By Shannon Lukens.
Two men are in the Routt County Jail after allegedly being involved in a large theft of fuel at a gas station on 13th Street in Steamboat Springs.
Steamboat Springs Police Commander Rich Brown says detectives from the special assignment team with the police department had been aware of fuel thefts so they were watching for unusual activity.
They became aware of a large box truck that was at the Pilot gas station overnight Thursday, for an unusually long amount of time. They stopped the box truck when it left the gas station. The driver and the passenger allegedly gave fictitious identifications, according to Brown. The truck was seized and a search warrant was acquired. Steamboat Springs Police found six large stock tanks in the truck, full of fuel.
Brown says over 750 gallons of fuel had been taken Thursday overnight. The financial loss was over $30K total, over time.
Fingerprints were submitted to confirm the identity of the two men arrested. They are:
- Osnel Perez Palacio – Theft-Intends to deprive owner permanently, 3rd degree burglary, conspiracy to commit, possessed fictitious or fraudulent driver’s license/instruction permit, drove without valid commercial drivers license, display expired license plate. He’s in court Monday.
- David Caboverde – Theft-intends to deprive owner permanently, 3rd degree burglary, and conspiracy to commit. He’s in court Tuesday.
More on the Story — Large theft of fuel results in arrests of two men
Those who died in Thursday’s crash just west of Craig have been identified as 85-year-old Ervin Gerber of Craig and his daughter-in-law, 57-year-old Ashley James of Minneapolis. The 81-year-old driver of the Subaru was airlifted to a hospital in Denver.
Watch for smoke in Rio Blanco County. The Bureau of Land Management will be burning slash piles about 25 miles southwest of Meeker, between now and the end of March. For general information, contact Shane Pfeiffer, Fuels Specialist at 970-620-6957.
Each week, we’ll be updating the Mental Health Minute for Routt and Moffat counties. This week’s topic is about decisions to make for December. Find out more on our website.
More on the Story — Yampa Valley Safety Net for Routt and Moffat counties
The Steamboat Springs School District Board of Education meets at 4:30 p.m. Monday. Agenda items include a spotlight on Sleeping Giant School and a cell phone update. That meeting is at Steamboat Springs Middle School. Agenda
The 26th KRAI Holiday Drive was another incredible drive thanks to all of you who showed up, and helped and donated. We raised over $21,000 and 903 pounds of food, plus hundreds of toys, gifts for Seniors and badly needed bags of cat and dog food for the Humane Society of Moffat County. Your donation big or small just made someone’s life better! Thank you, Moffat County.
And get ready for snow. That’s the word from the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra this past weekend with their Holiday Concert. Ernest Richardson is the conductor and a DJ on Easy 94-1, and he says the winter concert always brings the snow.
Check out what’s happening in the Yampa Valley on the Community Calendar on our website.
For the KRAI Time, Temp, and Weather Hotline, call 970-824-1918.