Pumps Stolen From 3 Out-Of-Business Gas Stations On Long Island

ISLIP TERRACE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Police on Monday were trying to find the thieves who stole seven gas pumps from several shuttered service stations on Long Island.

As CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported, this is not the only trouble the station owner has been facing.

A repairman has been working nonstop to cap off gasoline connections where fuel pumps once stood. Thieves stole five pumps from one gas station in Westbury, one from a station in Islip Terrace, and another from a station in Hauppauge.

"You have to kind of know this business to be able to take these dispensers off the island," said Dan Reilly of Island Pump and Tank. "So whoever is doing it is definitely in the business and knows what they are doing."

Police said all the ripped-of stations were closed and out of business at the time of the thefts.

Investigators believe sometime over the last several days, thieves struck in the middle of the night – using heavy equipment to remove the pumps -- and even the remaining gas below ground – from the Westbury business.

Surveillance cameras did not work, because the power had been turned off.

"It's definitely dangerous to rip these off the island," Reilly said. "You leave everything exposed, so it's not a good scene."

The wholesale gasoline distributor that supplied the gas stations told CBS2 they are all owned by a Long Island man who filed for bankruptcy last month. In the past few years, customers said they stopped using his stations because the owner would charge $1 to $2 more for credit card purchases.

"He was price-gouging us," said Peter Nilson of Islip Terrace.

Nilson was among the dozens of customers who filed complaints over the higher credit card prices.

"I think that him charging a dollar extra price-per-gallon for using a credit card was absurd," Nilson said, "and they didn't want to hear about it when you went into the store to explain to them that it was just uncalled for."

Nilson said he was glad to see the stations going out of business.

Though CBS2 tried multiple times, attempts to reach the owner or his attorney were unsuccessful.

The owner of the stations, Steven Keshtgar, filed his bankruptcy notice on Dec. 24.