As the Bolesławiec District Police Headquarters informed us, in the City of Ceramics in January and the first twenty days of February last year, officers recorded just 9 fuel thefts, while during the corresponding period in 2018 there were 37 such cases.
Thefts are mainly reported by fuel stations, where customers refuel and then drive away without paying. “Thanks to shops and fuel stations being equipped with surveillance systems, a significant proportion of thefts is recorded, which helps identify the perpetrators of crimes and offenses,” asp. szt. Anna Kublik-Rościszewska, spokeswoman for the Bolesławiec police, told the istotne.pl website.
We regularly report such incidents in our pages. Sometimes they are unusual events. One such crime occurred on September 2 last year at a fuel station in Łąka (Bolesławiec municipality). A 30-year-old resident of Lubusz Voivodeship wanted to pay for fuel with a card that did not belong to him. The transaction failed. The man told the station employee that he would go to the car for another card. And he did go—but immediately got into the vehicle and drove away.
Police officers happened to be at the station. They began pursuing the 30-year-old. At one point, the fleeing man pretended to stop for a check. However, when the officers stopped the police car, the suspect quickly drove away, hitting the police vehicle.
The man was not arrested until he reached Żagań County, when he tried to hide in a building belonging to one of his relatives.
It turned out that the 30-year-old was banned from driving and had a one-year-and-seven-month prison sentence to serve. What is more, the suspect had stolen fuel in this way in several counties.
That same month, we reported that the Bolesławiec District Police Headquarters was investigating a fuel theft at a station in Bolesławiec. The entire incident, which took place on September 13, was recorded by surveillance cameras. A man and a woman drove to the fuel station in a passenger car with German registration plates and filled nearly 200 liters of diesel fuel into the tank, then drove away without paying.