2 accused of stealing 10,000 gallons of diesel from Pierce County fuel station
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pierce County gas station lost 10,596 gallons of diesel fuel to theft scheme
- Prosecutors charged two GSA Trucking associates with first-degree felony theft
- Suspects used metal rods to jam pumps, underreporting fuel dispensed during thefts
A scheme to steal fuel from a Pierce County gas station allegedly drained more than 10,000 gallons of unpaid diesel by jamming gas pumps so they recorded only a fraction of the fuel being taken.
The Sheriff’s Office tied the thefts to two trucking companies, including GSA Trucking, which is based out of a house in Auburn. On Monday, prosecutors charged its owner, Gurdip Singh Aujla and another man connected to the company, Gurmandeep Singh, with first-degree theft, a felony.
Investigators believed a second company from California was involved, but the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against its owner, stating that there was not sufficient evidence to prove his identity.
An arraignment hearing for Singh and Aujla was set for Oct. 14. Attorneys for the defendants were not listed in court records, and a message sent Tuesday to an email listed for GSA Trucking went unanswered.
Between 2023 and 2024, the two men allegedly helped steal approximately 10,596 gallons of fuel valued at about $41,174.72 from an unmanned gas station in Frederickson, according to charging documents. Security footage of thefts captured by the company that owns the station reportedly showed at least four people involved.
The company contacted the Sheriff’s Office after noticing its sales numbers weren’t matching the fuel levels in its storage tanks. According to the probable cause document, videos showed a group of people pulling one or two tractor-trailers abnormally close to the pumps and positioning them to apparently block cameras. The suspects would then jam a metal pole into the fuel pump.
“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 states. “This in turn resulted in the suspects only paying for a small percentage of the fuel.”
In one incident, the suspects pumped about 647 gallons of fuel but were billed for only 20, resulting in a loss of $2,667.38, according to charging documents.
Investigators said nearly all of the thefts were identical, and while the suspects were fueling, they often left abruptly when others arrived to use the pumps. The company that owns the gas station told the Sheriff’s Office that the suspects frequently filled multiple tanks on both the tractors and trailers in a single transaction.
Singh and Aujla were identified as suspects through credit-card records associated with GSA Trucking. Some of the semi trucks were also found to be registered to the trucking company through Department of Licensing records.
The Sheriff’s Office contacted Aujla by phone in December 2024. When an investigator told him he was following up on a fuel shortfall his company was involved in, Aujla allegedly sounded panicked and asked him who had reported it.
“When I informed Aujla that I had spoken to the gas station owner, he replied by asking, “who talked?,’” a police report states.
