DETROIT — Abdul Beydoun, who owns a gas station here, expressed relief Wednesday, when two men were arrested by police, after getting caught pumping gasoline out of underground tanks and into a tank that was hidden in a van (pictured above) at his BP station.  

Beydoun says thieves have been stealing gasoline from stations around metro-Detroit for about three years, and have also managed to steal gas at the pumps by breaking into the meters. The suspects were caught on tape, stealing the gas without even leaving their vans.  They had managed to hook up everything through a hole in the van’s floor. Beydoun says the thieves broke into the underground tanks although they were locked.   They may also be responsible for similar thefts that have occurred at other stations in metro Detroit.  

“It’s happening more in the City than in the suburbs, because people know that there are not a lot of police here, and they can get away with it easier,” Beydoun said. 

He says that the equipment used in the van was very high tech, and in some incidents thieves have managed to get away with close to 250 gallons at a time, which results in a major profit loss for the stations.  

Beydoun is advising other gas station owners to conduct daily stick readings, in order to keep track of how much gasoline they have. 

He says that the issue has even caused some gas station owners to go out of business.  He knows one station that had thousands of gallons of gas stolen from it, in the same way, in 2011.  

Hafiz Bazzi, an Arab American who owns several gas stations in the area, says that once news about the van was released, he immediately recognized the vehicle and said that it had targeted two of his stations over the course of the last few days. He also has surveillance video of the van at his Citgo gas station on 7 Mile and Mound Road.  

In a report, Bazzi said that he believes that the gas is being sold on the black market to competing stations and hopes that the buyers are also caught.