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Police: Heating Oil Siphoned From LI Home

ROCKY POINT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Rocky Point, Long Island family believes a theft stole home heating oil from a basement tank, police said Monday.

Between November 2013 and March 2014, police said heating oil was siphoned from a fuel tank in the basement on Canary Road. The home was apparently vacant at the time, CBS 2 reported.

Suffolk County police earlier Monday released the photo of a woman who was identified as a possible suspect in the incident. But police later said the woman may not have been the perpetrator and may have been inside the home legally at the time.

Contractors suspected oil was being siphoned out of the tank, and surveillance cameras were installed.

"I can't believe someone would be that low to rob people's oil," said Rocky Point resident Richard Giallanzo.

Giallanzo lives across the street from the targeted home that was vacant all winter, with work crews coming and going. Oil deliveries came often too, and Giallanzo wondered why a vacant house would need so much oil, CBS 2 reported.

Police said there was no forced entry in the alleged theft.

A spokesman for the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island said siphoning oil out of a basement tank is an unusual criminal act.

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