Home heating oil thefts continue

11 August 2008

The rising cost of heating oil has led to a spate of recent thefts, with one homeowner in Cornwall having been hit on two separate occasions last month.

Alan Tucker had 500 litres of oil stolen from Winsor House in Pelynt, the BBC reports.

"The thought is rather unpleasant, thinking that people may have been following the fuel delivery van to see where it was going," he stated, adding: "Or it could have been someone with local knowledge."

Insurer NFU Mutual was cited by the news source as saying it had received more than 50 claims for stolen home heating oil this year, after seeing none in 2007.

Mr Tucker speculated that the thieves had parked on a road outside, siphoning the fuel by passing a pipe over a hedge and into the tank.

Crude oil prices fell to their lowest level in three months last week, but analysts have predicted that they will remain high for some time to come.

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