Official tracks diesel
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A vice president of a mobile fueling company — suspecting drivers were stealing fuel from company trucks — used GPS tracking and a private investigator to determine that more than $30,000 of diesel had been stolen.
Two employees of SMF Energy Corp. — James R. Russell, 31, of Zachary, and William Cain III, 42, of Baton Rouge — were arrested Wednesday by Louisiana State Police after the vice president approached the agency last month with evidence from the company’s internal investigation, State Police spokesman Trooper Johnnie Brown said.
Russell and Cain were booked Wednesday into the Ascension Parish Prison on counts of theft and criminal conspiracy, Brown said. They are accused of stealing 8,172 gallons of diesel valued at $31,030, for an average of about $3.80 per gallon, between Jan. 2 and May 29.
Rob Streicher, a vice president of SMF Energy Corp., filed a complaint with the State Police on May 15, alleging that two of his employees had been stealing diesel from the company, arrest warrants show.
SMF Energy’s corporate Web site indicates its headquarters is in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and maintains more than 200 mobile refueling trucks in 10 states, including Louisiana.
A message left Wednesday afternoon with Streicher’s office in Fort Lauderdale was not immediately returned.
Streicher told State Police detectives he had been tracking the two employees since Jan. 1 using a private investigator and GPS on their trucks, the warrants show. He provided detectives all documents and surveillance notes he compiled on his employees.
Streicher started investigating Russell and Cain after a coworker, whom Streicher was firing for crashing two trucks, told him about the thefts, the warrants show. After examining route sheets and inventory tracking programs, Streicher determined that Russell’s and Cain’s trucks were excessively off loading cargo and refueling.
Using the GPS tracking, Streicher determined the trucks driven by Russell and Cain were miles off their designated routes when they refueled their own trucks and offloaded their cargo, the warrants say. The men also periodically returned to the same off-route locations — in East Baton Rouge, Ascension, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes — to refuel and off load.
Streicher hired a private investigator who followed the trucks to the remote locations, on private land, the warrants show. Looking at the land from a public roadway, the investigator saw 500-gallon diesel containers, semi-tractors and dump trucks.
State Police have not determined what was done with the fuel after it was delivered to the off-route locations, Brown said. More arrests are possible as the investigation by the State Police, Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office continues.
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