A rash of petty gas theft has more and more residents buying locking gas caps for their cars. The small defensive items are flying off the shelves at Kragen Auto Parts store as people attempt to fend off thieves in these $4-per-gallon times.

Earlier this month, under the cover of darkness, somebody siphoned 35 gallons of gas from three cars on London Place. A few days earlier, a thief slurped six gallons from a vehicle at a custodial business. A day later someone stole 15 gallons from a U-Haul moving van. But nothing tops the 1,050 gallons of diesel and unleaded fuel, worth about $4,500, stolen from Bob Filice's farm southeast of Gilroy, near Pacheco Pass Highway and Frazier Lake Road.

"I think it's going to get worse before it gets better," Filice said. "Our economy just isn't looking so good now, and everyone's scrambling, so if you can steal something, well, I guess there are people out there who are desperate enough."

Crime analysts also typically link a faltering economy with increased crime.

Gilroy Police Department Community Services Officer Maria Cabatingan said she's noticed an increase in the number of gas thefts, and one officer suspected that most gas theft victims just don't report the incidents.

Throughout the past 30 years, Filice said people have stolen irrigation pipes and other small equipment here and there, but never gas. Filice said he has heard of another nearby farmer losing fuel to robbery.

Since the grand theft at his 100-acre farm during the early morning hours of April 22, Filice has installed a fence around his fuel storage area, he said, but what's gone is gone.

"I was thinking about putting up the fence, but obviously I definitely did it after this," Filice said. "But unfortunately as a farmer, I can't pass my loss on. That's money out of my pocket."

Local auto parts stores said truck-driving farmers usually buy the locking gas caps, but now more everyday folks who drive older models without factory locks are coming in.

"People don't want to get ripped off, and for $15.99, a gas cap costs about as much as three gallons," said Albert Arrebondo, the assistant manager at Kragen on 10th Street. "The last month and a half, we've sold 18 to 20 every day."

Beyond gas, someone stole some brass candle tops from St. Mary's at the beginning of the month, and the police blotter routinely includes reports of copper piping theft, mostly from construction sites. The same day of the St. Mary's incident, someone stole a water pump from the courtyard of the recently finished Garlic Festival condos downtown, either for the pump itself or the copper wiring within.

While a fence or gas cap might deter the light-hearted of thieves, an assiduous robber could always puncture a hole in the gas tank itself or punch a hole in the rubber tube connecting the gas tank to the engine, said Kurt Maltman, the assistant manager of All Parts Auto Store.

"Even if you have a locking cap, there are always other ways to get the gas," Maltman said. Every day he said he sells a couple caps and sometimes runs out of the models for Chevrolet and Ford trucks, which have larger fuel tanks than sedans and compacts.

Regardless of the car, nobody enjoys waking up to find out it'll be a long walk to work.

Chris Bone Chris Bone covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or e-mail him at cbone@gilroydispatch.com.