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A Parks and Recreation employee and his accomplice have been busted for stealing gas from a City of Los Angeles fueling station. The arrests were made after what the Los Angeles Police Department says was a lengthy investigation.When LAPD Southeast Detectives were tipped off to a possible gas thief operation, and that the thief might be a City Parks & Rec employee, they set up surveillance on on fuel stations at Southeast and 77th Street Area Community Police Stations and a Department of Transportation fueling site.
It didn't take long for the LAPD to identify their suspects: 46-year-old Michael Anthony Lee, a 12-year veteran of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, assigned to Algin Sutton Recreation Center, and an accomplice, 47-year-old Shane Anthony Gansterer, a resident of Los Angeles.
Lee and Gansterer were arrested Monday. Lee, who was on duty when the thefts took place and is thought to have swiped more than 800 gallons of gasoline over a three month period of time, was booked for Embezzlement and is being held on $50,000 bail. Gansterer was booked for Receiving Stolen Property and is being held on $20,000 bail, say the LAPD.
