Saturday, December 30, 2017

Theft of aviation fuel and cafe burglarized at Caldwell Industrial Airport (KEUL)





CALDWELL, Idaho (KBOI) — Police are investigating the theft of thousands of dollars worth of fuel from a business at the Caldwell Airport.

The theft is believed to have happened at Silverhawk Aviation Academy between Christmas Eve and December 27th.


The owner said about 500 gallons of aviation fuel was siphoned from two of the business' fuel trucks.


"It's $4.68 cents a gallon," said Catherine Weber, Owner and Operator of Silverhawk Aviation Academy. "So, they stole over 2,000 dollar's worth of fuel."


That's a big hit to a small business, but Catherine says that's not the worst part.


She thinks it was an inside job.


"It's not just the cost. We are a community out here. That's the hard thing. We feel this was someone on the field because they would have had to come through the security gates to take the fuel. So, that is the part that bothers me the most," said Catherine.


She said that in order for the thief or thieves to get away with that much fuel, they would have had to have had their own 500 gallon truck or nearly a dozen 55 gallon drums.


"That's what makes me think it was a specialized aviation truck that was set up for this," said Catherine.


Caldwell Police say they found no sign of forced entry. They are still investigating.


Meanwhile, Silverhawk Aviation Academy is making sure something like this doesn't happen again. Catherine says they're beefing up security and are now storing their fuel trucks inside.


Catherine said in her 18 years as owner, nothing like this has ever happened. Oddly enough, on Thanksgiving, a Cafe at the Caldwell Airport was also burglarized.


Story, video and photos:  http://idahonews.com 



Caldwell Airport Cafe


CALDWELL, Idaho (KBOI) — While small business owner Becky Aldrich was enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with her family, two men were stealing nearly $1,000 from her cafe.

Aldrich says she was robbed after receiving a large delivery order of frozen goods. Replacing the money for her business could not have come at a worse time for Aldrich, as she buys Christmas gifts for her children and birthday presents for her daughter, whose birthday came several days after the robbery.

"I work seven days a week to support my kids, I've got a four year old and a two year old," said Aldrich. "It's heartbreaking to know somebody's out there doing that while you're enjoying time with your family."

Fighting back the tears, she said she hopes the men enjoy what they took, although she can't understand why they did it. She said the men stole large quantities of frozen meats, leaving her to wonder where the thieves would store the thirty-pound boxes of bacon they took. She also noted how the thieves took the time to lock the restaurant back up after robbing it, as if she wouldn't notice everything that was missing.

Aldrich says she is fearful because the Caldwell Police Department has not caught the men, and she is the first one at her cafe in the morning when it is still dark. She says when she watched the surveillance video, she hoped she would recognize the thieves to "take the edge off."

"Watching them walk out the back door, not knowing who they are or when they could come back is scary," said Aldrich.

To avoid history from repeating itself, Aldrich is going to install more surveillance cameras that she can watch from her phone. 

Story, video and photo gallery ➤ http://idahonews.com

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