2 Pierce County men charged in 10,000-gallon diesel theft from unmanned fuel station

Two Pierce County men were charged with felonies Monday after allegedly stealing more than 10,000 gallons of diesel gasoline from an unmanned fuel station in Frederickson.

A Pierce County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) investigation linked the thefts to two trucking companies, including GSA Trucking, a local company based in Auburn, according to The Tacoma News Tribune. The second company allegedly involved, based in California, did not have charges filed against it, as of this reporting, due to limited evidence.

GSA Trucking’s owner, Gurdip Singh Aujla, and another man with connections to the company, Gurmandeep Singh, were both charged with felony first-degree theft.

Details of the Pierce County stolen gas scheme

After noticing the station’s sales numbers did not match the fuel reserves in its storage tanks, the company contacted PCSO. Video surveillance footage showed a group of people pulling tractor-trailers near the pumps in positions that blocked the cameras.

Security footage reportedly showed that at least four suspects were involved in the thefts. The suspects allegedly manipulated the fuel pump with a metal rod to slow the rate at which the system would count the gallons purchased, but continued to pump the gas at a normal rate.

“While the rod was inserted, the pump would continue to pump fuel at its normal rate, but the counter would be significantly slowed so that the pump only recorded a fraction of the fuel being taken,” a police report stated, according to The Tacoma News Tribune. “This, in turn, resulted in the suspects only paying for a small percentage of the fuel.”

In one instance, the two suspects pumped approximately 647 gallons of gasoline; however, only 20 gallons were billed, resulting in a loss of $2,667.

A months-long investigation by Snider Fuel and PCSO revealed that the two suspects stole more than $41,000 worth of gasoline between 2023 and 2024.

The investigation used credit card transactions linked to GSA Trucking and surveillance footage to identify Aujila and Singh. Additionally, the semi trucks used in the scheme were also registered to GSA Trucking through the Department of Licensing (DOL) records.

According to investigators, nearly all of the thefts were similar. While the suspects were fueling the tanks, they would leave the area when others arrived to use the pumps. The victim company also revealed that the suspects would fill multiple tanks on both tractor-trailers in a single transaction.

An arraignment hearing has been scheduled for Singh and Aujla for Oct. 14.

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