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Boys and Girls Club keeps finding its fuel siphoned

Ongoing fuel siphoning plagues Nanaimo Boys and Girls Club vehicle fleet
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Boys and Girls Club of Central Vancouver Island’s lot on Fifth Street in Nanaimo is again being targeted by fuel thieves. Katy Tucker, the club’s program leader said no suggestions to thwart the thieves or security improvements have been effective so far. (CHRIS BUSH/ The News Bulletin)

Boys and Girls Club of Central Vancouver Island continues to be targeted by fuel-siphoning thieves.

Ian Kalina, club executive director, said the yard the club’s vehicles are parked in at 20 Fifth St. in Nanaimo has been hit at least 10 times since mid September. Thieves struck again on the weekend and on Tuesday night when the they left behind the hose used in the siphoning attempt.

Kalina estimates as much as $2,000 in fuel has been stolen this year, but fuel siphoning has been a problem for several years and the club had to cancel some services after fuel thefts in July 2016.

“I think its a co-ordinated effort because there’s not just a little bit of gas. They’re moving a lot of it,” he said.

Security cameras have proven ineffective, gate locks have been cut, as have chain-link fences and a cedar fence was kicked down. The non-profit club can’t afford to hire overnight security at the site.

“People make lots of suggestions on social media, but we’ve tried all those things,” said Kathy Tucker, Boys and Girls Club program leader. “Such as parking the vehicles close together with their gas caps facing each other. We tried that and they just crawl under the vehicles and poke holes in the fuel lines.”

To cut losses, just enough fuel is kept in vehicle tanks to get them through one day, but when the club’s 24-passenger bus is sucked dry, multiple trips must be made with its seven-passenger van, adding to fuel cost and lost staff time, including time diverted from other tasks to fill out theft reports to police.

“It’s demoralizing for everybody, you know,” Kalina said, “because the public certainly understands that we’re doing this for the kids and we’re trying to get kids to and from school and out to different events and we never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next and so we have to really try and keep our spirits up because it’s just a constant onslaught.”

A plan to park the vehicles at a well-lighted shopping mall parking lot has yet to be arranged with the mall owners. Kalina’s inquiries about parking vehicles on neighbouring south Nanaimo businesses with secure sites revealed they’re suffering similar problems. He now wants to arrange a community forum to discuss the scope of the problem in south Nanaimo.

“We have no real sense until people start coming together,” Kalina said. “One of the businesses that offered their support was also very interested in being part of the community forum so I have to look at scheduling that as quickly as I can.”

Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman, said police empathizes with the Boys and Girls Club’s situation, but the club might need to move to a more secure location.

“They’ve been hit 91 times in the last 10 years … and they’ve had 25 reported – either attempted or completed – thefts of gas in the last year and each time [thieves] are getting about $100 to $180 in gas … they’re obviously being targeted,” O’Brien said. “If they don’t have the money for security improvements and they don’t have the money to hire security, then they may have to look at relocating.”



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Chris Bush

About the Author: Chris Bush

As a photographer/reporter with the Nanaimo News Bulletin since 1998.
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