A would-be fuel thief was given quite the shock when he was caught in the act by this truckie, who was parked up for the night in Coffs Harbour.
Niell Graham, 48, was parked behind the Amart furniture store he was delivering to in a Volvo FH16 Globetrotter and B-double he had driven down from Brisbane.
As he explained, “I got up and went for a pee at about 4.30am. I came back and was just sitting in my driver’s seat scrolling through my phone when I’ve seen this car pull up.”
Graham says a Ford Falcon pulled up and parked right in front of him.
“I thought what’s this guy doing at this time of the morning. A young bloke gets out with a hose and jerry can in hand and walks up and stands beside my passenger side fuel tank all while under my watchful eye. He looks around and just as he touches my fuel cap I hit the panic button on my key fob, setting off the truck horn and then all the lights light up.
“The poor bloke got such a fright – I think he shit himself. He took off at 100 miles an hour. I don’t think he was expecting anyone to be in the truck. I had a full tank too!”
Based in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, Graham has been a full time truck driver for over 20 years and says this is the first time he’s had this happen.
Though he was told of an incident that occured closer to home. “There was a body truck parked a couple of streets away from where I live. Somebody couldn’t get the cap off the fuel tank so they cut the hose. Then this poor bugger got up to go to work… With price of fuel being over $2 a litre, this is only going to keep happening more and more.”
Graham currently works for Senshi Logistics, where he’s been since March, delivering to Amart stores at Coffs Harbour, Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay and Cairns, as well as carrying produce and meat.
“Most of our work is to Amart stores. I was parked around the back behind the store, in a little cul-de-sac – in an industrial area,” Graham said.
“When Amart opened up in the morning, I told them what happened and they said there was a custom car joint that got broken into. There’s also a steel mob across the road from them that have prime movers parked out the front, so I let them know as well.”
Graham added that a neighbouring business in the area had 150 litres of fuel siphoned from their rigid trucks.
“Apparently one of the businesses have him on camera, but I’m not sure where it’s gone from there.”