Thieves cut fuel lines, siphon gas at Snohomish County park-and-ride

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. -- A Stanwood man has a warning for people who use Community Transit park-and-ride lots.

Mike McNicholas said his truck was targeted multiple times by thieves that siphoned gasoline.

“It’s just weird,” he said Friday. "Why destroy somebody’s stuff just for 5 gallons of gas?”

He usually parks his truck overnight at the Stanwood 1 lot near Interstate 5.

He even thought he did everything right by parking under a streetlight and installing a locking gas-cap; the crooks still got away with his fuel.

The last incident happened in early March when the vandals cut through the fuel line, circumventing his secured gas-cap.

“He had all the knowledge and he knew how to get that gas,” he said.

McNicholas is not alone.

Since February 2014, four cars were broken into and two were stolen from the parking lot.

Car thefts have also been a persistent problem at Lynnwood’s Canyon Park park-and-ride.

“My heart dropped,” said Udo Gagg. “I couldn’t believe it when I came here, my car was gone.”

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office patrols all 24 Community Transit park-and-ride locations.

McNicholas worries that officers can’t be everywhere at once and thinks the crooks that targeted his truck might not be caught anytime soon.

“If it happens again I’m going to have to find another place to park,” he said.

Community Transit does have some surveillance cameras in some locations but it doesn’t have money to install them at each lot.

Sometimes deputies resort to using bait cars to try and catch thieves in the act.