Diesel theft is on the rise in the Oulu area. Under cover of night, thieves have been helping themselves to thousands of liters of diesel fuel at the Rusko industrial area. In addition to instances of diesel being siphoned out of trucks at Rusko, there have also been recent accounts of diesel pilfered from farmyard storage tanks in the countryside.
“This is clearly the work of organized criminals who have ready buyers for the fuel”, estimates Timo Kyllönen, a traffic contractor based in the area.
Previous instances of fuel theft have been mostly isolated cases, and quite rare, says Kyllönen. Now the crimes are happening almost every weekend, and fuel has been disappearing from farmyards with similar frequency.
An anonymous Oulu business owner stated that 4000 liters of fuel had been stolen from one storage tank in a single night.
Although the crimes are regularly reported to the police, the stealthy thieves are rarely caught. Kyllönen says the most effective policy is pre-emption. “We’re installing security cameras and we try to keep the tanks as empty as possible on weekends. Perimeter security is also something were considering.”
