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Gas Thieves Caught Red-Handed in Volusia County

Two gas thieves were caught by Volusia County deputies after a brief chase and inspection revealed their modified minivans rigged for diesel fuel theft.

Here is how to bust some no good gas thieves. Volusia County Crime Center analysts received a call on Saturday from Seminole County about a sketchy van suspected of being involved in a Florida diesel heist. According to a Facebook post from the Volusia County sheriff's office, the van cruising through Deltona with a second car tailing it VERY close. They were close enough to make the police take notice. 

Now, deputies don't play. They roll up deep and circle the area. Soon enough, they spot a gold Chrysler minivan cozied up to a gas station pump for way too long. After what feels like forever (15 minutes, but who's counting?), The van peels out and parks at a nearby Waffle House. Why a Waffle House? Because even alleged criminal gas thieves get hungry too, apparently. But, before the driver can even order a side of hashbrowns, deputies roll up, and Henry Gonzalez Ortega, a Hialeah native, decides cardio is suddenly his thing. Not to spoil the surprise but... it was not. He got caught after a short chase.

volusia county sheriff's office

Gas Thieves Equipped:

Now, you’re probably thinking this van was just your typical old beater. Nope. They popped the hood and, surprise, surprise, found a dream setup for gas thieves.. There was an auxiliary tank, a hole in the floorboard, wooden 2x4s holding up the chassis, and straps holding everything together.

Meanwhile, Ortega’s partner-in-pump-crime, Jose Garcia Aguila from Orlando, was found chilling at a Burger King. His ride had the essentials: gas cans and a hose... The modern toolkit for gas thieves . He didn’t get away either.

Both were shipped off to the Volusia County Branch Jail on fuel theft charges. And just for flavor, turns out Garcia Aguila had tried this whole gas and grab gig before in Orange County. Old habits die hard, right?

volusia county sheriff's office

The 11 Best Side Gig To Help Pay For Gas And Rent

It's hard out here. A side gig is becoming essential. Rent prices were already soaring even before gas prices joined in. And inflation is what, 7%? We're not talking about going out money, we need getting by money. When your mom says you need another job, she doesn't need a different job. She means ANOTHER job. Before you get to far, let me put this in your ear when it comes to second jobs. Don't let your side hustle outshine your main hustle. If your main job is paying post of the bills, don't get fired because you're focusing too much on your side gig.

So where to start? You can get part time work at a lot of different places, but then you have another boss. And it can be a pain juggling schedules to squeeze your part time job around your full time job. And what about your family? They need time too. let's focus on side hustles where you set your own hours. There's plenty of side hustles out there, but let's focus on 12, and you can always expand with your own ideas from there. This list is not gonna make you rich, but it can definitely help you get by. Thanks to Joel Anderson at GoBankingRates for some of the info.

If you're looking to work from home for an employer, that's this article:

Florida Company Looking To Hire Remote Workers

Let's look at The 12 Best Side Gigs To Help Pay For Gas And Rent

Food and Grocery Delivery

Instacart and Shipt bring groceries. There's Doordash, GrubHub, UberEats to bring food to people. These businesses really exploded during the pandemic and haven't really slowed down all that much. You'll need a vehicle, and some hustle, but you can knock down $22 an hour. Unfortunately, these gas prices are really working against this hustle.

Online Tutoring

Are you smart, or can at least pretend to be? Check out TutorMe or tutor.com.  If you want to get out there, you can advertise and educate locally. The best at this specialize in test prep. Depending on how good you are, you can make $18-$40 an hour and with the right setup you don't even have to leave the house. Keep the camera pointed up so they can't see your unicorn slippers.

Mystery Shopper

Businesses want people to go into their stores and interact with the employees to see how things are going. Be very careful, there's a lot of scams associated with this. If your potential employer asks you for money or gift cards or anything shady like that - steer clear. There are legit companies like BestMark and Sinclair Customer Metrics.

Flipping Cars (and trucks)

Hey, people are always looking to flip houses, why not do it with vehicles? There's always beat up, old, and non running vehicles listed online. If you know how to fix them - you can flip them. Check the auctions too.

Rent out a room in your house

This can be super sketchy and sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, but it can be done. AirBNB is the best place to look into this, when I first moved to town I used a site called Roomates. If you've got the space, you can make this work. There's also a site called Swimply where you can rent out your pool.

Rent your car

If you're working from home now, this might be something to check into. Turo is basically the AirBNB for cars and you can make around $700 a month. If you have a unique or really nice car you can make more. Jags, Land Rovers, upper end Mercedes and BMWs (cars you can't rent from Hertz) command a high price.

Sell art

Can you design and draw cool stuff? Check out Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, Bonfire, and Shopify to see how you can make money off those designs.

Blog

There's still a niche for this if you have the skill. If you can design a website on Wordpress and have something interesting to say you can do this. It will take awhile to build a following big enough to draw advertisers so you'll need to be persistent. Use social media to help you get there. Plus, once you get good at Wordpress you can charge other people to design their sites for them.

Lend money

Not to your friends, and not to your family. Use the site called Prosper to loan money to strangers. Sounds crazy? Look into it!

Create online courses

Find something you're amazing at, and teach others. Hone your skills by building a YouTube channel and Tik Tok. When you're ready, it's time to start charging. Udemy is a place for this. Once you've uploaded the course there's nothing more for you to do - just cash the checks.

Voiceover, narration, and podcasting

Here's one I know about. If you've go the voice, a good microphone, and a quiet place to record there's money to be made. It's a real feast or famine so be ready for the highs and lows.

Bonus idea: Win the tournament bracket

There's a lot of free to enter brackets out there. If you watch a lot of college basketball maybe you've got a chance. Here's ours:

College Basketball Bracket

BudmanWriter
Meet Budman, dynamic host of Marconi Award winning radio station WXKB's WiLD Bunch Morning Show, on B1039. Budman likes to write about funny news, a good Florida man story, stupid criminals or anything involving a superhero. Budman, a comic book and pop culture enthusiast, even named his daughter Kara Zor-El, after Supergirl. His only child is his true passion beyond the mic. Being a dad is his favorite role. Budman, a true family man, balances his love for radio with quality time spent with loved ones and his trusty dogs.