state. PCSO also found a Sam’s Club membership card with information matching one of the stolen credit cards.
The report also states that Gonzalez had pumped more than 90 gallons of fuel into a makeshift “bladder” fuel tank not approved for use by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
Gonzalez was arrested and charged with four counts of criminal use of identification, three counts of obtaining fuel fraudulently, unlawful conveyance of fuel and fraudulent use of a credit card. He has since been released from the Land O’Lakes Detention Center on a $50,000 bond. No additional information was available at our press time.
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