More than $30,000 worth of diesel fuel stolen in Colorado's high country, 3 suspects in custody

Three people are in custody after thousands of gallons of diesel fuel were stolen from a gas station in Colorado's mountains.

Steamboat Springs police say a Pilot gas station noticed thousands of gallons of diesel fuel were missing. Police believe Victoriano Cayetano Leon, 42, and Osnel Perez Palacio, 29, were involved. In a similar case, David Caboverde, 22, was also arrested. They are now all in custody.

The first two suspects are believed to have rigged the station's fuel system to get more than $30,000 worth of fuel without paying. The numeric value of the third person's alleged theft is unknown.

Surveillance operation leads to first two arrests

The station is located on the 1600 block of 13th. It's an unmanned gas station without workers present in an industrial section of town. After the gas station managers noticed something was going wrong, Steamboat Springs police began a surveillance operation there. 

On Dec. 4, a police spokesperson said officers noticed a large box truck at the pumps for approximately an hour. They stopped the truck after it left from the station and got a search warrant. They discovered a fuel transfer system that allowed the suspects to fill up external tanks, then an auxiliary pump pushed additional fuel into tanks in the storage area of the box truck.

Palacio and Caboverde were in the box truck and both were arrested. They are believed to have stolen 5,600 gallons of diesel fuel in total.

Another case emerges

On Dec. 13, someone told police that a large pickup truck was at the Pilot state for more than an hour.

When police questioned the suspect driver, he gave an elaborate story about why he was there for so long. It involved gift cards and the pumps not working.

"Officers were able to prove that was wrong," Sgt. Evan Noble said.

Leon was allegedly pumping gas into a large storage tank on the back of the pickup truck.

Gas theft investigation continues

The gas station is suffering from what Noble called a "substantial loss" after the crimes.

"I've been up here for 15 years and we've never had a gas theft that was this substantial," he said.

So far it's not entirely clear how the suspects were able to cheat the gas pumps. Noble described it as a "sophisticated" setup.

Officers are working to determine how, if at all, the crimes are all linked.