MEDIA RELEASE
Contact: Sgt Chris Hewitt
Release Date: 01/10/13
Release Number: 1
Three Men Arrested for Felonious Fuel Thefts
(Valley Springs, CA) On January 8, 2013 Calaveras County Sheriff’s deputies received a report of a gas theft from Glory Hole Sports/Texaco in Angels Camp. According to surveillance video received from the store a white male adult driving a white truck stole 400 gallons of gasoline during the early morning hours of January 7, 2013. During the investigation the deputy discovered that a similar looking male driving the same truck stole 288 gallons of gasoline from the Shell Sierra Trading Post in Angels Camp on or about December 31, 2012.
On the evening of January 8th deputies located the suspect vehicle parked in the parking lot of MarVal grocery store in Valley Springs. The deputies contacted the driver and passengers and located evidence inside the truck associated with the gas thefts, including fuel containers, siphon hoses and burglary tools (screw drivers, etc.). The driver was identified as Jason Newton (37) of Valley Springs. The passengers were identified as Michael Duncan (45) of Valley Springs and Robert Range (31) of Manteca. Duncan is currently on probation out of Calaveras County. Upon being interviewed Arrestee Newton admitted to being involved in the gas thefts along with Arrestees Duncan and Range. He also admitted to similar thefts in Rocklin and Lodi. One thing that aided the deputies in solving this case was that Arrestee Newton had used his personal credit card at Glory Hole Sports to initially activate and bypass the gas pump prior to the theft of the fuel.
All three suspects were arrested and booked into the Calaveras County jail on the charges of grand theft, conspiracy to commit a crime, and possession of burglary tools (all felonies). This case is still under investigation by the sheriff’s detective division.
