FAIRBURN, Ga. — Police are on the hunt for a suspect who they said scammed a gas station out of gallons of fuel and attacking the owner when he tried to confront him.
Police said it all happened around 1 p.m. May 9 in Fairburn.
According to a Fairburn Police Department report, the cashier of the Sun Petro gas station off Senoia Road told police an unknown suspect in an older-model white Ford F-150 pickup truck pulled into the gas station and filled a large container with diesel fuel.
He then tried to leave the business with more than $1,000 worth of gas for less than a dollar. It apparently wasn't the first time he'd done that, either, police said.
"The suspect, we believe, broke the pulser assembly inside the gas pump, which allowed him to pump an unlimited amount of gasoline, which is diesel in this case," explained Fairburn Police Chief Anthony Bazydlo.
When he was approached by staff of the gas station, they told police the man took off in the truck, hitting the curb and driving through the grass to get away. That's when the owner of the gas station jumped into his car and followed the suspect down Senoia Road.
As the officer was taking statements from staff, however, he got another call from dispatch that there was an accident associated with the incident a short distance away in the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel on Oakley Industrial Boulevard.
By the time the officer got there, though, the suspect had already sped off in his truck, leaving the owner who followed him bloodied from a brutal beating.
Witnesses who saw the accident told police they saw the owner hit the Ford F-150 on the passenger side with his car, causing both cars to cross the median. Once in the parking lot of the hotel, witnesses told police the suspect walked up to the passenger side of the owner's car and began hitting him.
The owner got out of his car and got into a fist fight with the suspect, but the suspect was able to overpower him, knocking the owner to the ground. At that point, witnesses said the suspect stepped on the owners head several times before getting into his car, backing over his arm and driving off.
Police are still searching for the suspect, and are in the process of trying to track down any surveillance video that may have caught him on camera.
