Gas Theft Leads to Arrest, Firing of Hartford City Employee

HARTFORD, CT — A Hartford Department of Public Works employee was arrested along with a pair of accused co-conspirators in connection with a scheme in which gasoline was stolen from city pumps and sold for personal profit.

During March 2018, Public Works supervisors requested assistance from the Hartford Police Department Intelligence Division/C4 with a possible theft of city fuel by a department employee. The employee, identified as Tyler Walker, had filled up a city-owned portable refueling truck with close to 100 gallons of city gas on several occasions, Deputy Chief Brian Foley said.

The purpose of this vehicle is to refuel city vehicles in the field, but the amount drawn from the city pumps was inconsistent with current refueling needs. DPW supervisors who track fuel amounts noticed this issue, suspected possible theft, and brought it to the attention of police, Foley said.

The city refueling truck is equipped with an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), and a retroactive search of the AVL data throughout March showed it made several out-of-town trips and several trips to the secluded city owned rail lot behind the Xfinity Amphitheater on New Road, Foley said.

The HPD Intelligence Division deployed a covert portable security camera in the area of the rail lot. On the night of March 31, the refueling truck was seen meeting up with a tractor trailer and appeared to refuel the privately owned (non-city) vehicle, Foley said.

An operation was planned for the night of Tuesday, April 3. Detectives observed Walker towards the start of his 3-11 p.m. shift filling the refueling truck to capacity at the city gas pumps. Several hours later, he was observed, through surveillance, traveling to East Hartford, where he pulled into a garage bay at 91 Charles Street. Detectives then saw the refueling truck pull out of the garage and begin to refuel a privately owned flatbed owned by Gardner Transportation. A takedown ensued and Walker, along with two others, were safely taken into custody, according to Foley.

During questioning by police, Walker admitted to selling the gas at a price of $150 for 100 gallons and stated he had done it "several" times since February at several locations, including East Hartford and the rail lot, all for personal profit. He and his as-yet unnamed co-conspirators were all arrested for conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny (defrauding a public community), a Class C felony, Foley said.

Future arrest warrants are pending for previous thefts and transactions, the deputy chief added.

Chief Reginald Freeman, acting DPW director, said in a written statement, “This morning we fired a City of Hartford, Department of Public Works employee for theft of city property. While this is unfortunate, I am proud of our DPW supervision for using established protocols and quickly noticing the fuel deficit. Our DPW supervisors contacted HPD immediately and assisted as needed in the investigation. Thankfully we’ve established asset protection on many levels through the use of technology. With our strong partnership with HPD, we were able to seamlessly share that technology to assist HPD C4 detectives."

Photo courtesy of Hartford Police Department