Amid soaring gas prices in Winnipeg, one daycare centre fears gas theft may be on the rise after someone syphoned gas from its vehicles by drilling holes in the gas tanks.
When Carol Jones, the executive director at Little People’s Place daycare centre, arrived at work on Monday, she smelled gas. That is when she and her staff discovered that three of the daycare vans had been syphoned.
"It was very disheartening and extremely frustrating," she said. "After being through these past two years of crisis upon crisis for families and for us, this is a hard blow that somebody would do something like this." The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed it has received reports of this kind of gas theft, including the report of the theft at the Little People’s Place daycare.
Jones estimates the thieves made off with about $700 in gas, not to mention the damages caused to the vehicles. She said the daycare uses the vans to take more than 80 children to eight different schools in the community.