The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, working with Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, has made an arrest in a spree of retail fuel thefts that reached into Kissimmee.
Harold Blanco, 28, of Orlando, was arrested and charged with 30 felony and misdemeanor counts, including multiple counts of obtaining fuel fraudulently, unauthorized access to an electronic device, computer crime to defraud to obtain property, criminal mischief and eluding a law enforcement officer, after the escapade that led to his initial arrest.
Blanco is held in the Osceola County Jail on $60,500 bond. He is scheduled for trial Aug. 28.
According to an arrest report, on May 12 just before noon, Blanco was discovered at the RaceTrac station at the corner of Orange Blossom Trail and Ham Brown Road south of downtown Kissimmee through Department of Agriculture intelligence. He was seen by an Osceola County deputy going in and out of a white Ford truck with an unregistered tag, and breaking into a gas pump through the receipt door. He placed a “fuel pulser device to deceive the pump and steal diesel fuel at little to no cost.
Blanco left the station headed southbound on Ham Brown. Sheriff’s deputies gave chase and, despite using spiked stop sticks, Blanco continued to flee until crashing into a fence on Cattle Drive. He fled on foot through a cow pasture before being caught.
According to the report, Blanco had been a suspect in similar incidents earlier in the year in Kissimmee and Daytona Beach. In at least one, he was confronted by law enforcement, got in the truck and struck police vehicles before fleeing at a high rate of speed. He was on active probation for a fuel theft in March; one of his charges is for violation of probation in that case.
"I am proud of the exceptional teamwork displayed by the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement and the Osceola County Sheriff's Office in apprehending this suspect,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson. “We will continue to work collaboratively with our law enforcement partners and fuel retailers to combat these organized criminal activities that hurt Florida’s consumers and businesses."
