Deputies watched them do it: pulser tampering arrests at a Punta Gorda RaceTrac

Charlotte County deputies did not learn about this theft from a shortage report. They set up on a RaceTrac on Duncan Road in Punta Gorda and recorded it happening.

According to WGCU, deputies watched semi-truck drivers unlock and manipulate the pumps before dispensing fuel. On September 24, 2025, authorities announced the arrests of Livan Andrade, Cristian Urquiza Valdes and Noel Lopez Carrasco in connection with the scheme.

Investigators said the pumps had been manipulated through a pulser mechanism — a device that leaves the dispenser unable to accurately register the number of gallons it is putting out, so the driver pays a fraction of what the fuel is worth. The trucks were fitted with hidden tanks, described as “bladders,” that were not connected to the vehicles’ fuel lines. Hundreds of gallons of diesel were taken.

What this means for your site

The detail worth sitting with is not the volume. It is how the loss stayed invisible.

The pulser is the part of the dispenser that counts. Everything downstream of it — the price on the display, the transaction that hits your POS, the gallons that show up in your end-of-day report — inherits whatever the pulser says. When the pulser is the component being interfered with, your dispenser is not a witness to the theft. It is reporting a normal sale.

That has three practical consequences for an operator:

• Your POS totals will not flag it. The transaction looks legitimate because, as far as the system is concerned, it was. Detection has to come from somewhere else: tank inventory reconciliation against dispenser totals, not dispenser totals alone.
• Repeat visits are the pattern. These are not one-time hits. In this case deputies were able to stake out a specific store because the crew kept coming back. Anything that makes your site the harder stop is worth more than it looks.
• Physical access is the precondition. Every version of this attack starts the same way — with someone getting to the inside of the dispenser cabinet. That is the step you can actually take away from them.

No countermeasure makes a dispenser invulnerable. What a purpose-built one does is turn a quiet stop into a slow, conspicuous job at a site where three other stations down the road are still easy. Crews that hit 70 locations are optimizing for speed. Being the slow stop is most of the defense.

Source: WGCU, September 24, 2025

Charlotte County deputies didn't find this one on a reconciliation report. They sat on a RaceTrac in Punta Gorda and watched semi drivers unlock and manipulate the pumps before fueling. The dispensers had been rigged with a pulser mechanism so the meter couldn't register what was actually flowing. Three arrested, hundreds of gallons gone. What stops me every time with these cases: the fuel was leaving through the front of the store, at a pump, in daylight, on camera. The site's own numbers looked normal because the meter said they were normal. If your only detection is the meter, and the meter is the thing being attacked, what is actually watching your dispensers?

https://fueltheftprevention.com/fuel-theft-news/punta-gorda-pulser-tampering-arrests?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fuel-theft-news

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Deputies in Punta Gorda, FL arrested three men after watching them manipulate gas pumps at a RaceTrac. The pumps were rigged so they couldn't count the fuel actually dispensed.

https://fueltheftprevention.com/fuel-theft-news/punta-gorda-pulser-tampering-arrests?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fuel-theft-news

FL deputies recorded semi drivers manipulating pumps at a Punta Gorda RaceTrac. A pulser mechanism kept the meter from registering the real volume. 3 arrested.

https://fueltheftprevention.com/fuel-theft-news/punta-gorda-pulser-tampering-arrests?utm_source=x&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fuel-theft-news