Heating oil theft.

[dobbslc]

I was wondering when this sort of thing was going to start.
I found out yesterday that the old lady next door has had her heating oil stolen overnight!
We didn't hear a thing and we're right next to her tank
Barstewards.
The thing is she had her old leaking plastic tank replaced 2 weeks ago...
I was washing the car when a ropey old flat bed transit with a tank on the back pulled up outside and was looking up her driveway, I didn't like the look of them so wondered over to talk to them and make it clear I'd seen them. He went in and talked to her for 10 minutes then left with doing anything.
A week later another firm came and did the job.
Police seem to be uninterested as usual.
The question is how's best to secure our fuel?
I have an old 3000 liter tank with 3 openings on the top, two vents and a filling hole where the gauge screws on.

Other than a shotgun what's the best way to protect what's mine?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ Don't suppose you had the foresight to take his number?

 

[tom2207]

Put a slimline tank inside the garage for heating oil ,,,



fill the old tank three quarters full of water and leave it exactly as it is.

 

[dobbslc]

No but the van had The Tank Man written on the back.
No luck finding him yet...

 

[tom2207]

No but the van had The Tank Man written on the back.
No luck finding him yet...

the dodge round here is they then wait two weeks after stealing the heating oil

and do it again ,, when they know the tank will be filled up again .

 

[tom2207]

they did it to a friend of mine a few years ago ,, thats when I came up with the tank in the garage and fill the old one with water ,,, it got hit again in two weeks ,, I put a camera in place to watch the road [ simple job with my background ] and passed the van reg and footage onto the police ..


I would have been better posting it on you tube for all the good it did ,,, it was in a very tough part of the world and the girl was recently widowed , , I gave some prints off the video to the local police alternative and they sorted it out ............... properly .

 

[stuvy]

Can you put a cage over the tank?

Lights?
A laser beam alarm that bleeps when they activate it?

 

[Morrisman]

My LPG tank is buried in my front garden. I wonder if anybody will try and have away with some of that.......

 

[Melvyn Best]

My LPG tank is buried in my front garden. I wonder if anybody will try and have away with some of that.......

What’s the address? Sure I can try, my motorhome gas cylinder is getting low

 

[gaz1]

theres no way to stop an external tank from being robbed they will just drill it if they cant feed a tube down into it

best way with that is a couple of angles in the tank air tube to allow escape but it will still hold fumes inside of it

but a building around a tank will with air vents

the thing is make it look like a building not an oil heater tank

 

[gaz1]

Can you put a cage over the tank?

Lights?
A laser beam alarm that bleeps when they activate it?

a cage wont work bolt croppers and portable grinders make easy work to get in them

a cage on the roof of a block built unit would be good idea as long as it looks like a building from the ground level

 

[cheb]

This has being happening for years, decades, probably near a century. It only use to affect farmers mostly, now it's affecting nice middle class people something will be done, laws will be passed making the theft of heating oil a specific offence. That'll stop it happening.

 

[knighty]

what about screw on caps - air vent can have holes in it

small wire from center of crap off to a relay

so if connection between cap/tank is lost even for a second it triggers a very very loud alarm? (which doesn't turn off)

could do the same with the level gauge

(a cap just like your fill port?)

 

[tom2207]

fill the tank with barbed wire ,, or perforated golf balls ,, lengths of plastic pipe or the likes , to stop a siphon hose going into it ,,,
but they will just drill a hole in the bottom and jam a hose in there ,,, they were doing truck tanks that way , or punching a hole in them with a bail spike , and in the past it was cheaper to loose the diesel than replace an alloy tank ,, these days it would be a close call.

 

[Parm]

^^ Don't suppose you had the foresight to take his number?

Often I have scrotes driving up the track. I always take pics on the plates. All go to parish council who report to police

Every single plate has come back as false

 

[addjunkie]

Often I have scrotes driving up the track. I always take pics on the plates. All go to parish council who report to police

Every single plate has come back as false

And there in lies the problem. They dont worry about getting lifted, as its no threat, as the judiciary are too soft!

 

[premmington]

Fuel theft has been going on a long time - but lads driving about with IBC in the back of vans stealing fuel - will become a normal thing from now - (due to the price of road fuel).

Not sure you could ever secure an outside tank - ever...

Leaving a rusty tank outside full of water - and having a new bunded slimline tank inside a garage or out building with an outside vent - maybe your only option.

As for outside tanks - only filling them half full - would half your "loss risk" at any point.

Annoying I know with rising fuel costs - stock pilling is the obvious saving - but losing all your fuel in one go is a bigger loss...

 

[James1979]

If they want it they’ll get it.

Years back a friends big tanks in a quarry
Got done. They just cut a hole in and threw a pump in.

I would suggest they check the ground near the tank for disturbance especially if it’s a gravel drive. When I did a bit for the feds the latest wheeze of the scrotes was to dig down to the pipe feeding the boiler (only a few inches usually) then cut it and t in a PCL female. That way they can stop by and plug in when they need to. If they don’t take the **** they can harvest a bit of lots of tanks indefinitely.

The method of choice at the time for doing the sucking was an IBC with a vacuum pump on it while they’re driving. When they get to the tank,
Pumps off and the vacuum does the work silently.

All crime prevention is about is moving it on so just the usual - screen the tank from the road, lights, cctv etc etc. you won’t beat them but you might make them move on. A gate wouldn’t hurt either. That lot don’t like being penned in or having their escape route cut off.

 

[Stupoty]

Motion detector and a very loud alarm/lights/cctv. Electric catle fence. Tamper switch on the lid ?

Stu

 

[slim_boy_fat]

as the judiciary are too soft!

Little point in handing down custodial sentences, prisons & YOIs are full to the gunwales already.