Man makes off with over 100,000 gallons of diesel via stolen credit cards

A man accused of stealing over 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel throughout the state of Colorado has been arrested, police say. 

The arrest of 24-year-old Jose Romero-Brizuela was announced on Monday, September 13th by the Colorado Springs police. 

According to The Gazette, police caught wind of the scheme when a Kum and Go manager alerted police that a man had recently used stolen credit card numbers to purchase “large amounts” of diesel fuel at his store. 

Once officers investigated the situation, it was discovered that Romero-Brizuela had been re-encoding gift cards with stolen credit card numbers in order to buy fuel, and then loading the diesel into large fuel tanks in the bed of his pickup. Kum and Go was robbed of over $410,000 worth of diesel in total. 

When police finally tracked him down, Romero-Brizuela was hauling 750 gallons of diesel in the back of his truck. 

Romero-Brizuela has since been booked into the El Paso county jail on suspicion of crimes including theft and identity theft. It is not clear what Romero-Brizuela did with the massive amounts of diesel fuel.